How to use Apple Podcasts Subscriptions with Transistor.fm
We recently released our Apple Podcasts Subscriptions feature. Apple Podcasts Subscriptions is a great way to monetize your podcast and offer your listeners special subscriber-only benefits like exclusive or bonus content, early access to episodes, and ad-free listening. Transistor offers an easy way to manage Apple Podcasts Subscriptions benefits directly within the Transistor dashboard. After a small amount of initial setup, you'll be able to offer subscription-only content without having to manage and upload audio directly to Apple Podcasts Connect.
Learn more about Apple Podcasts Subscriptions at Apple Podcasts for Creators
To begin using Apple Podcasts Subscriptions with your podcast, your show will need at least one published episode (likely a Trailer as a preview), and your show must be submitted and approved by Apple Podcasts using Apple Podcasts Connect. Once these two requirements are met, you will be able to enable Apple Podcasts Subscriptions in a few short steps.
If you don’t have an Apple Podcasts Connect account, visit podcastsconnect.apple.com and create one. You'll be asked to sign in using your Apple ID and to set up your Apple Podcasts Connect account. If you don’t have an Apple ID, you can create one here: appleid.apple.com/account
Once your subscriptions are configured in Apple Podcasts Connect, it's easy to connect your Transistor podcast to Apple Podcasts Subscriptions so that everything can be managed within the Transistor dashboard.
In the Transistor dashboard, navigate to the Integrations section for your show, and then scroll down to the Apple Podcasts Subscriptions area. Here, you'll need to upload the API Key file you downloaded from Apple (it will be a .p8 file). Once you've submitted and upload the file to Transistor, we will verify the key to make sure it works, and if it does we'll begin syncing some information from the Apple API.
Once connected to the API, you'll be able to configure the Apple Podcasts Subscription integration. Early access availability is used to determine how many days of early access paid-subscribers have to listen to the content before the episode is publicly available in your RSS Feed. If you're using Transistor's Campaigns for dynamic audio, you can toggle on/off Ad-free listening for paid subscribers. This will ensure that the audio file uploaded to Apple Podcasts Subscriptions will not contain any ads or dynamically inserted audio.
After your Apple Podcasts Subscriptions integration is configured, you'll be able to manage subscriber-only benefits for your episodes right from within the Transistor dashboard - there should be no need to manage content from within Apple Podcasts Connect. When creating a new episode, or editing an existing episode, you'll see the following options:
Exclusive/bonus content
Exclusive content is for when you want to create an episode that is only available to paid subscribers through Apple Podcasts Subscriptions. This episode will never appear in your RSS Feed for public listening and will not be shareable or embeddable.
Early-access content
Early-access is for when you'd like your paid-subscribers to be able to listen to an episode before it's available publicly. For example, if you've configured your Apple Podcasts Subscriptions integration to have 3 days of early-access availability, and you create a new episode marked as early-access, scheduled to be published publicly on November 15th, 2023, paid subscribers will be able to listen to the episode starting on November 12th, 2023. Everyone else will be able to listen on November 15th.
Scheduling an early-access episode
Ad-free content
If you're using Transistor's Campaigns for dynamic audio and ads, and you've turned on ad-free listening in your Integration settings, audio files uploaded to Apple Podcasts Subscriptions will always be ad-free. If you do not designate an episode as exclusive or early-access, then your paid subscribers will receive an ad-free episode, while those listening to the public feed will receive episodes with ads.
Analytics and metrics for subscription content and paid-subscriber information must be viewed through your Apple Podcasts Connect dashboard due to the the fact that subscriber-only content is uploaded and served directly from Apple. More info about metrics for Apple Podcasts Subscriptions is right here.
Anyone using an Apple device with the Apple Podcasts app can subscribe and listen to subscriber-only content. At the moment, it is not available for Windows or Android devices.
Learn more about Apple Podcasts Subscriptions at Apple Podcasts for Creators
Getting started with Apple Podcasts Subscriptions
To begin using Apple Podcasts Subscriptions with your podcast, your show will need at least one published episode (likely a Trailer as a preview), and your show must be submitted and approved by Apple Podcasts using Apple Podcasts Connect. Once these two requirements are met, you will be able to enable Apple Podcasts Subscriptions in a few short steps.
If you don’t have an Apple Podcasts Connect account, visit podcastsconnect.apple.com and create one. You'll be asked to sign in using your Apple ID and to set up your Apple Podcasts Connect account. If you don’t have an Apple ID, you can create one here: appleid.apple.com/account
Enabling Subscriptions in Apple Podcasts Connect
Connecting a podcast on Transistor to Apple Podcasts Subscriptions
Once your subscriptions are configured in Apple Podcasts Connect, it's easy to connect your Transistor podcast to Apple Podcasts Subscriptions so that everything can be managed within the Transistor dashboard.
In the Transistor dashboard, navigate to the Integrations section for your show, and then scroll down to the Apple Podcasts Subscriptions area. Here, you'll need to upload the API Key file you downloaded from Apple (it will be a .p8 file). Once you've submitted and upload the file to Transistor, we will verify the key to make sure it works, and if it does we'll begin syncing some information from the Apple API.
Once connected to the API, you'll be able to configure the Apple Podcasts Subscription integration. Early access availability is used to determine how many days of early access paid-subscribers have to listen to the content before the episode is publicly available in your RSS Feed. If you're using Transistor's Campaigns for dynamic audio, you can toggle on/off Ad-free listening for paid subscribers. This will ensure that the audio file uploaded to Apple Podcasts Subscriptions will not contain any ads or dynamically inserted audio.
Configuring prices and show details for Apple Podcasts Subscriptions
Managing your subscription-only content using Transistor
After your Apple Podcasts Subscriptions integration is configured, you'll be able to manage subscriber-only benefits for your episodes right from within the Transistor dashboard - there should be no need to manage content from within Apple Podcasts Connect. When creating a new episode, or editing an existing episode, you'll see the following options:
Exclusive/bonus content
Exclusive content is for when you want to create an episode that is only available to paid subscribers through Apple Podcasts Subscriptions. This episode will never appear in your RSS Feed for public listening and will not be shareable or embeddable.
Early-access content
Early-access is for when you'd like your paid-subscribers to be able to listen to an episode before it's available publicly. For example, if you've configured your Apple Podcasts Subscriptions integration to have 3 days of early-access availability, and you create a new episode marked as early-access, scheduled to be published publicly on November 15th, 2023, paid subscribers will be able to listen to the episode starting on November 12th, 2023. Everyone else will be able to listen on November 15th.
Scheduling an early-access episode
Ad-free content
If you're using Transistor's Campaigns for dynamic audio and ads, and you've turned on ad-free listening in your Integration settings, audio files uploaded to Apple Podcasts Subscriptions will always be ad-free. If you do not designate an episode as exclusive or early-access, then your paid subscribers will receive an ad-free episode, while those listening to the public feed will receive episodes with ads.
How do I view analytics and metrics for Apple Podcasts Subscription content?
Analytics and metrics for subscription content and paid-subscriber information must be viewed through your Apple Podcasts Connect dashboard due to the the fact that subscriber-only content is uploaded and served directly from Apple. More info about metrics for Apple Podcasts Subscriptions is right here.
Who can listen to subscriber-only content?
Anyone using an Apple device with the Apple Podcasts app can subscribe and listen to subscriber-only content. At the moment, it is not available for Windows or Android devices.
Updated on: 23/11/2024
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