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Publish Your First Episode
Publishing your first episode is exciting! This guide walks you through creating an episode, adding your content, and making it live.
What You'll Need
- Episode title: a clear, descriptive title
- Recording date: when you recorded (or will record) the episode
- Audio file: MP3, M4A, or WAV. You can add it after creating the episode.
Start with a draft
You don't need your audio ready to create an episode. Draft it with a title and description first, then add audio when it's ready.
Steps
1. Start a new episode
From your podcast's Overview page, click New Episode in Quick Actions. Or go to Episodes in the sidebar and click New episode.
2. Enter episode details
Fill in the Episode Details section:
| Field | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Episode Title | A clear title for this episode, up to 200 characters (required) |
| Episode Number | Suggested automatically based on your existing episodes |
| Description | What listeners will hear, up to 4,000 characters |
The description field is a rich text editor with Bold, Italic, bullet and numbered lists, and links. A character counter shows how much room you have left.
3. Set your dates
In the Scheduling section:
- Recording Date & Time (required): when this episode is recorded. Your time zone is shown under the field.
- Scheduled Publish Date & Time (optional): set this if you want the episode to go live automatically at a specific time.
Why the recording date matters
Episodes count toward your plan's monthly episode allowance based on their recording month. If a month is full, pick a date in another month, add an episode pack, or upgrade. See Billing and Plans.
4. Create your episode
Click Create Episode. Your episode is created as a draft and opens straight in the episode editor.
5. Get to know the episode editor
The editor has five tabs: Details, Collaborators, Media, Automation, and Publish. See Create an Episode for a full tour.
6. Add your audio
Go to the Media tab and upload your audio file. Supported formats: MP3, M4A, and WAV, up to 500MB. See Upload Audio for details.
7. Publish
Go to the Publish tab and click Publish Now. Your episode goes live in your RSS feed and reaches listeners on every platform your show is listed on.
You'll see an Audio required notice on the Publish tab until your audio upload is finished.
On the Free plan?
Free accounts can publish 2 episodes per calendar month. Unpublishing doesn't return the allowance; it resets on the 1st of the next month. Paid plans publish without a monthly publishing cap.
Prefer to schedule it?
Instead of Publish Now, set a Scheduled Publish Date & Time and click Schedule. PodcasterPlus publishes the episode automatically at that time.
Audio Best Practices
For the best listener experience:
- MP3 at 128 to 320 kbps is a good balance of quality and file size
- Keep levels consistent: around -16 LUFS is comfortable for most listeners
- Reduce background noise before uploading; the cleaner the source, the better
What's Next?
Congratulations, you're a published podcaster! Some good next steps:
- Set up guest booking so guests can schedule recording time with you
- Activate a starter automation to put guest emails on autopilot
- Get listed on podcast directories so listeners can find your show