158 Comments

For my Substack newsletter, I want to provide audio recordings of my written posts as a paid-subscriber-only feature. This means I would like to use your podcast hosting feature so I can directly upload mp3s to Substack and have Substack act as host for these downloads for my subscribers.

However, for now I am not interested in this being a “podcast” that is available on other podcast platforms. I just want Substack to host audio files that my paid subscribers can access. It is not clear to me how to do this, or if it is possible, since everything seems to be geared for podcast distribution. Can I upload these files to substack and just provide a link to those files?

Expand full comment

Came here to ask this

Expand full comment

I currently host my podcast on Anchor. By dropping it's RSS into the import box, will this also automatically syndicate to Apple, etc...? Currently, Anchor syndicates it to a ton of services. It's a bit daunting to think about having to change everything, service by service.

Expand full comment

did you figure it out? I was thinking starting with Anchor and moving it here just for that same reason... not to manually submit to all...

Expand full comment

I have not. From what I can tell there is no syndication here. Starting in Anchor and then redirecting was pretty easy with clear instructions on Anchor.

Expand full comment

I've got the same issue. I started a podcast in Anchor, did you transfer everything from Anchor and quit Anchor to host here on substack? Or do you just embed from Anchor to Substack now? Thanks

Expand full comment

I just started in Anchor and redirected. It works pretty well. I can post here and it goes through to Anchor and then Anchor syndicates.

Expand full comment

This was super helpful. Just had 2 questions on this:

1) when you received the new RSS feed from substack, did you just add it into the "Redirect URL" in Anchor?

2) did the episode artwork get pulled in for you / do you know how to create Episode specific artwork?

Expand full comment

I believe so, it's been a minute since I set this up. There are directions on Substack (if i remember right) on what to drop in there. Per episode artwork is not being pulled from Anchor. It only pulls the primary art from the channel. I don't know how to create per episode artwork. On my Substack the per episodoe artwork is present.

Expand full comment

Ah, so you started in Anchor, and now you post everything first in Substack & it sends it to Anchor then Anchor sends it to Spotify, Apple Music, etc? Is that correct?

Expand full comment

If I understand what Dan Did, he put the substack RSS feed into Anchor's Redirect in settings. What this does is tell all the directories that the new feed is Substack and to go to Substack from now on, not Anchor. After a couple of weeks or so all the directories will pull episodes from Substack instead of Anchor.

You won't need Anchor anymore. You also won't get any stats on Anchor (except for maybe plays on Anchor).

Expand full comment

Exactly

Expand full comment

I'm trying to decide how to use Anchor and Substack too for a podcast. I started a newsletter on substack. I've had my podcast on anchor. so, do you still post on achor and have it sync to Substack?

Expand full comment

How should I handle cover images for each episode?

Expand full comment

Am I correct in thinking that if you have a podcast you can set some episodes to Free and some to Paid and the Paid ones will not show up in the distributed feed? I only want free episodes to be listed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, etc, but I need to be able to provide Paid content to my subscribers also.

Expand full comment

What a great feature. One question though. I'm an existing podcasters with over 500 episodes that are already available on all major podcast platforms. My podcast is also distributed by the PodcastOne network in Australia. Can I simply embed each weekly episode in to my Substack? Or does Substack need to host the files.

Expand full comment

I've been loooking at the podcasting suff on substack. I tried to include a full transcription under an episode and substack said it was too long to email to scubscribers. I want to post the full transcription on substack AND be able email it to subscribers regardless of its length. What's the fix? or what is substack's post length threshold for a post being too long to send via email?

Expand full comment

Hi Niall, it will still publish, but that message is just a warning that some email clients (especially Gmail) will truncate extra-long emails. So, if you have a post that long, it will affect that email's open rates. One suggestion is to publish a short version of the transcript, tell people to go to the site for the full version, send it out, then go back into edit the post and add the rest of the transcript so that it's all there on the web version.

Expand full comment

Hamish, thanks so much for this site and this feature. I am curious about your discussion of "extra-long" emails and truncation of which you speak? What defines "extra-long?" and do email services actually still truncate emails? ... My project is a serialized novel with audio... I would like to post 3,000-4,000 words of text per "episode" or chapter. Is that too long?

Expand full comment

Does Substack offer analytics information on listen numbers on other podcast platforms (Spotify, Apple, etc.)?

Expand full comment

any answer to this?

Expand full comment

Hi! Do you have an option to only distribute the podcast from my Substack, but keep hosting outside substack?

I'm using Anchor now, and would like to keep it, at least until it's production-ready your hosting

Expand full comment

Don't know if anyone pays attention to this thread anymore but I thought I'd give it a shot. Started a podcast on Substack. I have the RSS feed but Spotify and Stitcher do an email verification for submission. The email is set to (name of my substack)@substack.com. This doesn't appear to fwd to my email address and I don't see a place to change it within settings. Anyone have any guidance?

Expand full comment

did you find a solution to this? currently stuck here as well

Expand full comment

did you find a solution? this is where i'm stuck, too.

Expand full comment

Anyone found a way around this yet? Thanks.

Expand full comment

Just found the Email address for RSS feeds option under Dashboard - Settings - Basics

Expand full comment

Thanks for this, Leyla!

Expand full comment

Can I do this with someone else who isn't in the same place as me? Or do I have to use another app then migrate it over?

Expand full comment

I am curious about this as well as I would love to interview some guests.

Expand full comment

Hi, only a few of my podcasts on substack are subscriber only and recently one of my email list members has said they can't find some of my recent episodes on apple podcast. Is there a way to fix that?

Expand full comment

When I publish a new podcast episode does it automatically send an email to subscribers or can I change this option on/off in settings?

Expand full comment

Did you find an answer to this, George? I want to have a few in the bank without blanketing my readership with emails.

Expand full comment

Is this the same as voice narrating my posts? Or is there a different function on Substack to record narratives of posts?

Expand full comment

Hi - I am wanting to do the same - basically read prior posts and post a collection of them in one post? can that be done?

Expand full comment

Can Substack distribute to Google Podcasts? I've linked mine with Apple and Spotify but the Google Podcast says not verified when I supply the RSS link.

Expand full comment

Did you find an answer TC? I'm having the same problem.

Expand full comment

I can't recall how, but at the time yes I was able to get it working. I believe I had to reach out to Substack help for feedback on the action to take.

Expand full comment

I did not get as complete answer to my question in the Office Hours where i was told how to create a podcast or audio clip .. I want to create an audio reading of a written post and then place that clip at the top of that written post (just there, nowhere else on my feed - just as a prt of the written post). I understand how to create the audio clip but how do I place that onto a specific post (such as Matt Clancy and others who you have linked to are able to do)??

Expand full comment

Can I add an audio podcast to previous posts? I'm writing a serialized novel on Substack and would like to have an audio accompaniment for each installment.

Expand full comment