Each podcast episode is a piece of audio with its own title, description and place in your show. This article covers publishing episodes and how listeners respond to them.
Creating an episode
Open your hub and start a new episode. Fill in:
- Episode title (2–180 characters) and Episode description — use the description for show notes, credits, timestamps or the text of the piece.
- Audio — upload a file, or provide a Media URL.
- Thumbnail — optional artwork for this episode.
- Episode number and season — group episodes into seasons with Create season, or choose No season.
- Trailer — mark a short introduction to your show.
- Explicit — switch this on if the episode contains mature content. Explicit episodes are treated as mature content.
Publishing, scheduling and drafts
- Publish Episode makes it live straight away.
- Schedule episode publishes it at a date and time you choose. You can Reschedule, Clear schedule or Publish now at any time before then.
- Move to draft takes an episode down. Drafts are marked "Draft - not visible to listeners" — listeners only ever see published episodes.
When you publish an episode directly, your subscribers are notified. Episodes that go live on a schedule may not send that notification, so consider sharing scheduled episodes yourself when they go out.
Review
Episodes go live without waiting, and are then reviewed by our moderation team. Your episode shows its review status — Pending review, Approved, Rejected or No review required. Editing an episode's content sends it back for review.
Replies
Listeners who can see an episode can reply to it, as long as your hub allows comments. Replies are threaded, so conversations stay together, and you are notified of new replies. Your own replies help listeners know you are listening too.
On an episode with a timed transcript, listeners can also leave a note on a single line. A note is a reply: it has the same moderation, threading and notifications, and shows the quoted line and its time. Turn this off for an episode in its manage page (Transcript notes); existing notes then read as ordinary replies. Listeners can also quote a line as a share card; quotes are not offered for age-restricted shows or episodes.
Listening progress
Listeners resume where they left off, and an episode they have finished shows as Played. Your own listening works the same way. Replaying never takes away someone’s finished mark, so your analytics only move forward.
Reactions
Episodes take all three reactions: Cheer, Encore and Tomato. Episode lists show applause — cheers and encores together — and never show tomatoes. You are notified about reactions on your episodes. You can turn reactions off for the whole hub with Allow reactions.
Lists and sharing
Other members can add your episodes to their reading lists. To stop new additions for an episode, switch off Open to reading lists in its Sharing card ("Let other poets add this episode to their lists."). Lists that already hold the episode keep it. New episodes start from your account default, which you can change in your privacy settings.
Taking an episode down
To remove an episode from your hub, choose Move to draft. It stays in your drafts, hidden from listeners, and you can publish it again later.
A consistent schedule — say, a new episode on the first Monday of each month — helps listeners build your show into their routine.