An RSS feed is what makes your podcast, your podcast. It is like the engine in your car. Without it, a podcast isn’t complete—it is what powers your podcast. It essentially contains all of the information that makes up your podcast and allows you to share it with the world.

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” Think of it as a newsfeed, or your Instagram feed—as posts are published, they become available for you to see. When a podcast episode is published, that information is added to the RSS feed, and the RSS feed is responsible for sharing and distributing that content to certain platforms.

Your RSS feed contains your show title, information you’ve added about your show, and episode details. It has everything that is necessary to add your podcast to directories. It all gets passed to directories, like Apple and Spotify. When you add and publish a new episode, your RSS feed updates to reflect that information, and pushes it to the directories you’ve syndicated your podcast to.

RSS feeds are either created by podcast hosts or you can create one on your own.

With Wistia, if you enable podcasting for your Channel, we automatically create your RSS feed. You can find it in your Podcast Settings, under the Distribution tab in the Share via RSS section. Your feed will look like https://fast.wistia.com/channels/<channel-id>/rss.

An RSS feed takes the manual work out of adding your content to multiple platforms. Instead, it creates a more automated process—directories where you’ve syndicated your podcast can read and monitor that feed. When new information is added, it will update accordingly.

Each directory checks your feed on its own schedule, and there's no guaranteed interval. Spotify usually shows new episodes within a few hours, but it can take up to 24 hours. Apple Podcasts usually picks up changes within a few hours. If you just published an episode, give the directory some time before republishing.

While you can create an RSS Feed on your own, podcast hosts will generate one for you. The RSS Feed URL is what connects directories to all of your content, so that listeners can access your podcast in listening apps.

Your RSS Feed is basically the liaison between your podcast host and directories. Once you submit it to directories, the RSS Feed says, “Hey, here’s a podcast. This is the title, these are the episodes, and it’s in English. Oh! Also, it's not explicit.” Directories then evaluate your feed before approving it and displaying it on their platform.

If you’re using Wistia as your podcast host and you’re just getting started, head on over here to learn about the Podcast Checklist!

All set and ready to distribute your podcast? This page lists out the steps to take for a number of popular directories.

Looking to switch podcast hosts? Hop on over here to learn how to import an existing podcast and set up a 301 redirect on your old RSS Feed. Redirects are permanent, so set one up only once your new host is ready.

Spotify pulls your show description from your Channel's overview page, so make sure you've added one there. Then check that the email under Podcast Settings, in the Feed details tab, matches the email on your Spotify account.

Spotify doesn't accept RSS feeds that include video episodes. Before you submit your feed, hide your video episodes from the podcast feed in each episode's Edit details settings.

Make sure the episode is published in Wistia and that the directory accepts its format (audio or video). If you submitted your feed recently, the directory may not have checked it yet.

Questions? Let us know!