You finished the audio. The voices sound great, the pacing lands, and the file is exported. Then you hit the wall every new podcaster hits: getting the episode listed somewhere people can actually find it.
Directory submission is where a lot of AI-produced shows stall. The audio was the fun part. Now you're staring at terms like "RSS namespace," "content declaration," and "explicit tag," wondering which ones actually matter.
Here's the good news: the requirements are finite and well-documented. This guide walks you through what Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and the other major directories need, why AI narration changes almost nothing about the process, and how to prep your feed so it clears review on the first try.
First, understand what a directory actually ingests
A common misconception: you don't upload audio files to Apple or Spotify. You submit a URL — an RSS feed — and the directory reads it.
That feed is an XML document that points to your audio files and describes your show: title, description, artwork, episodes, and category. The directories poll it on a schedule, so when you add an episode, they pick it up automatically.
This means podcast hosting and podcast directories are two different things. A host (Buzzsprout, Transistor, Podbean, and others) stores your MP3s and generates the RSS feed. Directories like Apple Podcasts and Spotify simply read that feed and list your show in their apps.
EchoLive produces the audio, not the hosting feed — so your workflow is: produce the episode in EchoLive, export a clean MP3, upload it to a podcast host, then submit the host's feed to each directory. Note the distinction clearly: EchoLive does not host podcasts or publish RSS feeds. It's the studio, not the distributor.
If you're still assembling episodes, our guide on how to produce a podcast covers scripting and multi-voice production before you ever reach this step.
Get your RSS feed and audio files compliant
Before you submit anywhere, your feed and files need to meet a shared baseline. Most hosts handle the XML for you, but you're responsible for the inputs.
Audio file specs
Apple recommends MP3 files encoded at 128 kbps or higher for spoken-word content, with correct ID3 tags for title and artist. When you export from the Studio editor, choose MP3 and keep your bitrate consistent across episodes so the listening experience stays even.
Keep file sizes reasonable. Long-form narration can balloon quickly, so a steady 128–192 kbps mono or stereo export is the sweet spot for voice.
Artwork rules
This trips up more first-timers than anything else. Apple Podcasts requires cover art between 1400×1400 and 3000×3000 pixels, in JPEG or PNG, in the RGB colorspace. Spotify follows nearly identical dimensions.
Square, high-resolution, no pixelation, and no text that's illegible at thumbnail size. If your artwork fails these bounds, the whole show gets rejected — the audio never even gets evaluated.
Required metadata
Your feed needs a show title, a description, a language tag, at least one category, an email address for verification, and an explicit/clean rating. Miss the owner email and Apple can't confirm you control the feed.
Submit to Apple Podcasts
Apple routes everything through Apple Podcasts Connect. You sign in with an Apple Account, paste your RSS feed URL, and the system validates it.
If the feed passes structural checks, Apple sends a verification email to the address listed as the feed owner. Confirm it, and your show enters review. Approval typically takes anywhere from a few hours to a few days.
Apple's own podcast requirements documentation is the authoritative reference for tag-level specs, and it's worth skimming before you submit. The most frequent rejection reasons are artwork out of bounds, a missing owner email, and a feed that returns errors when fetched.
Once approved, every new episode you add to your host's feed appears automatically. You submit the show once, not every episode.
Submit to Spotify and the rest
Spotify uses Spotify for Creators (formerly Anchor / Spotify for Podcasters). You claim your show by submitting the same RSS feed, verify ownership through a code sent to your feed's owner email, and confirm a few details like category and language.
Spotify's process is generally faster than Apple's and often lists shows within hours. Their creator support hub documents the current claim flow, which changes periodically as the platform evolves.
The other directories follow the same pattern with the same feed:
- YouTube Music / YouTube ingests podcast RSS feeds for eligible creators.
- Amazon Music accepts feed submission through its podcaster portal.
- Overcast, Pocket Casts, and Castro pull primarily from Apple's directory, so an Apple listing often propagates to them automatically.
The lesson: one compliant feed unlocks nearly the entire ecosystem. Get it right once and submission becomes copy-paste.
Declare AI narration honestly
Here's the part specific to AI-produced shows — and it's simpler than the anxiety around it suggests.
No major directory bans synthetic or text-to-speech narration. What they care about is accuracy, disclosure where required, and not misrepresenting a voice as a real, identifiable person without consent.
Spotify prohibits podcast shows that impersonate a creator or host's likeness without permission — including through AI voice cloning — and it's extending verification badges to podcasts so listeners can confirm they're hearing an authentic show. Separately, the Federal Trade Commission has warned that unauthorized voice cloning enables fraud and impersonation scams — exactly what honest disclosure and licensed voices avoid.
Practical rules for your show:
- Use licensed neural voices — EchoLive's 650+ voice catalog is cleared for produced content, so you're not scraping or mimicking a real individual.
- Add a short line in your show notes or episode description noting that narration is AI-generated. Transparency costs nothing and preempts listener confusion.
- Never label a synthetic voice as a named celebrity or private person. That's the line that draws policy enforcement.
EchoLive does not do voice cloning, so there's no risk of accidentally reproducing someone's identity. You're casting licensed voices, which keeps your submission firmly inside every directory's terms of service.
A pre-submission checklist
Run through this before you paste your feed anywhere:
- Audio exported as MP3, consistent bitrate, correct ID3 tags.
- Artwork square, 1400–3000 px, RGB, JPEG or PNG.
- Feed metadata complete: title, description, language, category, owner email, explicit rating.
- AI disclosure added to show notes.
- Feed validates — run it through a free RSS validator and confirm it returns no errors.
Clear all five and your first-pass approval odds climb dramatically. The rejections almost always trace back to one of these five being skipped.
If you want to see how the production side works before committing minutes, you can try the Playground and generate a sample segment in your chosen voice — no project setup required. And if you're weighing how EchoLive fits your workflow versus other tools, the features overview breaks down where a segment-based studio helps most for long-form narration.
From export to live listing
Submitting an AI podcast to every major directory isn't a special process — it's the standard one, with one honest disclosure added. Get your RSS feed, audio, and artwork compliant, submit the same feed to Apple Podcasts Connect and Spotify for Creators, and note that your narration is AI-generated. Do that, and your show clears review like any other.
The audio is the hard part, and that's the part worth getting right. When you're ready to produce studio-quality narration you can send straight to a host, sign up for EchoLive and turn your next script into a finished, ready-to-submit episode.
Originally published on EchoLive.
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