What Is Podcast Hosting & Why You Should Care

13th February 2017

As a soon-to-be podcast host do you know what is podcast hosting? Do you even care about this, yet?

You might want to focus on your podcast content and hire a podcast coach or producer or assistant. They will help you get the podcast planned, launched and supported. Or you might want to Do It All Yourself. But either way you do need to be aware of the important role that podcast hosting plays in your podcast.

The basics for a podcast to actually function are
1. your audio content in .mp3 files.
2. somewhere to store your audio files so they can be downloaded and listened to.
3. some way for your listeners to know what episodes are available and to get new ones automatically.

These are looked after by podcast hosting. There are of course plenty of other things that you need to get sorted as part of your podcast project but these are the most important relating to hosting.

Your content is organised into episodes amd when someone wants to listen to one of your episodes, it is downloaded onto the device they want to use – computer or mobile device. And it is the RSS feed which gives you the list of episodes and where the episodes can be downloaded from. It sends a new episode to the device when it is released. So the RSS feed and podcast hosting are the parts that make your podcast ‘work’.

Podcast Hosting

It is your podcast hosting service that provides a place for you to upload and store your audio files. It also provides your RSS feed. When someone subscribes and wants to listen, your podcast hosting will serve the RSS and the files to the listener. It is simplified for you, and it will work. You don’t have to mess about doing anything else. Don’t waste time trying to do anything else, either. It’s just not work the hassle.

This is why just having audio files on your website is not a podcast, and why you shouldn’t put your audio files on your website hosting and expect everything to work. They are different services. You need website hosting and you need podcast hosting.
But over and above providing a home for your audio files and a mechanism for people to get your episodes, podcast hosting can provide plenty of other features.

Analytics

An essential service is providing some analytics reporting so you can tell how many downloads you are getting and where from and….. lots of stats which differ across different companies.

Training & Information & Support

If you are ‘DIY’-ing then some great tutorials and resources would be invaluable for you so you can learn how their services work and what to do to get the best out of them. Strong support for when you are stuck or have technical problems is of course essential.

Podcast Player

You will also need a ‘player’ so you can easily feature your episodes on your website, in blog posts for example. Many hosts provide those, again with different features.

Podcast Website

And it is advisable to have some sort of ‘home’ on the internet for your podcast in addition to it being featured on podcast playing apps. Typically you would have your own website for your podcast but some hosts also provide a simple website for you to set up for your podcast, which might be useful depending upon what you are trying to achieve with your podcast.

These services come at a price, of course.

My last post was all about being aware of the lure of free podcast hosting – namely expecting free hosting to be the best (or indeed any) solution for you.

Different podcast hosting companies offer different services, at different price points. They have different business models and were presumably set up to service different segments of the podcasting market. Please make sure that you select a podcast hosting service that is most suitable for your podcast and your business model and consider how ‘future proof’ it will be. Smaller companies come and go.

You still need to know this stuff…

Even if you have delegated all the ‘techy’ stuff, you have to know what podcast hosting company and service is being set up for you. You need to understand the limitations, the capacity, the service package, and what exactly you are paying for. Even down to a basic consideration of will you actually own the rights to the content that you are creating. Be clear right now what could happen if the service selected for you is no longer a good fit.

There is delegation and there is abdication. It’s your podcast, know enough to have educated discussions about your podcast hosting. Don’t be tempted to abdicate responsibility.

If you would like me to guide you through getting your podcast up-and-running, check out my Podcast Coaching service packages.