Externally Hosted Shows

Not ready to move your audio hosting? Connect your existing feed and keep your current host. show.fm handles guest booking, automations, and episode collaboration, and the Publish tab walks you through publishing on your host. If you later decide to move your hosting, a migration wizard brings your back catalogue across.

In an episode’s Details and Publish tabs, click Save in the black bar to apply field changes, including its host link. Saving here does not send the changes to your host. Save or discard your edits before using the publishing or send controls; their toasts distinguish an accepted request from audio that is still processing.

Before you start

• Connecting an existing feed requires a paid plan. It's not available on the Free plan.
• Have your RSS feed URL handy; your current host's dashboard shows it.

Because external hosting is a paid feature, downgrading to Free asks you to convert or delete any externally hosted podcasts first; if your subscription simply ends, the podcast stays in your account but publishing and link management pause until you upgrade. Your feed on your external host is never affected. See Billing and Plans.

The four stages

Every episode you create in show.fm on an externally hosted show moves through four stages. Read-only RSS catalogue entries do not use these stages. The stage chip in the episode header and the Getting this episode out card on Overview both read from the same list, so they always agree about what the next move is.

Stage	Name	What it means
1	Draft	The episode lives on show.fm. Booking, show notes and prep all happen here.
2	Prepared	show.fm holds everything your host needs: the title, description, cover art and recording date. A recording is optional.
3	On your host	The episode exists on your host, as a draft, scheduled, or live. The status pill shows which.
4	Linked	show.fm knows which episode this is on your host. That keeps a future move to show.fm hosting tidy.

The primary button in the header always does whatever the current stage makes possible, and from stage 3 it opens the episode on your host. There is no show.fm listen page for an externally hosted episode, so nothing on the episode links to one.

On Details, external shows also get Season, Explicit and Episode link on your host. The link is the page for the episode on your host. Hosts usually only create that page once the episode is live, so you can add or change it at any stage.

Two ways to publish

Stage 3 happens in one of two ways, and the Publish tab tells you which applies:

• Manual. You copy the episode's details across, upload the recording on your host, and tell show.fm when it is live. show.fm then finds the episode in your feed to finish stage 4. This is how every external show starts, and how shows on hosts without a connection work.
• Connected. The podcast owner has connected your host's API (Transistor today). With a recording uploaded, one click creates the episode there, sends the recording, and publishes or schedules it. Without a recording, the same card sends the episode as a draft and you add the audio on your host. Your host tells show.fm when it is live, the link comes from your host, and stage 4 completes on its own.

Both are described below. Nothing about booking, show notes, guests or automations changes between them.

Connect your existing feed

1. From your dashboard, click Create Podcast.
2. Choose Connect an existing feed.
3. Paste your RSS feed URL and click Read feed. show.fm reads your podcast details.
4. Review the information and click Create podcast.
5. On Episodes, your published feed entries appear under Published on your host. Choose New episode to prepare your next release in show.fm.

The Episodes page shows Connected to Transistor after the account is connected. If the saved key stops working, it shows Reconnect Transistor and directs the owner to Podcast Settings. If the connection status cannot be checked, the page says so.

Browse your RSS catalogue

Episodes in show.fm contains the episodes you create and work on here. Below it, Published on your host shows read-only cards from your RSS feed: title, publication date, duration, and episode or season number when available.

These cards do not import audio, use episode slots, or run automations. Edit those episodes on your external host. They are separate from your editable episodes; entries already linked to a show.fm episode are omitted from the catalogue.

1. Use Search published RSS episodes… to find a catalogue entry. This search is separate from the search for episodes in show.fm.
2. Use Previous and Next to move through the catalogue.
3. To see changes made on your host, click Refresh RSS. The podcast owner and producers can refresh, once every five minutes for the whole podcast, including after an unsuccessful attempt. Co-hosts can read the saved catalogue.

The Last read time tells you when the feed was read. This is a saved preview, not a continuously monitored connection or proof of a publishing API connection. A failed refresh keeps the last saved catalogue and shows an error. If the feed address changes, entries from the old address are hidden until the new feed is read.

The catalogue includes only episodes available in the feed, which your host may limit. The preview supports up to 2,000 entries and feeds up to 8 MB; it tells you when the entry limit is reached. You can keep preparing and publishing new episodes even if the catalogue cannot be read.

Request an integration for your host

Transistor currently supports publishing from show.fm. If you use another host, you can ask us to add it from an episode's Publish → Your host card.

1. Open an episode you manage and choose Publish.
2. Recognised hosts, including Hubhopper, have a request button ready to use. For an unknown feed address, Request an integration for starts with the feed’s domain selected; choose your provider instead if you use a custom address. A previous saved selection is restored when available.
3. Click Request [host] integration.
4. Wait for You requested [host]. Your vote is saved and appears when you return, including on your other podcasts using that host.

Each person counts once per host. Requests help us prioritise integrations; they do not promise a delivery date. Continue using the manual publishing steps below. If a request fails, the card says so and lets you try again.

What's different on an external show

Day to day, most of show.fm works exactly the same: booking links, the episode workspace, show notes, guests and credits, and automations. The differences all relate to your audio living elsewhere:

• The episode header shows a stage chip instead of the readiness chip, and Overview shows Getting this episode out with the four stages.
• Publish is where publishing happens. On a manual show a Send to your host card walks you through copying the episode across, and you tell show.fm when it is live. On a connected show one card publishes, schedules or sends a draft to your host. There is no separate handoff page any more.
• Media has Your recording instead of Episode audio: an optional upload that feeds the transcript (see below), plus the transcript and the cover art that goes into the bundle you copy.
• Details has Season, Explicit and Episode link on your host.
• There is no show.fm listen page and no Share & embed card. Your host serves the audio. The analytics page shows a labelled sample preview on a manual show. On a connected show it shows your host's download numbers, pulled once a day, for episodes sent through the connection; episodes you published by hand before connecting are not part of that pull.
• Your RSS feed continues to be generated and served by your current host.

Publish on your host

When an episode reaches stage 2, Prepared, the Publish tab shows Send to your host: four steps, and you do the fourth.

1. Copy everything. One block with the title, description, show notes, guest credits, number, season, explicit flag and a link to the cover art. Use Copy fields one at a time to copy a single field, or its HTML where your host's editor accepts it.
2. Open your host and paste the block into a new episode.
3. Upload your recording there. If show.fm holds a copy, Download recording gives you the file; otherwise upload it from wherever you keep it.
4. Tell us when it's live. Choose It's live and the time it went live, or I've scheduled it and the time it will. Add the episode's link on your host if you have it; you can add it later.

Telling show.fm is what starts your automations, so it matters more than it looks. It changes nothing on your host.

Afterwards the card shows Live on your host or Scheduled on your host. Change the date corrects the go-live time when there is no active automation work. Completed automations do not run again. A scheduled episode can be cancelled, which puts it back to Prepared. The Episode link on your host field stays on the card for good, so you can add or change the link long after publishing.

Your recording

The Media tab's Your recording card takes an optional upload. It exists for two reasons: show.fm makes the transcript from it, and a connected host can receive it (see Connect your host below, where available). A few things to know:

• show.fm never serves it to listeners. Your host has the audio people hear.
• It counts against your plan's storage while we hold it, and it runs through the same conversion as a hosted upload, so the transcript quality is the same.
• We delete it 30 days after the episode goes live. The transcript stays. Media then shows Removed 30 days after publishing, and you can upload the file again if you need it here.
• Download on the card gives you the file back at any time before then. The Send to your host card's Download recording step uses the same copy.
• You can replace or remove it yourself at any stage, including after the episode is live on your host. Replacing it re-runs the transcript.

Connect your host

If your podcast is on Transistor, the podcast owner can connect it so show.fm publishes episodes there for you. In Podcast Settings → Feed connection → Host connection, paste your Transistor API key (in Transistor: Your account → Access API) and click Connect. show.fm checks the key with Transistor, and if the key reaches more than one show, asks which one this podcast is.

• The key is stored encrypted. show.fm only ever shows its last four characters again.
• The key acts as your Transistor user, so connect with an account that can publish on the show.
• Replace key swaps it for a new one; Disconnect removes it. Episodes you have already published keep their links. Disconnect first removes the notification hook show.fm set up on Transistor; if Transistor cannot be reached at that moment, the card asks you to try again shortly rather than leaving the hook behind.
• If Transistor stops accepting the key, the card says Key no longer works and publishing pauses until you connect again.

Publishing through the connection

Once connected, the Publish tab replaces the four steps with one card:

• Publish to Transistor creates or updates the episode with its title, description, cover art, transcript and recording, then asks Transistor to publish. The card reports when Transistor accepts the request and shows Recording processing on Transistor while the audio is processing. Publication automations wait until Transistor reports published with processing finished. Podcast apps can take longer to update. You can leave the page.
• Schedule… does the same for a time you choose. Change the date and Cancel work on Transistor directly.
• Send to Transistor as a draft is the path when no recording is held here: it creates the episode on Transistor without publishing, so you can add the audio on Transistor and publish from either side. When Transistor publishes it, show.fm picks up the change through its notifications or background checks.
• Re-send changes sends the latest title, description, artwork and transcript again when they have changed since Transistor last received them. It never resends an unchanged recording and never changes the episode's status.
• Show notes and guest credits stay on show.fm. Only the description goes into Transistor's description field.
• The episode link on your host is filled in by Transistor when you publish, and stage 4, Linked, completes on its own. Downloads on the analytics page come from Transistor, pulled once a day, for every episode sent through the connection. Episodes you published by hand before connecting keep the sample preview: Transistor's numbers are read by the episode id it gave us, which those episodes do not have.
• If Transistor rejects something, its own message appears on the card until the next successful send. If it stops accepting the key, publishing pauses until you connect again.
• show.fm runs one update at a time for each episode. If another update is still in progress, the card asks you to give it a moment and try again. A request whose reply was lost can still finish later on Transistor.
• If Transistor does not confirm a change, the card says so. Check Transistor reads the linked episode's current status without sending another change. The button waits 30 seconds before checking again; the card shows when Transistor last reported its state.
• A successful check tells you what Transistor currently shows. It cannot prove that every earlier request has finished, so the warning about an earlier unconfirmed request remains even after a later action succeeds. show.fm does not automatically resend or restore an earlier instruction, and it has no two-hour corrective watch.
• While a request is in progress, wait before making changes in either app. If its result is uncertain, check Transistor before trying again. You can make changes directly in Transistor; show.fm reflects its status when it next reads it. An earlier request could still arrive later, so avoid overlapping changes when possible. Checking does not verify every metadata field or confirm that listening apps have updated.
• For a first send whose reply is lost, the card says the send may have reached Transistor and that show.fm will check before sending again. Try again after a couple of minutes: show.fm looks for the episode on Transistor before attempting another create.
• An episode that Transistor says belongs to a different show than the one this podcast is connected to is left alone, with that reason on the card. Unlink it on Publish and send it again, or connect the right show.

Other hosts publish manually, exactly as described above. Connections to more hosts will follow the same pattern.

Episode feed linking

Stage 4, Linked, is show.fm matching your episode to its item in your host's RSS feed. That link is what makes a future migration merge your existing audio instead of creating a duplicate. It finishes on its own: once you have told show.fm the episode is live, we check your feed over the next day, leaving longer between tries.

The Matching your feed card on Publish shows how it stands, and only appears from stage 3 onwards:

Card	Meaning
Matching your feed	We are looking for this episode in your feed. Check now tries again straight away.
Matched to your feed	Linked. The item id, audio file and feed date are shown. Unlink starts over.
We need a hand matching this	Two or more items look like this episode, so we will not guess. Pick the right one.
We could not find this episode	Nothing matched after a day. Pick it from the feed, paste the item id, or try again.

Link an episode manually

1. On the episode's Publish tab, find the Matching your feed card and click Link it myself (it opens on its own when the card is asking for a hand).
2. Choose Pick from feed to select from your feed's unmatched items, or Paste the item id to paste the item's id from your host.
3. Click Use this one (or Link to this id).

Only the podcast's host or a producer can link or repair episodes. Nothing breaks if an episode is left unmatched: it is live either way. It only matters if you later move hosting to show.fm.

Feed not updated yet?

Hosts can cache their feeds for a while after you publish. If your new episode is not in the unmatched list yet, wait a little and click Read the feed again.

Move your hosting to show.fm

When you're ready to host with us, the migration wizard imports your back catalogue and switches your feed. Start it from your Podcast Settings via Upgrade to show.fm hosting. The wizard has four steps:

1. Pre-flight: a summary of your feed with three counts: Already linked (episodes that will merge automatically), Needs pairing (episodes to pair in the next step), and Will be created if unpaired (feed items with no show.fm match). If your feed is out of sync with what we've linked (feed drift), migration is blocked until your host finishes updating; use Refresh feed and try again.
2. Reconcile: pair each unlinked episode with an item from your feed, or choose Skip (will create duplicate). Skipping leaves you with a duplicate episode to clean up after migration, so pair everything you can.
3. Fields: choose whether merged episodes adopt values from your feed: Use RSS titles for matched episodes and Use RSS descriptions for matched episodes. Both default to off, preserving what you wrote in show.fm.
4. Review: a final summary of merges, new episodes, skips, and overrides. Tick the acknowledgment and click Commit migration.

You'll see Migration started and can leave the page while your back catalogue imports. Subscriber continuity is preserved for matched episodes: their podcast apps keep the same episode identifiers, so nothing shows up as new.

One thing left to do after migrating

On your old host's dashboard, redirect your RSS URL to your new show.fm feed address (shown on the completion screen). Subscribers' apps follow that redirect and keep receiving new episodes. This switch can't be reversed automatically, which is why the wizard asks you to review everything first.

What's Next?

• Set up guest booking for your show
• Automate your workflow
• Migrated to show.fm hosting? Upload audio and publish directly.

Change a date safely

Publication date edits, including Change the date for a connected host schedule, are blocked when the episode has active automation work. Skip pending jobs you no longer want, or wait for running, delayed and retrying work to finish, then refresh the page. Pausing a rule does not remove its pending work.

Correcting a manually recorded live date does not run completed automations again. The publication date on a connected host remains authoritative: changes you make directly there are still reflected in show.fm. See Publishing and Scheduling for the separate recording and publication dates.