r/podcasting

Have yall ever created merch for your podcast as another business venture that not only made you some money and then got you some more listeners and everything. Not saying that I wanted to do it but I wouldn’t mind doing it but I’m not going to anyway. Just wanted to get yall opinion.

Hi,

We're 36 episodes into a politics/current affairs show, now looking to try and ramp promotion, etc., and obviously understanding the analytics is a key part of that.

one issue we're running into, however, is that our unique listener figures, in particular, are bizarrely different between the host (Captivate.fm) and Apple & Spotify.

Over 60 days, Captivate says we have just shy of 3,000 uniques. Apple says we have 304, Spotify 262.

There is some room for uniques outside those platforms (we did an ad campaign that sent traffic to the website, for instance, and from play data that clearly contributed to the Captivate number but was tracked as Chrome/Safari/web player), but not nearly enough to explain the massive gap between the host and the end platforms.

I know data varies between hosts and platforms around plays and the like, but my sense is that the unique listener definition should be relatively standard here. (And, oddly, Spotify is showing more streams than does Captivate, while showing far lower unique numbers.)

trying to Google this issue I don't really find much that is a concrete explanation here. And the problem is that the differing data leads us to wildly different conclusions.

The platform-level data suggests we have pretty committed listeners, and just not enough people sampling. (Episode retention data supports that, FWIW.) The Captivate data, however, suggests that our conversion from uniques to followers is much lower, which tells a different story.

any thoughts on why this gulf and which one to trust?

So I've been trying to increase the number of clips I make on my audio only podcast. I put them out on Facebook reels and tiktok and all that. Since we're audio only, I want it to be something eye-catching, funny or cute, so that there's at least something to look at while they listen to the clip.

My first instinct is to make animated avatars of me and my co-host but idk

What have you all seen done that makes sense?

I can tell you I dislike the idea of using a wave form...

Any quick way to filter audio versus video podcasts on the top charts? I've taken a look at Podchaser but don't seem to have the info there. Thanks!

I’ve been running a podcast for a while now, and it’s performed well since launching in October. At this point, I’m starting to think more seriously about monetization. One idea I’m exploring is building a services arm around the show—helping others replicate what I’ve done, from setup and recording to organizing workflows in Notion and developing a marketing strategy across LinkedIn, Substack, and Instagram. I’m curious if others have taken a similar approach and what that’s looked like in practice.

I did that. It was so embarrassing. My friend on YouTube said "Leave that in!" and I'm like "uh oh, what did I do?" Then I quickily fixed. *hides in shame!*

Hello! I'm 6 months into my (weekly) podcast, and I've been starting to look at analytics, and have run into a point of confusion that I expect someone here can decipher in a nanosecond for me.

I host via Spotify for Creators. It feeds Apple Podcast, and I have a Apple Podcast Connect account. (It also shows up on places like Pocket Casts, Castbox, etc. but I'm not looking at those in detail)

If I look at March data on Spotify for Creators:

"On spotify": 78 plays

"All platforms" - Streams and Downloads: 257 (from exported daily numbers)

Heading to Apple Podcast Connect for the same time frame:

Apple: 348 plays

Now, I know that "Streams and Downloads" is not the same thing as "Plays", but what would you recommend is the best way to reconcile the notion that the Apple numbers are higher than the "all platforms" numbers when spotify is the host? Or are they (no pun intended) apples and oranges, and I should be combining, not subtracting numbers to get an idea of what's going on?

(I'm also streaming on YouTube, but that is separate from all of these numbers)

I appreciate anyone's expertise here to help me out!

I have an idea for a podcast. I have the name, and an idea of some episodes. I know what gear ill start with and that kind of thing. Its everything else im getting confused about.

1. What do I use to record? I want it to be video/audio.

2. Intro. What do i using to make the music/sound? And are intros to the show obnoxious so you cut to the chase or do you just say what the show is about?

3. I feel like my show description and what my intro is are one of the same. Is that okay?

4. Where do you make your logos? I have an idea in my head but Im not skilled enough to make it myself.

My friend played me a cult documentary podcast in the car over the weekend and asked what I thought. After I said it was pretty good, she told me it was AI generated.

I was taken aback because the voices did sound pretty real. Listening harder it was possible to pick up there were signs the voices were just a bit off, uncanny, small word pronunciation issues.

Anyway, this sent me down a rabbithole where I discovered creators and companies are creating podcast farms about all kinds of niche topics using AI - its called "vibecasting" - basically just prompting to the AI to generate entire podcasts and spamming us with slop.

I do feel like podcasting feels very human - we come to our favorite shows for the hosts and their personalities. So I hope AI slop doesn't ruin podcasts too.

I co-host a YouTube video podcast, and we're on our 4th episode now and I was wondering if anyone wanted to collab with us. We are a comedy talk show, that has different topics for each video. We have done reactions and games, and try and appeal to as many people as possible. Please reach out to me either via DMs or by my email at lacoldgold@icloud.com, including both your name and direct statement of interest. Please note that we use StreamYard to record and you must be willing to be on camera.

I have a project called Royals Behaving Badly, its a spoof on the Royal Family, I'm looking for a collaborator, a person who can put on royal voices, and bring my idea alive. The idea is in the form of a film script. It particularly focusses around Prince Harry. I can provide music. I wrote it as a book, but it could provide great material for a podcast. If you interested you can contact me powellfrancisvid @gmail.com

Hi all, I've never posted here before so I hope this is the right place to get some clarification. I have been gearing up to start what is essentially a book club podcast, where we will discuss books we're currently reading (thoughts, fancasts, etc...) and invite people who would like to read the book as well to join in.

Originally I wanted there to be an audiobook portion to the podcast, which I quickly learned was illegal due to copyright (dumb on my part for not considering that right off the bat.) but now I'm wondering if there are any other legalities I should be aware of surrounding the actual podcast itself? It would be kind of a review format, but am I allowed to read a passage from the chapter? A sentence? Or would I just have to refer to the part I'm talking about indirectly? Am I allowed to talk a little bit about the author or their background?

I know it doesn't matter legally, but this is not with the intention of monetization. Just for funsies to read books I enjoy, and word vomit into the void about them. I'm aware I could work around all of this by sticking to Public Domain books, which I will do if it seems like too fine a line. I was just hoping to get to read some newer literature and maybe put people onto a new good book. Any advice?

WHAT IS THIS?

Here's where you can promote the latest from your podcast. New threads are posted each Monday. Please include:

Your podcast's name and a brief description

A link to your new episode

A summary of the episode (please note if it's explicit)

FEEDBACK

Want feedback on your podcast? Post your latest along with specific questions. Click here for examples.

When requesting feedback, please reply to at least one other person in the thread. Otherwise, no one will ever receive feedback.

I’ve heard this advice countless times in tutorials “promote your podcast in Facebook groups” but most of these groups have strict no promotion rules.

I tried this for a construction podcast and shared their content in a construction manager group, but the post got removed.

So what are the softer, more effective ways to promote your podcast to your ideal audience? We even tried engaging with the community beforehand, but it still didn’t work.

I’m very new to this and have not recorded my first episode yet and I really appreciate this forum and the experiences and perspective shared here.

I have been listening to a variety of podcasts and have noticed that sometimes the hosts say something along the lines of, “and you’ll find out when we come back from this break”, but the break is just a short pause (no ads or anything).

What is the advantage of doing this? I was guessing that if they were taking a break to stretch or something they would just pause recording so there must be a better reason.

Hi There, I started Podcasting 1,5 Years ago and my numbers are these:

Month | Streams
----------|--------
Dec 2024 | 14
Jan 2025 | 114
Feb 2025 | 32
Mar 2025 | 28
Apr 2025 | 47
May 2025 | 72
Jun 2025 | 114
Jul 2025 | 91
Aug 2025 | 16
Sep 2025 | 32
Oct 2025 | 26
Nov 2025 | 94
Dec 2025 | 180
Jan 2026 | 190
Feb 2026 | 235
Mar 2026 | 173
Apr 2026 | 239

Chat GPT says I am close to have a breakout moment, but as I don't trust AI, and I only trust Reddit, I wanted to ask here. Does anyone, starting from scratch ever reached breakthrough? Like suddenly hitting 1000 Streams/ Month? Or seeing their numbers spike for whatever reason? I am looking for examples of people that don't have a Insta Following Community or a best seller book or is already a big number on Youtube. I am interested in a normal someone (like me) a dude or a girl with a podcast. It would be interesting to have a little benchmark if you don't mind sharing your numbers too.

Tengo una idea para un podcast (como todos, diréis). El tema es que la idea necesita de dos personas y, actualmente, estoy solo.

Tengo clara la premisa, el público, cómo dividir el episodio en partes, qué quiero contar y cómo.

¿El problema? Lo dicho arriba. Que estoy solo y no sé por dónde empezar.

He contactado con varias productoras sin suerte y también he contactado con una empresa de asesoría y producción de podcasts que me ofrece una primera reunión para estudiar la viabilidad del proyecto (previo pago, claro; son muy conocidos en el mundo del podcast en España "yes we cast").

No sé cómo hacerlo. No tanto por el dinero, sino porque me encuentro frente a este proyecto en solitario. Puedo abonar una asesoría, quizá dos, pero más es un coste que no puedo asumir.

Por otro lado, cuál es el ROI de un podcast? Alguien me puede iluminar o solo se hace por amor al arte

Hey guys, my wife and I have a podcast we do together, and we are just starting out (releasing our 12th episode tomorrow). I am an avid podcast listener, and often I will hear ads for other shows play before the podcast I'm listening to. I'm assuming these shows are paying for their show trailer to be promoted. But my question is how. Is there a site where I can pay to have them advertise my show this way across multiple platforms? We post on YouTube and Spotify, then use an RSS feed from Spotify to the major platforms after that. Would love some advice here.