Google will finally support podcasts in their Google Play Music app and catalog! Here's how to submit your podcast to Google's new podcasts directory.
- Visit g.co/podcastportal.
- Click “Get Started.”
- Login with your Google account.
- Click “Add a Podcast.”
- Review and accept the terms of service.
- Enter your podcast-only RSS feed.
- Check your email (the address in your RSS feed) and verify your ownership of this podcast feed.
- Click “Publish Podcast.”
- Wait for approval.
Find more podcast apps, directories, and everywhere you and your podcast should be™ at Podcast Places™.
Related Content
At first there was an error with my artwork, but I refreshed the feed and it came through. Not sure what the issue was, but perhaps others are having trouble with images.
I had that, too. My artwork as hosted on Libsyn. Where was yours?
I’m also experiencing the same difficulty with the artwork. Tried refresh…still no bueno
I believe it’s also on Libsyn (everything else is). I had success upon refresh so hopefully alls well that ends well.
Thanks so much for the link and instructions. This was easy for me to setup my new Podcast on something other than iTune. – D3
You’re welcome!
Thank you Obi Wan.
You’re welcome, my padawan.
I have tried adding my podcast feed but it keeps telling me it doesnt have the right tags. This is the feed i use for itunes. i am so confused?
Have you validated your feed over at http://feedvalidator.org/ ?
What is your RSS feed and what is creating it?
Thanks for this, Daniel. I used my powerpress/website feed @tylerji517:disqus , not the ITUNES feed, and it worked perfectly. Given the new YouTube “Red” option that includes all the music as well as videos, this feature might be very helpful. Are their podcasts up yet? Or, is this all for a future debut of podcasts? Appreciate the practicality of your information!
They’re app won’t be out until 2016.
Appears that this isn’t available in the U.K yet. I’m wondering if I can get around that issue with a US VPN link.
Let me know if the VPN does work for you.
Hi Daniel, yes I can confirm it works. I downloaded the Tunnel Bear app for Windows desktop, as the Chrome browser app doesn’t seem to trick the page. So using the desktop app I set-up a free Tunnel Bear account, switched it to United States, and then using IE went to the link in this post. Even creating my podcast account using my existing UK Google Account didn’t seem to cause any issues. Just adding my shows now! #WIN
Thanks!
Oh forgot to mention, it was approved quickly with no problems.
Oh man – thanks Matt. I hadn’t thought to use a vpn. I assumed because my Google account was based in Spain (where I live) that it wouldn’t work. But lo, after reading your response, I tried a vpn, and it worked a treat. Now submitted and awaiting for approval. So thanks a million.
I have a Mac so what would you recommend as an app instead as I am also in UK?
Tunnel Bear also works on Mac as well as Windows: https://www.tunnelbear.com/apps/mac
Thank you!
Matt, please let me know if VPN works. I’m also in the UK.
I can confirm it does work.
VPN or proxy works.
I getting a generic error: “Error processing RSS feed.” Any ideas?
My feed is http://thelavaflow.com/feed/podcast/
Wait a few hours and try again. I don’t see anything significantly wrong with your feed, only a few warnings from FeedValidator.
Great stuff, thanks for quick tutorial, love it! I am submitted, waiting for approval.
Daniel, if using Feedburner, does this mean it’s ok to enable the Smart Podcast?
I recall in one of your previous episodes were you recommending disabling Feedburner Smart Podcast option.
Thanks
The only good reason to use FeedBurner SmartCast is if your original source feed can’t add the proper podcast information for you. But if you’re using PowerPress’s or Libsyn’s feeds, then you still don’t need SmartCast. (In fact, SmartCast will break things in your feed if you’re already using a good feed-creator.)
I use SmartCast, but only the “Media RSS” option, not iTunes. Seems to work ok for me.
Awesome! Thank you Daniel!
You’re welcome, Beca!
When I do step 6 and enter my rss feed (http://avenueg1.podomatic.com/rss2.xml), I get the error text:
“Podcast RSS feed must include a podcast title, an author and an email. Please update your RSS feed to continue. Missing Email Address. The podcast RSS feed must have an email in the or tag. This email address is used to verify that you are the owner of the podcast you are attempting to submit”
I’m pretty clueless.
Jim, your RSS feed doesn’t actually contain an email address in the tag. This could have been done inadvertently. You can fix this if you’re using a plugin to set up your RSS feed. If you’re using PowerPress, you can find this setting under Settings > iTunes.
Ok so I tried to submit it but I keep getting this error “Podcast RSS feed must include a podcast title, an author and an email. Please update your RSS feed to continue.” So I dont understand I am using Libsyn as my hosting service everything is in the fields that is required! What do I do? Please help!
David, does this help: http://support.libsyn.com/faqs/rss-general-management/
Thank you. I have already looked at that. For some reason it still doesn’t work. Everything that is required is filled out so now sure where to go from here.
I can’t tell you anything without knowing the RSS feed you’re trying to submit.
It’s in the original post. Here it is again. Thanks for your help!
http://daconfessions.libsyn.com/rss
It looks like it’s the email field that’s having problems. Your email current looks like this (with your real email address):
yourname@email.com (yourname@email.com)
Double-check your feed settings in Libsyn, or contact their support team. You may even need to use the Google Play feed instead.
Thank you. I will. I have everything filled out but I will contact them. Thank you agai for all of your help!
LOL good news! I just changed the email address and it went right through. LOL Thanks again for your help!
I had the same problem with my Libsyn feed. FeedBurner fixed the problem… for now.
Doesn’t seem to be taking any submissions at this point. Thoughts?
I’m curious how long Google Play Music usually take to approve new podcast submissions? I submitted to Sticher, iTunes, and Google Play Music at the same time. ITunes and Stitcher approved within hours and I’m going on 2 days and still no approval from Google. What have others experienced?
It was fast when they first started, but now it’s a bit slower. A couple days, more if over a weekend, is normal.
Thank you for the quick response! Will stay patient!
I guess Google got better. Submitted a new show on a Tuesday (6 months after Google Play got into podcasts) and it was approved in a couple of hours.
It’s going on 9 days now for me.
It’s almost a moot point now that Google has released Google Podcasts, which I suspect will completely replace Google Play Music Podcasts. So go https://podcastsmanager.google.com to submit and manage your podcast in Google Podcasts.
Very good article. I followed the instructions to submit a one day old podcast and it took about 2 minutes. Google accepted the show in a couple of hours (Apple took much longer). Does google provide a public link to a podcast like iTunes does?
i got an error page for some reason.
Try again and tell me what the error is.
My error page looks like this: The application encountered an error while loading. Try to reload the page.
That’s all it says, and then when I try to reload nothing happens.
If you’re in the USA, then you’ll have to contact Google for help.
Dang it.. Not available in my country = Australia 🙁
not available in UK either
Hi Daniel. Do you know if it’s possible to submit our podcast if we’re in a country that doesn’t yet support podcasts in Google Play music? So that people in other countries still find the show?
Yes, it’s possible if you use a proxy. But Google Play Music Podcasts is available only to users in the USA and Canada.
Google play is not accepting my Feedburner RSS feed. It says that I’m missing the tags , , and – I can see all of those in the XML source on Feedburner. I’ve been on Stitcher and iTunes both for months now, but would like to get Google Play up and running too. Any advice?
It sounds like you’re not using a trustworthy podcast feed, like from PowerPress or Libsyn. Thus, enable FeedBurner’s “SmartCast” feature and enter your podcast information there.
Hello. I’ve been trying to get my rss feed onto Google Play, but it is not accepting it as well. I keep getting the error message that The RSS is missing fields, that it must include the author, title, and email address. I’ve been on Podomatic and iTunes for a long while now and haven’t had an issue. Please help.
If you’re using the Podomatic feed, you’ll need to ask for their help since it seems you’re missing your podcast information.
Question i have my podcast on Google play but how long does it take to update with new episodes?
It should be quite quickly, as long as your RSS feed is functioning.
Thank you i figured it out.
What did you have to do? Mine did not update with the second episode.
I uploaded and the podcast was accepted overnight, but I cannot find it on the play music podcast area, does it take a while to publish after going live?
Give it another couple days. Google Play Music indexes the show-level title, description, and author tag. But currently no episode-level information.
Can someone please provide an example of what the proper RSS is supposed to look like? I entered in my RSS feed: http://rchidspodcast.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/-/podcast and got the following error: “Required RSS feed fields are missing”. Can someone please help? Thanks.
You must first have a valid podcast RSS feed. Use the same feed you submitted to iTunes, if you’re already in iTunes.
Since you’re using Blogspot, you need to add FeedBurner in order to turn your blog feed into a podcast feed.
Thanks for getting back to me Daniel. I am in iTunes and I used my FeedBurner feed to get onto iTunes….is still doesn’t work. My issue is that I can’t figure out how to meet the requirements that Google Play Music requires. What do I need to add to the feed I provided above in order to make it work? This is where I am stuck.
Check your feed with a feed validator, like http://castfeedvalidator.com. If you still need help fixing your feed, I can refer you to a paid consultant.
Checked with feed validator, it’s a good feed. Thanks for your help.
Thanks for this. I recently launched and only knew of Stitcher and iTunes. I have a question regarding the link above about where to put your podcast. There are 11 pages of directories. Do you think this is feasible? Where do you put yours?
[…] First and foremost, your podcast should be available on your website. However, you want people to find it elsewhere as well. If you know how to create an RSS feed, which is pretty easy using a platform like WordPress, it’s not hard to get your podcast included on iTunes. Because iTunes is exclusively on iPhones, you should also include your show on sites like Stitcher and Google Play. […]
Thanks Daniel!
Thank you so much for this Daniel!!
Unfortunately I don’t use Word Press for my site, (I use Weebly). I followed the steps above, but wondering about the further instructions in your email:
“Make sure you include the Google Play Music URL in PowerPress > Settings > Destinations > “Google Play Music.” This will make it available for Subscribe on Android.
Then, I recommend making a /google or /googleplay URL and linking to it from your site.”
Will my podcast be available for Subscribe on Android? Should I make a /google URL? What would go on that page?
I have a feed on Google Play. But it does not show up in the app and I have 0 downloads for the latest episode. I publish through Libsyn…
Any ideas
http://mariettastories.libsyn.com/gpm
Excellent! Thank you so much. I just did. It was easy.
Hey. My podcast was approved and published. I uploaded second episode. The episode doesn’t show up in Google Play. Is there something I need to do with each episode? Point of origin is SoundCloud. Thanks.
My podcast is in Google Play but analytics for all episodes show as 0. On an iPhone, the Google Play app does not show a podcast option anywhere. Same for using Safari. However, I can find my podcast when browsing Google play on a desktop. Weird?
My podcast is on iTunes but when I try to submit it to google play, I get an error stating “unable to crawl feed.” Is it because I have video content on my feed? it as been validated
Nevermind, I just realized that i used a different gmail account! Duh! The feed has already been posted! Search for Deer Stand Hill. Thanks
[…] networks to consider having your podcast on iTunes, Google Play Spotify, Soundcloud, Stitcher, and tons of others. Each has a unique process for submitting […]
[…] Submit your podcast to Google Play: Instructions here […]
[…] Google Play — Here’s how. […]
Very helpful- thank you! Is there a way to check to see if you’ve been approved? I can’t seem to find one and it’s been a couple days. My podcast is on Google Podcasts, which I understand is not the same as being on Google Play.
I think you either get an email or it shows in your dashboard. Nonetheless, I suspect Google Play Music Podcasts will be shut down, so it may be a moot issue.
[…] Google Play […]