How podcast RSS distribution works (and how to set up your feed)

Podcast RSS distribution works like this: your host publishes one file, called your RSS feed, that lists your show details and every episode. Podcast apps check that file on a schedule. When you publish, the feed updates, the apps notice, and your episode appears everywhere at once.

You submit your feed to each platform once. After that you never touch it again.

That's the whole mechanism. It's also the reason podcasting stayed open while music and video didn't. No single company owns the pipe.

What's inside a podcast RSS feed

An RSS feed is a text file. It carries your show title, subtitle, summary, artwork, category, language, author, copyright, owner details, and whether your show is episodic or serial. Then, for every episode: title, subtitle, summary, publish date, season and episode number, episode type, explicit flag, and a link to the audio file itself.

Podcast apps read those fields and build their listings from them. Which means your feed fields aren't admin. They're your storefront in every app at once.

On Acast you edit all of this in the dashboard and the feed updates itself. Change your subtitle in your show settings and the corresponding tag in your RSS feed changes with it. Nobody needs to touch code.

Artwork has real constraints, so get these right first time. Square, JPG or PNG, at least 1400 x 1400 pixels and no more than 3000 x 3000, under 512KB. Apple recommends 3000 x 3000. Our uploader handles the sizing.

How your episodes actually reach the apps

Two things are happening, and they're often confused.

Distribution is automatic. Once a platform has your feed, it keeps pulling updates forever. Acast distributes to every app that accepts an RSS feed, which is currently more than 100 apps and platforms.

Submission is not automatic. We don't submit your show to platforms on your behalf. Each one needs approving once, by you, and the Distribution tab in your show dashboard is where that happens.

Several of the big ones activate in a single click from there, including Spotify, Amazon Music and Audible, Deezer and Podcast Index. Apple Podcasts is handled in the same tab using a claim token, which expires after seven days if unused. A handful still need submitting through their own portals: TuneIn, Castbox, iHeartRadio and Pandora among them.

Some apps you never submit to at all. Overcast and Pocket Casts build their catalogs from Apple's directory, so getting into Apple gets you into both.

How long distribution takes

Your feed updates almost immediately. The apps are the slow part, and they vary more than most guides admit.

• Spotify: most shows are live within an hour.
• Apple Podcasts: usually one to 24 hours. A brand new show facing manual review can take up to three business days.
• Deezer: submitted instantly, live within 24 hours.
• Amazon Music: a couple of days is normal.
• TuneIn: typically three to five business days.

For ongoing episodes, budget up to 24 hours for apps to spot a change even though we push it straight away. Artwork changes can take a few days to propagate, which is why swapping your cover art the morning of a launch is a bad idea.

Finding your Acast RSS feed URL

Go to your show, open Settings, and click Share Links. Select RSS Feed and it opens in a new tab with the URL in your address bar.

It'll look like this: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/5d28ef74d3cc3f013778b13b

You can make that readable. When you set up a new show, edit the custom RSS feed URL in your Settings tab to something like feeds.acast.com/public/shows/your-show. Alphanumeric characters and dashes only, 60 characters maximum. One catch worth knowing before you migrate: if you import your show from another host, the feed URL is fixed and you can't customize it.

Your feed is also how you get paid

Here's the part that gets left out of most RSS explainers. Your feed isn't just a delivery mechanism. On a monetization-first platform it's the mechanism that puts ads in your episodes.

Acast pioneered True Dynamic Ad Insertion. Every time someone plays an Acast podcast, a set of ads is placed into that episode in real time, geo-targeted to that listener's market. Two people can press play on the same episode at the same moment and hear different advertisers.

Which means an episode you published three years ago is still earning today, with current ads rather than a dead campaign from 2023 baked into the file. Your back catalog keeps working. Across Acast, 140,000+ creators are connected to 4,000+ advertisers on that basis, wherever their audience listens.

It's also why we don't support third-party feed prefixes like Podtrac or FeedBurner. Anything inserted between us and podcast apps adds a point of failure in delivery that we can't diagnose, and delivery is the one thing that can't break.

The feed belongs to you

If you leave, you take your audience. That's not a courtesy, it's how RSS works, and it's worth understanding before you pick a host.

Moving between platforms uses a 301 redirect, a permanent instruction that tells podcast apps to stop checking your old feed and use the new one from now on. It happens instantly and invisibly. Your listeners keep their subscription and never see a thing.

Coming to Acast, our import tool fetches your audio files, episode notes, images and keywords, and your subscribers come with you. Two things to plan for. If you currently run dynamic ads, they need switching off before you import so your episodes arrive clean, and depending on your host that can mean waiting 24 to 72 hours. And your historical analytics won't transfer, on any platform, because download data can't be verified across hosts without breaking IAB-certified reporting.

Leaving works the same way in reverse, from Settings and then Show redirection. Export any data you want to keep first, and cancel your subscription yourself, because setting a redirect doesn't close your account.

Frequently asked questions

How does podcast RSS distribution work?

Your hosting platform publishes an RSS feed containing your show details and every episode. Podcast apps like Apple Podcasts and Spotify read that feed and update their listings automatically. You submit the feed to each platform once, then publishing an episode with your host distributes it everywhere without further action.

Do I need to upload my podcast to Apple Podcasts and Spotify separately?

No. You submit your RSS feed URL once per platform, and after that both pull new episodes from the feed automatically. On Acast, Spotify activates in one click from your Distribution tab and Apple Podcasts is claimed with a token in the same place.

How long does it take for a podcast episode to appear in apps?

Your feed updates within moments of publishing, but apps check on their own schedule, so allow up to 24 hours. New shows take longer for first approval: about an hour on Spotify, one to 24 hours on Apple Podcasts, and up to three business days if Apple reviews the show manually.

Where do I find my podcast RSS feed URL on Acast?

Open your show, go to Settings, click Share Links, and select RSS Feed. The URL appears in the address bar of the new tab. Acast feeds follow the format feeds.acast.com/public/shows/your-show.

Can I move my RSS feed to a different podcast host?

Yes. A 301 redirect points podcast apps from your old feed to your new one permanently, so subscribers move with you without noticing. Your episodes and subscribers transfer. Your historical download stats don't, on any platform.

How many podcast directories should I submit to?

Cover Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and YouTube first, since that's where most listening happens. Then add the rest from your Distribution tab. It's a one-time job per platform, so there's little reason to stop at the big four.

One test tells you whether a hosting platform respects the open model: how hard is it to leave? If the answer is a redirect and a form, the feed is genuinely yours. If the answer is complicated, ask why.