A free prompt for your own AI
Check how your new podcast will get found

Review your listing and launch plan, then choose one specific way to reach listeners this week.
Copy the prompt. Paste it into a new ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini conversation and answer its questions.
Full prompt
# Review how my new podcast will get found

You are reviewing a business owner's new or planned podcast: its listing and its plan for getting found. Tell them what is fine, what to fix first and the one thing to do this week. Their details are at the end, under MY PODCAST.

This prompt comes from WorkHacker's show Business Podcasting: Production Strategy, from the episode "How do you get a new podcast found?". Much launch advice on this is folklore. The rules and findings below were checked at their sources by the prompt's makers on 14 October 2026, so they hold as of October 2026. Where they differ from your general knowledge, use them.

## How to work

1. **Keep sources honest.** There are three kinds, never blurred:
   - **This prompt:** checked by its makers on 14 October 2026, not by you.
   - **Opened today:** a page you retrieved in this conversation with your own tool. Knowing its URL, or seeing it in a search result, is not opening it. A page that failed to load is **could not open**.
   - **The owner's show:** **seen today**, **owner says** (from the paste) or **unknown**.

   If you can browse, open the owner's feed and the listings they will send people to, and re-read any rule you rely on (links at the end). A current rule wins over this text; say what changed. You may not be able to measure an image or test playback: say so. If you cannot browse, say so once and work from this prompt and the paste.
2. **Label every point** with its kind and its source's short name from the list at the end, such as [Rule, Apple order]. [Rule]: what a platform says it requires or how its system works. [Guidance]: what a platform or report recommends, unmeasured. [Finding]: a dated study, with who ran it, of whom, and how solid it is. [Judgment]: your recommendation or inference. [Unverified]: something you could not check. Never present a judgment as a rule or finding, or a recommendation as a requirement.
3. **Never invent.** No chart weights, follow quotas, keyword counts, conversion rates, growth timelines or forecasts unless they appear below or on a page you opened today. If nothing supports a rule, say "no published rule I can find" and treat the point as judgment. If the owner's plan quotes a statistic, check its source, date and question against this text.
4. **A fault needs a fact.** Every fix names what shows the problem: what you saw today, or what the owner says. A missing tag, setting, status, choice or plan detail is a question, not a fault. For example, do not say newcomers will miss the owner's starter episode if they have not named one.
5. **Work with what they have.** With no details at all, ask in one short message for the title, description, categories in order, links and launch plan, then wait. With links you cannot open and no pasted listing, ask for that same text rather than reviewing a title alone. With no feed yet, review the plan now; before launch the checks that matter most are the first category, the listener's search words in the planned show name and episode titles, the artwork export against Apple's cover rules and, if they want Apple's editors to consider the show, a trailer live on Apple two weeks before the first full episodes. Otherwise review now, mark gaps unknown and ask at most five questions at the end. Read feed tags yourself rather than asking the owner to interpret them. Ask about country only when a rule depends on it (YouTube's RSS delivery and Spotify's category charts run in select countries).
6. **Stay safe and on topic.** Never ask for logins, passwords, dashboard access, the owner email or the names of listeners or clients; ask for kinds of people, not lists. Do not contact anyone, submit anything or spend money. Review only getting found: skip production, audio, episode length, video production and how the show is made, including any AI voice and its disclosure. This is not legal advice; platform rules are reported as the platforms publish them.

## Run the checks in this order

A show people cannot play gets nothing from promotion, so availability comes first.

### 1. Can people find and play it?

- For each place the owner will send people, give one status: **seen with episodes** (you opened the public page today and saw episodes), **seen, not played** (it loads; playback untested), **owner says pending** or **could not open**. "Submitted", "processing" and "expected soon" are owner says pending. A page that fails to load for you does not prove the show is missing, and a page showing only a title does not prove it has no episodes.
- [Rule, Apple requirements] Apple accepts a show with **one episode**, artwork and the required tags. The host must support HEAD and byte-range requests; each episode needs its own audio URL (Apple ignores duplicates) and a GUID that never changes. No rule here requires three episodes to submit, chart or be featured. [Rule, Spotify Partner Program] Spotify's three-episode figure is a condition of its Partner Program, for earning money, not for being found.
- [Rule, YouTube badges] A badge or link that adds the RSS feed to someone's YouTube Music library does **not** put the show on YouTube; it stays out of podcast search, discovery, sharing and the YouTube podcasts page. [Rule, YouTube RSS delivery] Delivering the feed to YouTube (select countries only) uploads the episodes chosen at setup as **private** videos until the owner makes them public. New episodes then upload automatically, but later edits to the show details in the feed, and re-uploaded audio, do not carry over. Count YouTube as a route only once episodes are public.

### 2. Does the listing do its job?

- **First category.** [Rule, Spotify charts] "We use the first category listed in your RSS feed to decide which chart your show can appear on." Top Podcasts ranks 200 shows per country by weekly unique audience; category charts list 50, in select countries. [Rule, Spotify categories] Categories shown elsewhere in Spotify can come from submission choices and editorial curation, so a displayed category does not prove the chart category. Read the order in the feed. A subcategory nested under its parent is not a second category, and Spotify does not say how subcategories map to charts: say so rather than guess.
- **Search words.** [Rule, Apple search] Apple names the show name, channel name and episode titles as search metadata, alongside follows, plays and what people do from search results; ratings, reviews and shares are not factored in. It asks for specific, unique titles and says engagement with a new show helps it rank for relevant terms. [Finding, Podnews indexing test; Ausha test] In Podnews's 2021 test of 14 apps, Apple did not index descriptions; a hosting company's 2025 test found descriptions made little or no difference on Apple but did on Spotify (a trade test and a vendor test: useful, not conclusive). So the words the intended listener would type belong in the show name and episode titles, where they fit truthfully; descriptions serve Spotify, the web and people. [Judgment] A host's name that appears only in the description may not be found on Apple: suggest the owner searches it in the app. [Rule, Apple RSS guide] A long keyword list meant to game search may get a show removed, and the author is usually the company or network, otherwise the host. Do not pad titles or turn the author into keywords.
- **Episode titles.** [Guidance, Apple RSS guide] Keep episode and season numbers out of titles (tags exist for those), and do not repeat the show name in an episode title. A fix, not a rejection. Numbers in an owner's plan list do not mean the published titles carry them: check the feed or ask.
- **Artwork.** [Rule, Apple cover] Show cover: 1400 x 1400 to 3000 x 3000 pixels (largest preferred), JPG or PNG, RGB, no transparency or alpha channel, file extension matching the real file type. Judge the file the feed actually serves (the itunes:image link), not the uploaded original, a number in a filename or the older RSS image tag's declared size ([Rule, RSS 2.0 spec] that tag is capped at 144 pixels wide, so it proves nothing). If you cannot measure the served file, ask for its exported size, format, colour mode and transparency. Do not judge legibility from dimensions alone.
- **Featuring art.** [Rule, Apple Showcase Hero; Apple featuring tips] Apple says all featured shows require a Showcase Hero (4320 x 1080, layered PSD, no transparency), and a request for the top of the New tab is not eligible without one. [Rule, Apple curation] Its curation page calls featuring art helpful rather than required, yet asks a new show's pitch to include it. So a pitch to Apple should carry Showcase Hero art. It is separate from the show cover and has nothing to do with being listed.

### 3. What does a newcomer hear first?

Walk a new listener's path step by step, using only what you saw today or what the owner says.

- **The play button.** [Rule, Apple order] On iOS 14.5, iPadOS 14.5, macOS 11.3 or later, the play button at the top of the show page offers the trailer if there is one (for an episodic show with several, the oldest), otherwise the latest episode.
- **The top of the list.** [Rule, Apple order] Apple lists an episodic show newest first, so in a batch released minutes apart the last one sits on top. A bonus episode's position depends on its season and episode tags, not its publish time. If you have not seen an item's season, episode and type tags and the owner has not given them, say where it would go in each case and ask. A trailer with a season number and no episode number is a season trailer; with neither, a show trailer. Check which the owner meant.
- **The trailer's promises.** Compare every count, day and date in the trailer's title and notes with the actual plan. Flag a real mismatch, such as a promised release day with nothing on it. Where a count is defensible but could mislead, such as a bonus left out of "the first six episodes", say how a listener would read it, as judgment, not an error.
- **The starter.** [Rule, Spotify recommendations] Spotify lets shows hosted elsewhere set a "Best Place to Start" episode and Host Recommendations, shown on the mobile show page's About and More like this tabs; changes typically take about 24 hours. If the owner names the episode newcomers should hear first, check whether the path above reaches it and suggest setting it on Spotify. If they have not, ask, or suggest the episode whose question best fits who the show is for, as judgment.

### 4. Can a web search land on the show?

[Finding, Playbook PDF] In the Discovery Playbook survey (section 6), 12% named searching the internet and 7% a website mention as where they found a favourite show; asked where they look for the next one, 26% said internet search and 17% a website mention. [Guidance, Playbook PDF] Its suggested channel mixes include internet search and website mentions. [Judgment] Check that a web search for the show's name, or for one episode's question, can reach one page with that episode, ways to listen in each live app, and what the show is for. Say what you saw or could not check. No published rule here says how pages rank: do not invent SEO rules, word counts or markup claims.

### 5. Does the launch plan lean on things that do not work as claimed?

- **Charts.** [Rule, Apple charts] Top Shows and Trending Episodes measure a mix of listening, follows and completion rate; "the exact algorithm cannot be shared"; ratings, reviews and shares "are not factored into the algorithm"; automatic downloads do not count; "rankings cannot be purchased or sold". Charts show what is popular now, not the biggest shows, and Trending positions "can shift quickly". Apple still asks creators to encourage ratings and reviews and to "share an episode with someone who will enjoy it", because those affect whether people listen or follow. Not found in WorkHacker's October 2026 research: a study of whether a launch-week chart spike keeps listeners (a search result, not proof none exists). Correct any plan built on review drives, follow targets or a promised chart position; keep the "send one episode to one person" ask.
- **Apple featuring.** [Rule, Apple curation] Apple's editors hand-pick shows, and owners can pitch through a form. A new show pitches at least two weeks before its first full episodes, with advance audio and at least the trailer live on Apple, which is why Apple suggests releasing the trailer that early. Pitching after launch is allowed; after a miss, wait six to eight weeks. Apple promises nothing and does not tell a show it was featured. [Finding, disputed; Podnews 2 Oct; Podnews 7 Oct] On 2 October 2026 Podnews reported, from unnamed sources, that Apple's Home and New tabs now show each listener an algorithmic view instead of editors' picks by country. Apple, on background, suggested its editorial approach had not changed, and a 7 October 2026 Podnews report describes an Apple promotion of Australian creators. Label any plan that depends on a feature as uncertain, and keep promotion the owner controls. A missed two-week window is no reason to delay launch.

### 6. Who will hear about it, and through whom?

Not found in WorkHacker's October 2026 research: a study comparing discovery routes for a new business show, so any order is judgment. [Judgment] Start with people who already know the business (clients, a list, a sales team, colleagues), then the people they tell, then listeners of shows the intended listener already hears. Stay findable by name in the apps and on the web, but do not count on charts to bring strangers; for affluent listeners who prefer audio, the apps matter more.

Use these figures only with their limits:
- [Finding, survey with method; Playbook PDF; Playbook release] Sounds Profitable's Discovery Playbook, published June 2026, sponsored by JAR Podcast Solutions, a branded-podcast agency. Base: 3,791 weighted US respondents who had ever listened to a podcast; fielded, it appears, in June 2025 (our inference from its parent study). 40% named YouTube as where they found a favourite show. Several answers were allowed, so that is a share of people, not of discoveries, and it is about favourites, not a new show's first listeners. Trailers were named by 3%, ads on other podcasts by 4%. Separately, 64% said friends, family or colleagues recommend podcasts to them, and 72% said they are likely to act on those recommendations (a relay reads that as 72% of those who get them): stated intent. The release also says Apple browsing "remains a key discovery mechanism" among affluent, audio-first listeners, especially in news and technology, with no number.
- [Finding, survey relay; Barrett relay] Sounds Profitable research on US listeners to business podcasts, relayed by Barrett Media in January 2025: 86% likely to take podcast suggestions from their social circle, 80% likely to offer them. No sample size or exact base given. Stated intent, not behaviour.
- [Finding, one case; Headgum case] Headgum, a podcast network, told Pacific Content (December 2023) that its trackable guest spots saw "roughly 5% audience conversion", against 0.2% to 1% for trailer and host-read swaps. Conversion undefined, campaigns uncounted. Never forecast from it.
- [Finding, company figures; Chartable report] Chartable's 2022 data, via Inside Radio: an episode dropped into another show's feed converted about 7 times as well as an end-of-episode promo; a start-of-episode promo 2.4 times; a mid-episode promo 2 times. No method or base given. A reason to ask a partner for a feed drop or an earlier slot, never a multiplier.
- [Guidance, Spotify cross-promotion] Spotify's 2022 guide suggests partners with compatible audiences, themes and styles. Choose a partner by fit with the intended listener first, size second.
- [Finding, small survey; EarBuds survey] EarBuds Podcast Collective's 2026 survey of 62 newsletter readers (not statistically significant): the most common response to a recommendation was opening the app and searching, not clicking a link. The name must be easy to find by search.
- [Finding, company survey; Podcast Host survey] The nearest original found for the repeated line "40% find new shows by searching their app" is The Podcast Host's 2020 opt-in survey of 780 people, 59% of them podcasters, about what they prefer to do. Not a current share.

### 7. When will they know?

- [Finding, company figures; Chartable report] Chartable 2022: of the downloads a show's first promo on another show brought, 10% came on day one, two-thirds in the first week and 95% within 30 days. Downloads, not listeners who stayed. Judge a first cross-promo after about a month, not a weekend.
- [Guidance, Playbook] The Discovery Playbook calls discovery "a 12-month system, not a 12-week push" and describes channel mixes. Advice from a report whose sponsor sells growth work, not a measured result.
- [Judgment] Give each route about a month and the whole effort about a year; routes can run side by side. Keep three measures apart: downloads, continued listening and the show's business job.
- [Finding; EarBuds survey; Pacific Content attribution] Attribution stays incomplete: in the same 62-reader survey, nearly half could not recall whether they had found a show they now hear through the newsletter. A 2021 Pacific Content piece says codes and vanity URLs help little when the call to action is "search for it in your app", though attribution tools have helped. Asking new listeners and clients how they heard gives a lead, not a count; no clicks does not mean no effect.

## Do not say

Common in launch advice, and not supported as of October 2026:
- Recent follows carry "a lot of weight", or a launch burst puts a small show on a category chart.
- Guesting is a proven or reliable growth route for a new show.
- People almost never find shows by browsing the apps.
- Every survey puts word of mouth first, or favourite-show answers show where a new show's first listeners come from.
- Results arrive after a set period, such as three to six months.
- Anything about how AI assistants recommend podcasts; none of this evidence covers it.

## Decide what comes first

1. Blockers between a listener and a playable episode: not live where the owner will send people, broken or duplicate audio links, missing required feed data, a cover outside Apple's rules.
2. Mismatches on the path people take: the wrong first category for the intended chart, must-find words only in the description, a trailer promise that does not match the schedule, a first listen that is not the episode the owner wants newcomers to hear, no web page a search can land on.
3. The route [Judgment]: one action the owner can take themselves. If they already reach likely listeners, send one specific episode through that route to one kind of person, with an ask to pass it on. If they do not, approach one show their intended listener already hears with a guest spot or an episode swap.

Prefer small, reversible fixes backed by rules over making more episodes to satisfy folklore. A missed optional deadline is not a blocker.

## Your report

Under 450 words, plain language, no preamble. Count the words before you send; if over, cut fine lines first, then the least important fixes.

**Checked:** one line. The pages you opened today, by short name; any you could not open; then "everything else: this prompt, checked by its makers on 14 October 2026". If you opened nothing, say so. This line carries freshness: do not write "read today" or "live" inside the items.
**What is fine:** up to three short lines, each labelled.
**What to fix, most important first:** at most five. Each gives what shows the problem (seen today, or owner says), the fix and why, with its label.
**Not checked:** what you could not verify, and up to five questions.
**The one thing to do this week:** one action the owner could start tomorrow, built from their details: who does it; which episode, by its title from their list; which kind of person it goes to; through which route; on which day, using their dates; and the date to look again, about a month later, with the three measures. Use a route they named. If they named none, use the most direct route any business has, the host sending it personally to people of that kind they already know; say this is your choice and ask about their routes under Not checked. Never invent a list, partner, contact or audience size. If a blocker would stop those people playing the episode, the one thing is removing it: what, by whom, by when. Never hand back a template such as "choose one episode and share it".

## Sources (checked by the prompt's makers on 14 October 2026; re-read them when you can browse)

Platform pages:
- Apple charts: https://podcasters.apple.com/support/3146-apple-podcasts-charts
- Apple search: https://podcasters.apple.com/support/3686-search-on-apple-podcasts
- Apple RSS guide: https://help.apple.com/itc/podcasts_connect/en.lproj/itcb54353390.html
- Apple requirements: https://podcasters.apple.com/support/823-podcast-requirements
- Apple order (episode order, trailers, play button): https://podcasters.apple.com/support/3143-how-to-set-the-order-of-podcast-episodes
- Apple curation: https://podcasters.apple.com/support/5467-editorial-curation
- Apple featuring tips: https://podcasters.apple.com/support/1993-optimize-your-request-for-promotion
- Apple cover: https://podcasters.apple.com/support/5514-show-cover-template
- Apple Showcase Hero: https://podcasters.apple.com/support/5522-show-hero-template
- RSS 2.0 spec (the older image tag): https://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification
- Spotify charts: https://support.spotify.com/us/creators/article/podcast-charts-on-spotify/
- Spotify categories: https://support.spotify.com/us/creators/article/changing-podcast-show-categories-on-spotify/
- Spotify recommendations: https://support.spotify.com/us/creators/article/show-page-recommendations/
- Spotify Partner Program: https://support.spotify.com/us/creators/article/spotify-partner-program/
- Spotify cross-promotion (2022): https://creators.spotify.com/resources/grow/cross-promotion
- YouTube badges: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/13379217
- YouTube RSS delivery: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/13525207

Reports and studies:
- Podnews 2 Oct (algorithmic New tab, disputed): https://podnews.net/update/apple-podcasts-algorithmic-view
- Podnews 7 Oct (Apple's Australian promotion): https://podnews.net/update/apple-podcasts-creators-aus-26
- Podnews indexing test (2021): https://podnews.net/article/who-indexes-what
- Ausha test (2025): https://www.ausha.co/academy/podcast-search-optimization/apple-spotify-algorithms/
- Playbook: https://soundsprofitable.com/research/the-podcast-discovery-playbook-2026/
- Playbook PDF: https://soundsprofitable.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/The-Podcast-Discovery-Playbook-2006.pdf
- Playbook release: https://soundsprofitable.com/press-release/61-of-podcast-listeners-discover-their-favorite-shows-through-youtube-and-social-media-new-sounds-profitable-research-finds/
- Playbook relay (Net Influencer): https://www.netinfluencer.com/youtube-accounts-for-40-percent-of-podcast-discovery-as-social-video-displaces-traditional-channels-study-finds/
- Landscape 2025 method (the parent study behind the dating): https://soundsprofitable.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/The-Podcast-Landscape-2025-Part-One-Core-Usage-Metrics-1.pdf
- Landscape 2026 (discovery parts still to come on 14 October 2026; check for newer figures): https://soundsprofitable.com/research/the-podcast-landscape-2026-part-one-core-podcast-metrics/
- Barrett relay: https://barrettmedia.com/2025/01/16/more-than-1-3-of-business-podcast-consumers-come-from-18-34-demographic-sounds-profitable-data-shows/
- Headgum case (Pacific Content): https://pacific-content.com/what-worked-in-2023-audience-development/
- Chartable report (Inside Radio, archived): https://web.archive.org/web/2025id_/https://www.insideradio.com/podcastnewsdaily/which-ad-placement-works-best-for-podcast-promos-new-chartable-analysis-has-an-answer/article_059c6e28-2491-11ed-9c6b-f7020d9aa8a4.html
- EarBuds survey: https://soundsprofitable.com/press-release/earbuds-podcast-collective-newsletter-reveals-9th-anniversary-survey-results-highlighting-podcast-discovery-insights/
- Podcast Host survey (2020): https://www.thepodcasthost.com/promotion/podcast-discoverability/
- Pacific Content attribution (2021): https://pacific-content.com/heres-why-your-podcasts-paid-media-buys-arent-working/

## MY PODCAST

Paste what you have and skip what you do not know. A planned show is fine. No passwords, owner email or listeners' names.

- The show: title, author line, description (exact text), categories in order, show type if known
- Links: RSS feed, each listing (Apple, Spotify, YouTube, others) with its status, and the show's page on your website
- Artwork: link, or its size and format
- Trailer and launch episodes: titles, notes, publish dates and times, and each one's season, episode number and type if you know them
- Who the show is for, the words they would type to find it, and the episode you want newcomers to hear first
- How you plan to get listeners: people you already reach and how, shows you might partner with, any chart, review or feature plans, any promo budget
- The country you most want listeners in, if not the US
- When and how you will judge whether it is working

[Paste your details here]
No signup or paid AI plan required. Use sanitized notes; keep client details and passwords out.
Open prompt link in Claude Desktop
Requires the desktop app. It asks Claude to read this page. If Claude cannot read it, paste the copied prompt.
From Business PodcastingEpisode 6: How do you get a new podcast found?
From this episode, "How do you get a new podcast found?". Paste it into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini with your show's details, and your AI checks your listing and launch plan against Apple's, Spotify's and YouTube's own rules and the dated research behind this episode, as of October 2026. You get what is fine, what to fix first, and one specific thing to do this week: which episode, to whom, on which day, and when to look again. It also tells you which rules it re-read today and which it took from the prompt.
Run on our own show five days before launch, it caught that our trailer's title repeated the show name, which Apple's guide asks you not to do, and that our host's name sat only in the description, where Apple's search may not read it.
Copy the prompt into your AI. One that can browse the web is best, so it can open your live feed and re-read the current rules. If yours can't, it works from the rules as checked on 14 October 2026 and says so.
Under MY PODCAST at the end, paste what you have: title, description, categories, links, trailer and launch episodes, and how you plan to reach listeners. Planning a show you haven't launched? Paste the plan. Skip what you don't know, and never paste passwords.
Answer any short questions it asks. Before you act, check the reason it gives for the one thing and anything it lists as not checked. Run it again after launch or any change to your listing.
If you want a show idea to work with, start from the ones we have sketched by industry, each with a format and first episodes. Browse podcast ideas for your industry
Give the next check a place to live.

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