Getting Your Audio Podcast on YouTube

YouTube supports the direct distribution of audio podcasts via RSS feeds to both YouTube and YouTube Music. This method automatically converts your audio episodes into static image videos, providing an easy way to share audio content on YouTube.

YouTube works differently from other podcast directories, so this guide covers those differences and walks you through submitting your podcast.

When deciding how to get your podcast on YouTube, the method depends on whether your content is audio-only or includes video.

This article covers audio podcasts, distributed via RSS feed. YouTube doesn't support video uploads through RSS, even with video RSS enabled, so RSS-distributed episodes always appear as static image videos.

If your content includes video and you want to show those visuals use, Zencastr’s YouTube integration instead.

To comply with YouTube’s Terms of Service, content uploaded to the platform can't contain advertisements. This means dynamically served and programmatic ads can't be present in your podcast episodes. Host-read promotions or sponsorships are permitted, provided you inform YouTube and tag the relevant episodes accordingly. For more information, refer to YouTube's Paid Product Placements and Endorsements policy.

YouTube's RSS tool imports your show and episodes only once and then caches them. While new episodes published to your RSS feed will be sent to YouTube subsequently, most edits to show or episode details won't be reflected in YouTube automatically. Any edits to your show or any edits to already published episodes, besides their titles and descriptions, need to be done in YouTube after the RSS feed is initially imported.

YouTube's analytics measure views rather than downloads, so YouTube view counts can't be aggregated into your overall podcast analytics and won't reflect in your hosting provider's numbers. To monitor your podcast’s performance on YouTube, you'll need to access those analytics on YouTube. For further insights into hosting provider versus YouTube analytics, see this Podnews article.

To submit to YouTube and YouTube Music you will need to have:

Follow YouTube’s instructions for connecting your RSS feed to upload podcasts to YouTube. When you're prompted to add the RSS feed, enter your Zencastr RSS feed.

After you complete the process, YouTube starts uploading your episodes, which can take a few hours to a few days. Unlike other podcast directories, your show will not be automatically listed on YouTube/ YouTube Music. Instead, you'll have to manually publish your show once the episode upload completes.

After you submit your RSS feed to YouTube, you will receive an email from them when all episodes have been uploaded and copyright checks have been completed.

Please note this can take up to a few days. When you receive this email, follow YouTube’s instructions for publishing podcasts from the RSS feed.

For a detailed overview of the submission and publishing processes as well as editing episodes on YouTube after your podcast is listed there, we highly recommend checking out this YouTube article and video about delivering podcasts using an RSS feed.

If I replace the audio for an episode that I already published to YouTube, will it update there?

No. When a podcast is distributed via RSS feed, YouTube only accepts edits to episode titles and descriptions, and replacing files isn't an option within YouTube itself. To update an already published episode, use YouTube's editor to make changes to the existing video, or upload the new file as a separate video and delete or unlist the original. See this YouTube article for details.

I have video RSS enabled, but my video episodes are still showing on YouTube with just the podcast/episode cover art. How do I fix this?

YouTube doesn’t support video uploads through an RSS feed. Even with video RSS enabled, episodes connected to YouTube via RSS will be converted into static image videos using your podcast’s cover art or episode artwork. To upload full video episodes, you’ll need to use the Zencastr YouTube integration or upload the videos directly to YouTube instead.