How to start a podcast on YouTube (for audio shows)

Connect your RSS feed

If your podcast is already on a hosting service, YouTube can read its RSS feed and upload every episode for you. You prove the feed is yours with a code sent to the email address in the feed. YouTube uses your show art to make a static-image video of each episode, and uploads them as private by default so you can check them first.

• It is only available in selected countries, based on where the channel owner is.
• Episode audio can’t be changed after it is published.
• Episodes with ads in them aren’t accepted, which rules out feeds with dynamically inserted ads.

Upload episodes yourself

Make each episode into a video and upload it. A full episode is usually 30 minutes or more, and a still picture is all it needs. Free tools for that include an editor such as iMovie or Clipchamp, or the FFmpeg command on our MP3 to MP4 page. The studio on this site makes videos of up to 10 minutes, so it suits trailers, short episodes and clips rather than full hour-long episodes.

The upload steps are the same as for any video; the MP3 upload guide walks through them.

People rarely find an hour of audio by browsing. They find a 40-second moment that makes them want the rest. YouTube treats square or vertical videos of up to 3 minutes as Shorts.

• Choose Vertical on this site’s start card, open the episode and press Best 30 s or Best 60 s in Audio for a starting point, then move the window to the exact line.
• Press Make captions in Captions so the words are on screen; this sends only the clip’s sound to our speech provider. Choose Pop or Highlight so the words move with the voice.
• Put the episode title in Title and “Full episode on the channel” in Tag line.
• Export and upload as a Short. In YouTube Studio you can link the Short to the full episode.

For more on what makes a clip work, see podcast clips for Reels, TikTok and Shorts.

• Thumbnails sell episodes. The same cover for every episode makes the list look like a wall. Add the episode title or the guest’s face on each one; Cover image (.png) in the studio’s export sheet saves a frame you can start from.
• Chapters help long episodes. Timestamps in the description, starting at 0:00, become chapters people can jump between.
• Captions matter on YouTube too. YouTube makes automatic captions for uploads; check the names. For a clip made here, the audio to SRT page shows how to export the same captions as a file.
• A trailer at the top. A two-minute trailer of the best moments, made as a landscape audiogram, gives new visitors a reason to subscribe.