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Listing Status
Submitting to a directory starts a waiting game: some platforms approve in minutes, others take weeks, and some never email you when your show goes live. PodcasterPlus watches for you, so the Distribution page always reflects where your show actually is.
How PodcasterPlus watches your listings
Every hour, PodcasterPlus checks the three directories with public lookups: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Podcast Index.
- Apple Podcasts and Podcast Index are matched against your exact feed URL, so a match is definitely your show and is confirmed automatically.
- Spotify can only be searched by show title, so a match might belong to a show with a similar name. PodcasterPlus records it but asks you to confirm before treating it as yours.
Other platforms have no public lookup. For those, the status is what you tell PodcasterPlus: click I've submitted when you submit, and paste your listing link when the show appears.
The listing lifecycle
Each platform card moves through a simple lifecycle, shown as a chip on the card:
- Ready (or Not ready): you haven't submitted yet. Not ready means a readiness check is failing and submission is disabled until you fix it.
- Submitted: the submission is in and the platform is reviewing. The card shows realistic expectations for that platform, and View steps reopens the guided steps if you need them.
- Listed: your show is confirmed live. The card gains a View your listing link.
Rejected is the off-ramp: the platform declined your submission. See what to do on a rejection below.
When a listing goes live
The moment PodcasterPlus confirms your show on a directory (or you confirm it yourself), several things happen at once:
- The chip flips to Listed and the card links to your listing
- You get a notification (manage these under Distribution updates in notification settings)
- The platform's badge appears in the Listen on section of your listen page
- Any automation using the Listed on a directory trigger runs
Automate the announcement
The Listed on a directory trigger fires once for each directory your show is confirmed live on. Point an automation at it to email your team or call a webhook the moment a new platform approves you. See the flow builder.
Answer "Is this your show?"
When PodcasterPlus spots a Spotify listing that looks like your show, the platform card shows an Is this your show? chip and a highlighted box with the listing link, asking you to check it:
- Open the link and make sure it's really your show (not another show with a similar title)
- Click Confirm if it's yours. The listing flips to Listed, your listen page gets its Spotify badge, and any listing automations run.
- Click Not mine if it isn't. PodcasterPlus clears the match and keeps watching.
Nothing is announced and no badge appears until you've confirmed, so a lookalike show never ends up on your listen page by mistake.
Fix a rejected submission
A Rejected chip means the platform turned your submission down. Rejections are almost always fixable:
- Read the reason shown on the platform's card, when one is available
- Cross-check the platform's quirks in the guided submissions table. Common causes: non-MP3 audio (Spotify, Pandora),
<or>characters in episode titles (YouTube Music), and music-heavy content (Spotify, Pandora). - Fix the issue, then click Review steps on the card to reopen the guided steps and submit again
- Click I've submitted so PodcasterPlus resumes watching
Reset what PodcasterPlus tracks
If a card's status ever gets out of step with reality (say, you pasted the wrong link), you can start that platform over:
- On a Listed guided platform's card, open the menu in the corner
- Choose Reset status
- Confirm in the dialog
This clears the saved listing link and returns the card to the start of the lifecycle. It only resets what PodcasterPlus tracks: your show stays listed on the platform itself.
Ride-along apps follow automatically
Apps in the Nothing to do section (Overcast, Fountain, and friends) inherit their status: once the directory they mirror is confirmed Listed, they show Listed automatically. Until then they show Will appear once you're on that directory. There's nothing to submit and nothing to watch, though you can paste a listing link with Add link if you want the app's badge on your listen page.
What's Next?
- Connect more platforms and let the watcher do the rest
- Share your listen page, which grows a badge for every confirmed listing
- Build a "we're live" automation on the Listed on a directory trigger