Starting a Podcast

Podcasts on Stanza let you publish audio — readings, spoken word, interviews, conversations and series — under a hub that listeners can subscribe to. You set up the hub once, then add episodes to it.

Creating your hub

1. Open Podcasts from the Create section of the Library.
2. The first time, Stanza takes you to hub setup. Choose Create Podcast Hub.
3. Fill in the details:

• Hub title — your show's name (2–140 characters).
• Podcast slug — the short name used in your hub's web address.
• Hub description — what the show is about and what listeners can expect.
• Thumbnail and Banner — your cover art and header image.
• Affiliation — if the show is connected to an organization, say so here.

1. Save. Your hub is ready for its first episode.

Hub settings

Open your hub's Podcast settings to control how people find and respond to it:

• Public hub — whether the hub can be seen by everyone.
• Discoverable hub — whether it is listed where people browse for podcasts.
• Allow comments — whether listeners can reply to episodes. When off, listeners see "Comments are disabled for this podcast."
• Allow reactions — whether listeners can react to episodes.
• Speech-to-Text — whether episodes are transcribed automatically.

Subscribers

Listeners can Subscribe to your hub. Subscribers are notified when you publish a new episode, and you are notified about new subscribers. Your subscriber count is shown on the hub.

Categories and moods

In Podcast settings you can place your show in up to three categories (Readings, Craft, Conversations, Spoken word, Translation, Workshops, Books or Open mic) and give it up to two default moods. New episodes start with the show’s moods, and you can change them per episode. Categories and moods help listeners find your show in the directory; Stanza never guesses a mood from your audio. Content warnings work the same way: set a default for the show and adjust each episode.

Your show page

Your show has one page: its header (cover, title, host, how often you publish, Subscribe, RSS and Share), the latest episode with audio, your most popular episodes once you have a few, all your episodes in seasons, and a host card. As host you also see a bar with Manage, New episode and View analytics. Shows appear in the Podcasts directory only if they are public and discoverable.

Analytics for hosts

Choose View analytics on your show page. On every plan you see subscribers, how many signed-in members listened, responses (cheers, encores, tomatoes, replies, list adds and reposts), new listeners and subscribers per day over the last 7 days, and your top three episodes. Stanza Pro adds how many listeners finish, how far they get, who is still listening, a listen-through curve, 30, 90 and all-time ranges, and your top twenty episodes. Every listening figure counts signed-in members only, so treat it as a floor. Breakdowns need at least five listeners and show a short note below that. Listeners are never named. A circle’s show can be opened by that circle’s admins.

Adding episodes

Once you have a hub, choosing Podcasts in Create takes you straight to a new episode. See Podcast Episodes, Replies and Reactions for the details of publishing, scheduling and drafts.

Transcripts

With Speech-to-Text on, Stanza transcribes your episodes after they are uploaded. Each episode shows its transcript status — for example "Transcript processing" or "Transcript ready" — and you can choose Transcribe now for an episode that was not transcribed.

Plan limits

How long an episode can be depends on your plan; Stanza Pro allows longer episodes. If an episode is too long for your plan, Stanza tells you before it is published.