The options found in your Show Settings give you the ability to set your overall show settings and defaults. These settings will affect what appears in podcast directories, the Libsyn Podcast Page, the Libsyn Podcast Directory, and anywhere else your show is syndicated to.
This article will go over some of the most important settings surrounding the overall setup of your show.
To get started, hover over Settings and hit Show Settings found along your main menu bar across the top of your dashboard.
Required Information
The first section on this page includes required information. This information is required for the show to operate in our system, as well as with our many features such as directory submissions and social distribution.
Show Title: Your show title will appear on your feed, in Apple Podcasts, on your Libsyn blog page, in your media player, everywhere you syndicate your show – your show title will appear. This can be changed at any time.
Important Note: do not enter additional keywords into this field. This is not permitted in Apple Podcasts. Only provide a proper show title.
Show Slug: The show slug is a unique name that is associated with your show and makes up your show urls. For example, if your show title is My Awesome Show, your show slug might be “myawesomeshow.” In which case, your feed URL will be:
https://myawesomeshow.libsyn.com/rss
Your file download URL would look like this:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/myawesomeshow/somefile.mp3
The slug doesn’t have to follow the show title, it could be an abbreviation, it could be your name, it can be whatever you want. Your show slug is also used to identify your show by our support team. As it must be unique, the slug is set at the time you create your show in our system.
If you feel you need to change your slug, consider these consequences first:
- Any podcast directory submissions, such as to Apple Podcasts, will break. There is a lengthy resubmission process necessary to set the show back up in most podcast directories after arbitrarily changing the feed URL.
- All URLs to your show, including feed, blog, and file URLs will change.
- You will lose all subscribers, ratings, and reviews.
If you still wish to change your show slug, contact our support team at support@libsyn.com who can make this change for you.
Show Description: The show description is essentially an elevator pitch to your potential audience as to why they should subscribe to your show. This field is plain text and should only be a few sentences long. It is not searchable in Apple Podcasts and should not include arbitrary keywords. This description may also appear on your Libsyn blog page, or in the Libsyn Podcast Directory, as well as other syndication points for your show.
Website Address: The website address field will default to your Libsyn blog page when our show is created. You can modify this to your own website URL if you have one hosted elsewhere. This gets sent to your RSS feed which Apple Podcasts and other directories will pick up on and may make available to your potential audience.
Recommended Information
Fields found under Recommended Information are not required in the Libsyn system. However, they may be required fields for certain directory destinations (such as Apple Podcasts or Spotify).
Show Type: Your show type is either episodic or serial.
Episodic: Episodes are released chronologically and the order the listener listens doesn’t matter. The majority of shows currently are episodic.
Serial: Episodes are released in a specific order, and should be listened to in that order. This generally would apply to episodes that follow a storyline such as an audiobook.
Show Category (1, 2, & 3) The Apple and most other podcast directories are broken up by topic category. Listeners can filter podcast shows based on the topic they are interested in.
You can select multiple categories, hence, we provide you with three category selections. Apple Podcasts will always default to the top most (first listed) category as your "home base", but you can be listed in all three categories if you choose to include them.
Most other podcast directories use the same categories as well. Those that do not can be set in their destination.
Public Contact Email: This e-mail will populate your RSS feed and can be used by subscribers to contact you, to contact the show. Make sure whatever e-mail address you enter here is valid, but also is one you don’t mind being public.
Owner Name & Email: This information is used by podcast directories if they find the need to contact you regarding your show. They also use this information to determine who is authorized to request changes when contacted.
This information is publicly available in your RSS feed, so make sure that while the information is valid, it's not an address you would rather be private. Also make sure it is an address that can be reached, and that is checked on a semi-regular basis.
Author: This field should include your name, the name of the company producing the podcast, or other appropriate name of the author of the show.
The author tag is searchable in Apple Podcasts. If details are not germane to your show or exceedingly spam-like, then Apple Podcasts will pull your show from the store.
If this field is left empty, Apple Podcasts will display 'unknown' instead. This field is also often referred to as the 'provider' or the 'artist'.
Important Note: Keyword spam is forbidden in all fields, including the author. While the author is searchable in the Apple Podcasts system (as well as other directories), adding additional keywords beyond the actual author can cause your show to be removed from podcast directories.
Content Rating: Most directories require your show be labeled as clean or explicit. If the feed is left as not set, the show will be marked as clean automatically.
Ensure that if you have any explicit content in your show, you mark your feed as explicit.
Language Code: Language is defaulted to 'en' for English. However, if the majority of your show is spoken in a different language, use this setting to specify the language used in the show.
Tags/Keywords: This is a legacy field that use to exist back in the old iTunes system. While it has been depreciated for some time, occasionally podcast directories will use this field as a place to put codes for verification purposes. For this reason, we have left the field available. This field is otherwise unused by podcast directories.
Phone: The phone number entered here is used as the show contact in the iOS and/or Android apps Libsyn can develop for your show. Note that this phone number is public, the number entered here should be entered with care.
Include in Directory: When this checkbox selected, your show is added to the Libsyn Directory for listeners to find. Deselect this checkbox if you do not want your show to be added to the Libsyn Directory.
Default Show Feed: Libsyn will always default to linking to the RSS feed Libsyn generates for you on the Libsyn Podcast Page and in the Libsyn Player, etc. However, if you have a third party feed you are utilizing and prefer to promote instead, select 3rd Party Feed and enter that feed URL.
Copyright Notice: This copyright notice will populate your feed and will appear in any directory that displays the notice. If you include a year in your copyright notice, make sure to update the year listed after every New Year.
Artwork
There are two images that can be associated at the show level.
- Show Artwork
- Widescreen Artwork
Show artwork: Your show artwork is the image that will be used in various podcast directories (such as Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Spotify).
To upload your show artwork, hit Upload New, and then browse your computer for your image file. Note that Apple Podcasts is very specific as to the artwork they will accept, and most other directories simply follow their lead with regards to the images they will work with so it best to follow those requirements. Those requirements are:
1400x1400px minimum
3000x3000px maximum
Under 500kb in file size
Use sRGB Colorspace
Be a JPG, JPEG, or a PNG file
Your image should be somewhere between 1400x1400px and 3000x3000px in size, as long as it is square. That means your image could be 2000x2000px, but it cannot be 2000×20001px in size.
Widescreen Artwork: In some instances, Libsyn will accept your audio file and combined with an image from your show, will generate a video. This video can then be uploaded to YouTube or Facebook using the Libsyn OnPublish destinations. Some social networks also prefer a widescreen image (or close to widescreen image) for posts, the widescreen image will be used in those cases.
As these services support widescreen video (16×9), uploading a widescreen image to the show will allow the created video to fit.
Recommended Image Size: 1920x1080px
Directory Theme Color
The Libsyn Podcast Directory provides a listing for most shows hosted at Libsyn automatically. The show page includes a player, information about your show, the ability to access individual episodes, and is color themed based on your artwork.
If, however, you don’t like the color that is automatically picked for your show page in the directory, you can set the color manually to a color that better fits your brand.
External Links
The Libsyn Podcast Page, the HTML5 Player, and the Libsyn Podcast Directory all have the ability to link to your various social media channels and submissions to different podcast directories.
If you wish Libsyn to automatically populate those in those locations, you will need to enter those links in this section.
With the exception of the Twitter Handle, all fields should include the full URL to the page or channel. The Twitter Handle should only include the handle itself.
Here is an example of how having some of these entered will appear on the Podcast Page:
Getting Additional Help
Have questions? Contact our support staff at support@libsyn.com.