How to Put Your Podcast on Apple Podcasts

July 26, 2026

To put your podcast on Apple Podcasts you need four things: a finished episode saved as an MP3, a square cover image, a podcast host that publishes an RSS feed, and a free Apple account to submit that feed inside Apple Podcasts Connect. Apple does not store your audio. It reads your RSS feed, pulls the episodes and cover art it points to, and lists your show in the Apple Podcasts app. Get the feed right and the listing follows.

The part people trip on is that three separate jobs are involved: making the audio, hosting the feed, and submitting to Apple. AudioProducer handles the first job. A podcast host handles the second. You handle the submission. Once you see those as three steps instead of one, the whole process gets simple.

What Apple Podcasts actually needs

Apple Podcasts is a directory, not a host. When someone hits play in the Apple Podcasts app, the audio streams from wherever your RSS feed says it lives, which is your podcast host, not Apple's servers. So before you touch Apple at all, you need a valid feed that already works.

A feed Apple will accept includes a show title, a show description, a category, an owner email, a cover image, and at least one episode entry that links to a playable audio file. Apple requires the cover art to be a square JPEG or PNG between 1400 by 1400 and 3000 by 3000 pixels, with no blurry edges and no text that duplicates your show title in a hard-to-read way. The owner email matters more than it looks: Apple sends a verification message there when you submit, and you have to click it to prove the feed is yours.

Where AudioProducer fits, and where it does not

AudioProducer turns your script into a finished, mixed episode and gives you an MP3 to download. You can write a single-narrator episode or assign a different AI voice to each speaker for an interview or fiction format, add intro and outro music, and export the file. That download is the raw material Apple needs, one clean audio file per episode.

What AudioProducer does not do is host your feed or submit anything to Apple for you. There is no button here that puts your show on Apple Podcasts, because that job belongs to a podcast host. We are honest about this on purpose. You take the exported MP3, upload it to a host such as Buzzsprout, Podbean, Transistor, or Spotify for Podcasters, and the host builds the RSS feed. Then you submit that feed to Apple. Think of AudioProducer as the studio and the host as the distributor.

Free accounts include 1,200 words of production a month with no card required, which is enough to make a short pilot episode and hear how the voices sound before you commit. Paid plans start at 39.99 per month when you want to produce a full season.

Step by step: submit your feed in Apple Podcasts Connect

Once your host has published at least one episode and your feed is live, submission takes about ten minutes:

  1. Export your episode MP3 from AudioProducer and upload it to your podcast host.
  2. In your host, fill in the show title, description, category, and cover art, then copy the RSS feed URL the host gives you.
  3. Go to podcastsconnect.apple.com and sign in with any Apple account.
  4. Click the plus button, choose to add a show by RSS feed, and paste your feed URL.
  5. Apple validates the feed and shows you a preview. Fix any errors it flags, usually a missing category or an image that is the wrong size.
  6. Check the owner email inbox for Apple's verification message and confirm ownership.
  7. Submit for review.

You only submit the feed once. After that, every new episode you publish through your host flows to Apple automatically, so you never repeat this process per episode.

Cover art, category, and the details Apple checks

Most rejections come from small feed problems, not from your content. Apple looks for a square cover image in the size range above, a category that matches your show, an episode that actually plays, and a description that is not empty or spammy. If your cover art has tiny text or sits outside the pixel range, resize it before you submit. If your one episode is a silent placeholder, replace it with a real trailer first. A short trailer is a good first episode precisely because it gives Apple something real to review while your season is still in production.

Review time and staying live

Apple review usually takes a few days, sometimes longer during busy periods. You cannot speed it up, so submit early rather than the night before a launch date. If Apple rejects the feed, the email tells you the specific reason, and it is almost always a fixable feed detail: correct it in your host, and your host pushes the update to Apple within a few hours. Once you are approved, your show has a permanent Apple Podcasts page, and adding episodes is just a matter of publishing through your host as usual.

The steady rhythm is what keeps a show visible. Make the episode audio in AudioProducer, publish through your host, and Apple stays in sync on its own.

Related reading

If you want the full multi-platform path, see how to distribute your podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. For the pieces that come before submission, we cover how to name your podcast, how to make a podcast trailer to use as that first review episode, and how to make a podcast intro with AI voices. Making a story-driven show instead? Start with how to make a fiction podcast.

Frequently asked questions

Can AudioProducer upload my podcast to Apple Podcasts for me?
No. AudioProducer exports a finished episode MP3 that you download. To reach Apple Podcasts you upload that file to a podcast host (such as Buzzsprout, Podbean, or Transistor), which builds an RSS feed, and then you submit that feed once in Apple Podcasts Connect. Apple reads the feed rather than hosting your audio.
Do I need to submit every episode to Apple Podcasts?
No. You submit your RSS feed to Apple only once. After the show is approved, every new episode you publish through your podcast host flows to Apple automatically, so you never repeat the submission for individual episodes.
What are the cover art requirements for Apple Podcasts?
Apple requires a square JPEG or PNG between 1400 by 1400 and 3000 by 3000 pixels. The image should be sharp, not blurry, and should not rely on hard-to-read text. Cover art that falls outside this size range is the most common reason a feed gets rejected at submission.

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