What is podcast hosting?
Podcast hosting is a service that stores and distributes media files, turning a podcast’s ideas into a deliverable product for an audience of listeners to consume.
Podcast hosting platforms are designed to optimize the storage of a podcast platform. Specific podcasting servers are designated for storing large media files. Hosts can provide various add-ons, like features that help build an audience.
Selecting the best podcast hosting software simplifies the podcasting experience, allowing more time to focus on what matters most: creation, voice, and mission.
Benefits of podcast hosting
A podcast hosting platform creates an optimal user experience and helps grow a show’s online presence. Some other specific benefits are discussed below.
- Robust analytics: Learning critical insights about the show and listeners is a unique value of podcast hosting. Creating content that better fits the audience and maximizes profits is vital when opting to monetize a podcast.
- Faster speeds: Podcast hosting ensures an audience the best speeds possible. Speed is crucial for increasing user downloads and subscribers.
- Smooth data transfers: With hosting sites designed to transfer podcast data, there is little trouble when it comes to downloading and streaming. Smoother data transfers equal a smoother listening experience.
- Quality media files: Hosting servers carry large media files and uphold a show’s audio quality.
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Repurposing capabilities: Some podcast hosting sites provide transcription services. Repurposing show transcripts for blog content, social media posts, or ad campaigns amplifies the promotion strategy.
How to choose a podcast host
Knowing a podcast hosting site’s ins and outs is crucial. As a podcast grows, it requires more hosting capabilities.
Finding where to host podcasts is an easy task since most podcast hosts, both free and paid, ensure basic features like a really simple syndication (RSS) feed and podcast data analytics. However, podcasts may need more than just the basic features further down the road. To find the best podcast hosting site, keep in mind these key considerations:
Storage and bandwidth limits
A host’s total storage and bandwidth offerings differ for free and premium subscriptions. Storage and bandwidth affect the number of episode uploads each week, the amount of access an audience has to old content, and how many people can download or listen to a show at any given time.
It’s valuable to start with a free plan, but a podcast hosting platform must be able to increase bandwidth and storage capacity for future growth.
Analytics reporting
When studying an audience, the right analytics can show which platforms listeners use most and what content is most engaging. Podcast hosting sites must provide Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) Certified or IAB-compliant analytics. The IAB uses these standards to regulate and ensure accurate data analyses.
Compatibility
Podcast hosting sites are a great promotional tool when they integrate easily with a website. Engaging subscribers with other content, such as blogs, articles, or podcast merch, is quickly done with a website. Some podcast hosts offer to create personalized sites.
Ease of use and support
Before choosing a podcast hosting platform, reading reviews from other customers and podcasters is beneficial to learn about how actual users interact with this kind of software.
Media player capabilities
Each podcast hosting site provides a personalized media player design for listeners to stream online. The hosting platform offers an embeddable code that a podcaster can use to display a media player online. For example, a podcaster can paste the embeddable code into a website page or blog post.
Each media player’s design and functionality looks slightly different from the others: some may be more aesthetically pleasing or have more advanced functions like sharing and subscription buttons.
Possibility for monetization
When searching for a hosting provider, the subscription capabilities and available educational resources must be considered. These features showcase the different ways a podcast can make money.
Some hosting sites may provide informative research or articles on gaining sponsors, influencer whitelisting, and cross-promoting with other businesses.
Transcription services
If a podcast hosting site provides transcription services, there are more benefits than just using excerpts for content marketing or blog posting. Written transcriptions allow accessibility to hearing-impaired individuals or improve a podcast’s Google search ranking.
Price
When looking at the top free podcast hosting platforms, podcasters should consider initial and future budgeting limitations. Free is optimal at the beginning phases, but paid subscriptions and tiered pricing can give a good idea of how a hosting site can upgrade when a podcast grows a following.
Based on storage and bandwidth differences, average starting costs range from $5 to $35 per month.
Podcast hosting vs. podcast distributing
A podcast hosting platform stores large media files online and provides RSS feeds. Podcast distribution is a service that allows listeners access to a show and a subscription to a channel.
An RSS feed means podcasts can be distributed and uploaded to platforms like Apple Podcasts or Spotify. The RSS feed allows automatic content updates to the podcast distributor.
Madeleine Marshall
Madeleine Marshall is a former SEO and Content Marketing Intern for G2, where she utilized both technical analysis and motivation-driven communication to bring her writing to life. An incoming senior at Northwestern University pursuing a double major in Economics and Psychology, Madeleine strives for opportunities that are not only data-driven, but also thought-driven.
