Getting your podcast onto Spotify boils down to a pretty simple process: prepare your show's assets, sign up with a podcast host to get an RSS feed, and then hand that feed over to Spotify for Podcasters. Think of it this way: get a host, upload your stuff, and give Spotify the link.
Your Essential Podcast Pre-Launch Checklist
Before you even dream of hitting 'submit' on the world's biggest audio platform, you need to get your house in order. Skipping the prep work is the fastest way to get completely lost in the noise.
A killer launch depends on having every piece of your podcast polished, professional, and ready to go from day one. This isn't just about ticking boxes; it's about setting the standard for your show's quality and brand. A strong opening gets an audience hooked. A weak one gets you ignored.
Define Your B2B Podcast Concept
First things first: you need absolute clarity on why your show exists. A fuzzy concept attracts a fuzzy audience (or, more likely, no audience at all). This is especially true for a B2B podcast, where your listeners’ time is their most valuable asset. Your show has to solve a real problem or offer insights they can't get elsewhere.
Start by nailing these questions:
- Who is my exact listener? "Marketers" is way too broad. "Demand generation leaders at Series B SaaS companies" is where you need to be. Get specific.
- What problem am I solving for them? Are you keeping them ahead of industry trends? Helping them become better leaders? Guiding them through complex software buys?
- What’s my unique angle? There are a million business podcasts. What’s your spin? Maybe it’s a unique interview style, a laser focus on data-driven stories, or a behind-the-scenes look at your industry.
A well-defined concept is your podcast's North Star. It guides everything—your content, your guests, your marketing—and makes sure every episode hits the mark with your target audience and serves your business goals.
Prepare Your Core Assets
With your concept locked in, it's time to create the non-negotiables that Spotify demands for a submission. These are the visual and audio first impressions of your brand, so don't cut corners.
Podcast Cover Art
Your cover art is your podcast's billboard in a very crowded city. It needs to look pro and pop off the screen.
Spotify has some strict technical rules you have to follow:
- Dimensions: It must be a perfect square, 3000 x 3000 pixels. This high resolution keeps it looking crisp on any device.
- File Format: Stick to JPEG or PNG.
- Design: Make sure your design is legible even as a tiny thumbnail on a phone. Use bold, clear fonts and imagery that screams what your show is about. Avoid cluttering it with too much text.
Audio Files
The quality of your audio is a direct reflection of your brand’s professionalism. Bad audio is one of the biggest reasons listeners bail on a show. Make sure you're recording with a decent microphone in a quiet space.
When you're ready to export, save your final audio files as high-quality MP3s. A bitrate of 128kbps is a solid standard for spoken-word shows, giving you great quality without a massive file size.
Batch Your First Episodes
Here’s a rookie mistake I see all the time: launching with just one episode. It gives new listeners nothing to binge and makes it tough for them to get hooked.
Instead, launch with a batch of three to five episodes ready to go from the jump.
This strategy works wonders:
- It delivers immediate value and gives people a real reason to hit "subscribe."
- It shows you're committed to putting out content consistently.
- It gives you a much-needed content buffer, taking the pressure off a frantic weekly production schedule right out of the gate.
By working through this checklist, you're not just getting ready to be on Spotify—you're setting yourself up for a launch that actually makes an impact. To keep it all organized, using a dedicated podcast planning template can be a lifesaver.
Choosing a Host and Generating Your RSS Feed
Your podcast's RSS feed is the master key. It's what unlocks distribution on Spotify and every other directory out there.
Think of it this way: your podcast host is the landlord who provides the space (servers) for your audio files. The RSS feed is the unique address that tells platforms like Spotify exactly where to find your show. No host, no address. No address, your podcast is basically invisible.
Getting listed has become much simpler over the years, mostly because Spotify has become such a dominant force in audio. To get your show in front of their massive user base, you need to submit a valid RSS feed from a compatible hosting service.
Selecting the Right Podcast Host
Picking a hosting platform is one of the biggest decisions you'll make early on. This isn't just about storing files; it's about getting reliable analytics, ensuring your show is always online, and accessing tools that help you grow.
While there are plenty of great generalist options, the game is different for a B2B podcast. You need a host that gets the nuances of professional branding, deep analytics, and smooth integration with your existing marketing stack.
This is where a service built for B2B, like Fame Host, really shines. It's designed for business shows from the ground up, with features focused on audience growth and lead generation—things that are often an afterthought on other platforms.
When you're comparing your options, keep these factors in mind:
- Analytics and Insights: Can you see detailed listener demographics? For a B2B show, knowing who is listening is just as critical as knowing how many.
- Storage and Bandwidth: You don't want to hit a ceiling right when you're gaining momentum. Look for generous storage and unlimited bandwidth.
- Reliability: Downtime is a brand killer. Your host must be rock-solid and dependable.
- Ease of Use: Uploading episodes and managing your show should be straightforward, not a technical headache.
Choosing the right platform can make a huge difference in your podcast's trajectory. Below is a quick comparison of some popular options to see how their features stack up for a B2B use case.
Podcast Hosting Platform Feature Comparison
Here's a look at how Fame Host compares to other well-known hosting services, focusing on features that matter most to B2B podcasters.
While platforms like Libsyn and Buzzsprout are solid choices, a specialized B2B host like Fame is built with a deeper understanding of your end goals, like lead generation and brand building, not just download numbers.
For a deeper dive into what separates the good from the great, check out our guide on the best podcast platforms for B2B creators.
Uploading Your Content and Filling In Details
Once you've picked your host and created an account, it's time to bring your podcast to life. This is where all that prep work you did earlier pays off.
You’ll start by uploading your cover art and at least one audio file (we recommend having a few episodes ready for launch day). Your host will then walk you through filling out your show’s metadata—this is all the information that Spotify and other directories will show to potential listeners.
Don't rush through the metadata. Your show's title, description, and category choices are powerful discovery tools. Use clear, keyword-rich language that speaks directly to your ideal B2B listener, making it obvious what your show is about and why they should tune in.
Here's the key info you'll need to have ready:
- Podcast Title: The name of your show.
- Podcast Description: A compelling summary. Think of this as your elevator pitch.
- Category: Pick the most relevant category and sub-category (e.g., Business > Marketing).
- Author/Artist: Your name or your company's name.
Finding and Copying Your RSS Feed
After you’ve filled in your show details and uploaded your first episode, your host will automatically generate your unique RSS feed URL. This link is the final piece of the puzzle.
You can usually find it in your account dashboard, often under a section labeled "Distribution," "Sharing," or "Directories."
Find that URL and copy it. It will look something like https://yourhost.com/feeds/your-podcast.xml. Guard this link—it's what you’ll submit directly to Spotify. Double-check that all your details are final and proofread before you copy it, as any changes can sometimes take a little while to update across all the platforms.
Submitting Your Podcast to Spotify
You’ve done the prep work, your host is dialed in, and your RSS feed is ready to go. Now for the fun part—officially telling Spotify your show exists. This is where all that behind-the-scenes effort pays off and your B2B podcast becomes discoverable to millions.
The process itself is pretty straightforward, but the details are everything. The information you pop in here directly impacts how Spotify catalogs and recommends your show, so paying close attention now ensures you land in front of the right professional audience from day one.
Once you have a host and your files are uploaded, the core workflow is always the same.
This simple flow—pick a host, upload your audio, and grab that RSS feed—is the universal starting point for getting your show listed anywhere, especially on a powerhouse like Spotify.
Navigating Spotify for Podcasters
First thing's first: head over to Spotify for Podcasters. This is your command center for claiming and managing your show on the platform. You'll need to log in with an existing Spotify account or just create a new one. It's quick.
The interface is clean and gets straight to the point, guiding you toward the submission portal to add your show.
Once you’re in, hit "Get Started" and choose the option that says you already have a podcast with an RSS feed. This is where you’ll paste the URL you copied from your hosting provider. Spotify instantly pulls in all the details you've already configured—your title, description, cover art, and any published episodes.
Verifying Ownership Of Your Podcast
After you paste your feed, Spotify needs to make sure you're actually the owner of the podcast. It’s a simple security check. The platform sends a unique verification code to the email address listed in your RSS feed (the one you typed into your podcast host’s settings).
Don't skip this. It's a critical step.
- Pop open your inbox and look for an email from Spotify.
- Copy the code they sent you.
- Paste that code back into the Spotify for Podcasters dashboard.
If the email doesn't show up, double-check that the address in your hosting platform is correct and give your spam folder a quick look. A typo here will bring the whole process to a halt.
Finalizing Your Show's Details
With ownership verified, you’re on the home stretch. The final screen is all about confirming your podcast's metadata. This is your last chance to make sure everything is optimized for discovery before you hit the big "Submit" button.
You’ll be asked to confirm or add a few key pieces of info:
- Language: The primary language spoken in your episodes.
- Country of Origin: Where your podcast is produced.
- Categories: This is absolutely critical for discoverability. You get to pick up to three. For a B2B show, you’ll want to start with broad categories like Business, Technology, or News. But get strategic with your subcategories. Drilling down into Marketing, Management, or Investing helps you attract a much more specific, high-value audience.
Choosing the right categories has a huge impact on how your show gets indexed and recommended. While the logic is similar across directories, it's worth understanding the nuances. Our guide on how to rank in Apple Podcasts has some great insights that are just as valuable for your Spotify strategy.
"The details you enter during Spotify submission aren’t just administrative tasks—they are foundational SEO for your podcast. A well-chosen category and a keyword-rich description can be the difference between getting discovered by your ideal B2B listener in the first week and getting lost in a sea of millions of shows."
– Tom Hunt, Founder of Fame
Give everything one last look-over. If it all looks good, hit "Submit." That's it—congratulations! Your podcast is officially in the queue for Spotify's review.
Navigating the Approval Process and Troubleshooting
Alright, you hit submit. Now what?
This is where a lot of new podcasters start anxiously refreshing their dashboards. It can feel like your show has just disappeared into the digital ether, but there's a real process happening on Spotify's end. Knowing what's going on—and what to do if things get stuck—is the final piece of the puzzle.
Spotify's team usually takes anywhere from a few hours to a couple of days to give a new podcast the green light. A real person often checks the submission to make sure everything meets their technical specs and content rules. They're looking at your RSS feed, your cover art, and making sure your content is above board.
The good news? The vast majority of podcasts sail right through. But if a couple of days go by and you're still not live, don't sweat it. Delays happen, and rejections are almost always a quick fix.
Why Did My Podcast Get Rejected?
If your show gets flagged, Spotify will typically shoot you an email explaining what went wrong. More often than not, it's a simple, technical oversight—not a reflection of your show's quality.
These are the usual suspects that trip people up:
- Invalid RSS Feed: The feed is missing something crucial like a show title, a description, or at least one published episode. Sometimes it’s as simple as a typo in the feed URL itself.
- Incorrect Artwork: Your cover art isn't the required 3000x3000 pixels, it's in the wrong format (it needs to be a JPEG or PNG), or it contains images that violate their terms.
- Email Verification Issues: The email listed in your RSS feed—the one you set in your podcast host—is either wrong or you can't access it, so you can't prove you own the show.
- Protected Content: You’ve got copyrighted music in your episodes that you don't have the rights for. Spotify is a stickler for this.
Think of the approval process as one last quality check. It’s a good thing, really. It ensures every show on the platform meets a baseline standard, which helps everyone. A rejection isn't a "no," it's just feedback telling you exactly what to polish up.
A Practical Troubleshooting Checklist
If you find yourself stuck, just work your way through this list. Going through these items methodically will help you solve over 90% of the common submission headaches and get you back on track.
Technical Feed and Asset Check
- Validate Your RSS Feed: Pop your feed URL into a public RSS validator. These tools are free and will instantly diagnose any broken tags or missing info that Spotify’s system would kick back.
- Double-Check Your Cover Art: Open the image file. Is it exactly 3000x3000 pixels? Is it saved as a JPEG or PNG? Also, make sure the file size isn't massive, as that can sometimes cause a hiccup.
- Confirm Episode Availability: Jump into your podcast host, like Fame Host, and check that you have at least one episode fully published and available in the feed. A feed with zero episodes is an automatic rejection.
Content and Ownership Check
- Review Your Metadata: Skim through your podcast title and description inside your hosting platform. Are there any weird special characters or bits of HTML that could be breaking the feed? Keep it clean.
- Verify Your Email Address: This is a big one. Make sure the email listed in your RSS feed settings is correct and that you can actually get into that inbox. Proving ownership is non-negotiable.
- Company Social Media: Go way beyond a simple "new episode is live" post. Slice up your episode into compelling video clips, eye-catching quote cards, and audiograms. Our B2B social media agency services focus on creating content that feels native to platforms like LinkedIn.
- Email Newsletters: Your email list is a direct line to your prospects and customers. Use it. Announce new episodes, but more importantly, share key takeaways and juicy highlights that drive people directly to your Spotify page. Our B2B email newsletter agency helps brands craft emails that get opened and drive action.
- Employee Advocacy: Get your team involved, especially your leadership and the podcast host. A share from a personal LinkedIn profile feels way more authentic and almost always gets better engagement than a post from a company page.
- Pre-written social media posts they can copy, paste, and tweak.
- Custom-designed graphics with their headshot and a powerful quote.
- A short, high-quality audio or video clip of their best moment.
- Audience Retention Graphs: This is your most valuable piece of feedback. It tells you exactly where listeners are dropping off. Are people bailing during your intro? Is a certain segment a snooze-fest? High retention is the ultimate sign that your content is hitting the mark.
- Listener Demographics: Who's actually listening? Check out the age, gender, and geographic data to confirm whether you're reaching your ideal customer profile. If your ICP is in the US but most of your listeners are in Germany, you've got a targeting problem.
- Follower Growth: A "follow" on Spotify is a real signal of commitment. It means someone wants to hear from you again. Tracking this number shows you how many casual listeners are turning into loyal subscribers.
Once you’ve found the culprit and fixed it on your hosting platform, all you have to do is resubmit your podcast through the Spotify for Podcasters dashboard. With the issue resolved, your show should get approved quickly the second time around. This turns what feels like a frustrating roadblock into just a minor speed bump.
Promoting Your B2B Podcast After Launch
Getting your podcast approved and listed on Spotify is a huge milestone. Pop the champagne. But don't celebrate too long, because this is just the starting line.
For a B2B podcast, the real work starts after you're live. Just existing on the platform isn't going to cut it. You need a proactive plan to get your show in front of the right professional audience and, ultimately, turn those listeners into leads. Think of your podcast as a powerful content engine—every single episode is an asset you can spin into gold.
The game plan is to squeeze every drop of value out of each episode by weaving it into your existing marketing channels and chopping it up into new, shareable micro-content.
Weave it Into Your Existing Channels
Your warmest, most engaged audience is the one you already have. So, the first move is to tap into the channels where your brand already has a footprint and a following.
Turn Episodes into Snackable Micro-Content
Let's be real: not everyone has 45 minutes to listen to a full episode the moment it drops. Your episode is packed with dozens of valuable insights, and the trick is to break them down into bite-sized, shareable pieces that grab attention and make people hungry for more.
This is all about implementing smart content repurposing strategies. This approach transforms a single recording into a full-blown, multi-channel marketing campaign. For example, you can turn key quotes into a tweet thread, expand a core topic into a full blog post, or use a guest's best soundbite as a promotional video clip.
Amplify Your Reach Through Smart Collaboration
One of the fastest ways to grow a B2B podcast is by tapping into other people's audiences. It's a classic win-win.
Guest Collaboration
When you have a guest on your show, you need to make it incredibly easy for them to promote the episode. Don't just hope they'll share it; give them everything they need. We call this a "guest pack," and it should include:
Cross-Promotion
Find other B2B podcasts that serve a similar, non-competing audience. This is key. Reach out and propose a simple cross-promotion where you each give the other's show a shout-out in an episode. It's a free, authentic way to get a warm introduction to a highly relevant listener base that's already primed to listen to content like yours.
By combining these promotional tactics, you build a powerful system for growth. It's about so much more than just getting listed. For an even deeper dive, check out our guide on how to promote your podcast.
Got Questions? We've Got Answers
Even with the best guide in hand, a few questions always seem to pop up right at the finish line. Getting your podcast live on Spotify is mostly straightforward, but a few specific details can trip people up. Let's clear the air on the most common questions we get from B2B podcasters.
How Long Until My New Episodes Show Up?
This is easily the question I hear the most. You’ve just hit ‘publish’ on a brand new episode in your podcast host, and you’re wondering why it’s not live on Spotify yet.
Patience is key here. While your episode can sometimes appear in a matter of hours, you should always plan for a buffer of up to 24 hours. This isn't a bug; it's just how Spotify's global caching system works. The platform has to crawl your RSS feed, recognize the new episode, and then push that update out to all its servers worldwide. My advice? Always publish well ahead of your planned promotion schedule to dodge any last-minute panic.
Can I Just Upload My Files Directly to Spotify Without a Host?
That’s a hard no. You absolutely cannot submit a podcast to Spotify—or any other major directory, for that matter—without a proper podcast hosting service and a valid RSS feed.
Think of it this way: Spotify is a library, not a warehouse. It doesn’t actually store your audio files. It simply reads your RSS feed to find out where your episodes live (on your host) and then streams them to listeners. A dedicated host like Fame Host is the engine that generates and maintains that critical feed. It's a non-negotiable part of the process.
Your podcast host is the foundation of your entire distribution strategy. It houses your audio, generates the RSS feed, and gives you the analytics needed to grow. Trying to launch without one is like trying to drive a car with no engine—you just won't get anywhere.
What Spotify Stats Actually Matter for a B2B Podcast?
For a B2B show, success looks different. Raw download numbers are a vanity metric. What you really need are insights that point to genuine audience engagement and potential business impact. Luckily, the analytics inside Spotify for Podcasters are a goldmine.
Instead of getting hung up on total streams, focus your attention here:
These metrics tell a much richer story about what's working and allow you to fine-tune your content strategy. To take it a step further, make sure you're applying these podcast SEO best practices so your ideal audience can find you in the first place.
Do I Have to Pay to Get My Podcast on Spotify?
Nope! Listing your podcast on Spotify is completely free. They don’t charge anything to submit your show or keep it in their massive directory. You get access to their entire global audience without paying Spotify a single penny.
The one cost you can't avoid, however, is your podcast hosting service. Since you need a host to generate your RSS feed, you'll have a monthly or annual subscription fee there. Think of it as an operational cost of producing a show, but distribution on Spotify itself is free of charge.
Ready to launch a B2B podcast that actually drives pipeline? At Fame, we do more than just produce audio—we build authority and generate real business results for B2B brands. Our end-to-end service covers everything from strategy to promotion, all backed by a guarantee of at least 10% monthly download growth. Stop wondering and start growing with Fame.