Which route fits your show?
It depends on where the show is broadcast today. The route is decided by the station, not by the show, so start there:
| Your situation | The route that fits | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Your station runs on Primcast Premium or Platinum | Podcasting inside your radio plan | Live shows are already recorded to your library, and podcasting comes with the plan |
| Your station is on the Primcast Free radio plan | Move up to Premium, or add a podcast plan | The Free radio plan has no podcasting and no recording |
| You present on someone else's station | A Primcast podcast plan | It needs no stream or encoder: you upload the recordings yourself |
| You live stream video and want an audio version | A podcast plan | Export the audio from your recording and upload it as an episode |
| You already have a podcast at another host | Either route | Both can bring over a show you already host elsewhere |
One question to settle before anything else if the show is not yours alone: who owns the recordings. A presenter on a community or commercial station usually needs the station's agreement before the shows go out under a separate feed.
From live broadcast to episode on a Primcast station
On Premium and Platinum the recording and the feed live in the same dashboard as the station, so the steps are short:
- Broadcast as you always do. Every live show is saved to your station's library on both plans.
- Pick what becomes an episode. One click turns a recorded live show into an episode; a recorded or syndicated show in your Programs tab can go out as a podcast too, or you can have live shows published automatically.
- Let the breaks go. When a show from your Programs tab is published, each episode is cut into one MP3 without the station breaks, so a station ID or a spot sold for the broadcast does not follow it into people's downloads. A recorded live show keeps whatever was played live, so check it before it goes out.
- Fill in the show once: a name, a description, square artwork, Apple Podcasts categories, the language and the owner's name and email.
- Submit the feed to Apple Podcasts, Spotify and the other apps from the links in the dashboard. You do this once; later episodes appear in the apps by themselves.
Each podcast comes with a public podcast page, a player you can embed on your own site and download stats. If you have local businesses advertising on air, the radio plans also let you run their ads inside the episodes. The Auto DJ page covers the scheduling side: recorded shows, reruns and the hour clocks they slot into.
What has to change between the broadcast and the episode
A live hour and a podcast episode are listened to differently. A radio listener tunes in at a time; a podcast listener presses play whenever suits them, maybe months later. That difference, more than any setting, decides what works:
- Time checks and "coming up after the news". They age badly. You don't have to stop doing them, but fewer of them makes the episode easier to listen to later.
- Station breaks. On a Primcast station they are removed for you when a show from your Programs tab becomes an episode; a recorded live show keeps what went out on air. If you upload recordings to a podcast plan instead, cut them out before uploading.
- Phone-ins and listener names. Callers agreed to be on the radio that night. Think about whether they expect to stay downloadable for years.
- Music. This is the one that can get the show pulled, so it has its own section below.
- Episode titles. "Thursday show, 14 March" tells nobody why to press play. Name the topic or the guest.
That is our advice from how the two formats are used, not a rule from any directory.
Music: your stream licence may stop at the download
Often it does. In the United States, the statutory licence that SoundExchange administers covers certain eligible non-interactive digital audio transmissions, the licence many US internet radio streams rely on. SoundExchange's 2026 memo to commercial broadcasters says plainly that this licence does not cover downloads of any kind, including downloadable podcasts of archived programming, that a podcast with sound recordings may need direct licences from the copyright owners, and that SoundExchange does not administer licences for podcasting.
Apple Podcasts asks the same question from the other side: when you add a show with an RSS feed, you set Content Rights and confirm you have the rights to any third-party content in it.
In practice, talk shows, interviews and your own productions convert easily; a music show usually needs either direct licences or a podcast version that keeps the talk and drops the full tracks. The licensing tools in Primcast's radio panel keep your airplay records, but our radio page is clear that they are not a licence to play music. This is general information, not legal advice; outside the US, ask the collecting societies where you broadcast.
Getting into the apps without a snag
Most delays come from the show details, not the audio. Three things to get right before you press submit:
- Artwork. Apple Podcasts accepts square show cover art from 1400 x 1400 to 3000 x 3000 pixels, as PNG or JPG, and prefers the largest size. Your station logo probably needs a square version with readable text at phone size.
- The owner email. Spotify sends an 8-digit code to the email address in your RSS feed when you claim the show, so it has to be a mailbox you actually check. Spotify also points out that this address is public to anyone who opens the feed, so a dedicated show address beats your personal one.
- Validation. Apple checks every feed and reviews every show before it appears, and any warnings have to be cleared before you can publish. Submitting with the details complete saves a second round.
After that, the feed does the work. Every new episode turns up in the apps a few minutes after its release, without another submission.
No station on Primcast? Start from your recordings
A podcast plan is the simpler choice when the broadcast happens elsewhere, or when the "live stream" is a video you want to offer as audio too. You upload the audio file of each show, add notes, season and episode numbers and whether it is a full episode, a trailer or a bonus, and release it now or on a date you pick.
There are three plans. Free carries short ads from Primcast's ad network in every episode, one before it and one at each break you mark, and they cannot be switched off. Podcast and Network carry none of ours, add chapters, transcripts and longer download history, and let you sell the ad slots to your own sponsors; Network adds a printable report for each advertiser. Prices sit on the plan page.
Ads on every plan are added as each episode is downloaded, never written into your file, so a sponsor you sign today is heard across your whole back catalogue and leaves it when the campaign ends. Downloads are counted to the IAB podcast measurement guidelines, which is the figure a sponsor will ask for.
Radio show vs podcast: do you need both?
Usually yes, because they reach different moments. Primcast's radio player already has a listen-again feature on the paid plans, keeping each scheduled show for up to 14 days on Premium and 30 on Platinum, chaptered by song. That suits regular listeners who missed last night. A podcast is for people who will never tune in live: it sits in the apps they already use, stays in the feed as long as you keep it, and shows up in their library when the next episode is out.
If your station is new, our guide to starting an online radio station covers the broadcast side first, and a station app is the other way to keep listeners close between shows.
Questions people ask
- Can I podcast from the Free radio plan?
- No. Podcasting and the recording of live shows start on Premium. On Free you can still keep a podcast by recording the show yourself and uploading it to a separate podcast plan.
- Will the ads I play on air end up in the podcast?
- Station breaks are left out when a program from your Programs tab is published: each episode is cut into one MP3 without them. A live show you recorded is a recording of what went out, so listen to it before you publish: if it carries spots sold only for the broadcast, don't publish it as is. If you want sponsors in the podcast, the radio plans let you run your own advertisers' ads inside the episodes.
- Can I turn a live video stream into a podcast?
- Yes, as audio. Export the sound from your stream's recording, trim the waiting-to-start minutes and anything that only works on screen, and upload it to a podcast plan as an episode.
- My show already has a podcast at another host. Do I start over?
- No. Give Primcast the RSS address the show has now and the show is imported. Then ask your old host to redirect the old feed to the new one, which is how the apps learn the show has moved.
- How long does it take for an episode to reach Spotify and Apple Podcasts?
- The first time, it waits on their own review of the feed, which Apple does not put a time on. After that, each new episode shows up in the apps a few minutes after its release.