Apple Podcasts Subscriptions
Castos now offers Apple Podcasts Subscriptions support. This means you can publish subscriber shows and episodes directly from your Castos dashboard along with your free, publicly available episodes.
What is Apple Podcasts Subscriptions?
Apple Podcasts Subscriptions lets you monetize your podcast by creating subscriber-only benefits like ad-free listening, early episode access, archive episode access, and access to exclusive or bonus content.
Is there a fee for Apple Podcasts Subscriptions?
Apple Podcasts Subscriptions support is available on all plans here at Castos; however, there is an annual fee to join the Apple Podcasters Program.
Where do I begin?
Create an Apple Podcasts Connect account if you don't already have one.
Be sure to claim your show if you haven’t already done so. Learn more here.
- Join the Apple Podcasters Program
- Complete the Agreements
- Generate and Download API Key from Apple Podcasts Connect
- Connect your Castos account to your Apple Podcasts Connect account
Connecting the podcast to Apple Podcasts Subscriptions
After you've completed steps 1-5 above, you'll need to complete the following steps on the podcast level to begin accepting subscriptions from Apple Podcasts.
- Set your podcast visibility to Hybrid, meaning it can contain both public and private episodes.
- Select the benefits you would like your Apple Podcasts Subscribers to enjoy - early access, archive access, add-free, etc. (For Archive Access, you can either set the option to automatically archive episodes after a certain number of days, or you can manually archive episodes from the episode editor)
- Alternatively, you can set your podcast visibility to Private but you will not have a public RSS feed or public episodes.
- Make sure you have at least one episode available in the private RSS feed. If you're not ready to go live, you can publish a trailer episode introducing your podcast and set the episode's audience to "Both" (public and private) or just private.
- From the Podcast Settings, go to Distribution —> Apple Podcasts Subscriptions
For Hybrid Podcasts: Select Continue.
Click Continue For Private Podcasts: If your show is already on Apple Podcasts without an RSS feed (created directly in Apple Podcasts Connect originally), choose Select a different show, select your show from the drop down, and click Connect to Apple Podcasts
Set whether or not your show contains third-party content and if you have the rights to it, or if your show does not contain third-party content.
Set the Update Frequency.
Set whether or not you want the show to be available in all Countries and Regions, or specific Countries only.
Click Connect With Apple Podcasts
Connect with Apple Podcasts - Your show will enter a DRAFT state at Apple Podcasts for their review. Once they've reviewed and approved it, it will be published to the Apple Podcasts library and ready for Apple Podcasts Subscription set up at Apple Podcasts Connect.
Go to the show in Apple Podcasts Connect and click Subscriptions
- Click Get Started —> and Continue to Offer a New Subscription
- Complete the Subscription Details: Promotion, Banner, Icon, Pricing & Free Trial (if offering).
- For more detailed information surrounding Subscription Details, click here.
- For Subscription Best Practices, click here.
- Click Submit for Review.
More Helpful Information
- Changes made to episodes directly in Apple Podcasts Connect do not sync back to Castos. If you need to update an episode, you should make the change from the Castos dashboard.
- For any questions regarding your Apple Podcasts Subscriptions pricing or subscriber access, please reach out to Apple Podcasts directly. Castos does not handle subscriber access, subscription pricing, or payments for Apple Podcasts Subscriptions
- If you used the Castos -> Apple Podcasts integration to submit your show to Apple Podcasts, you will need to Claim your show with your own Apple Podcasts Connect account in order to set up Apple Podcasts Subscriptions.
- For Subscriber Only Episodes, Apple Podcasts serves that episode audio directly from their platform. This means that Castos cannot gather analytics data on these episodes and you'll need to go to Apple Podcasts Connect to view analytics.