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Publish Your First Episode ​

Publishing your first episode is exciting! This guide walks you through creating an episode, adding your content, and making it live.

What You'll Need ​

  • Episode title: a clear, descriptive title
  • Recording date: when you recorded (or will record) the episode
  • Audio file: MP3, M4A, or WAV. You can add it after creating the episode.

Start with a draft

You don't need your audio ready to create an episode. Draft it with a title and description first, then add audio when it's ready.

Steps ​

1. Start a new episode ​

From your podcast's Overview, click New episode at the top right. Or go to Episodes in the sidebar and click New episode.

2. Enter episode details ​

Fill in the Episode Details section:

FieldWhat it's for
Episode TitleA clear title for this episode, up to 200 characters (required)
Episode NumberSuggested automatically based on your existing episodes
DescriptionWhat listeners will hear, up to 4,000 characters

The description field is a rich text editor with Bold, Italic, bullet and numbered lists, and links. A character counter shows how much room you have left.

3. Set your dates ​

In the Scheduling section:

  • Recording Date & Time (required): when this episode is recorded. Your time zone is shown under the field.
  • Scheduled Publish Date & Time (optional): set this if you want the episode to go live automatically at a specific time.

Why the recording date matters

Episodes count toward your plan's monthly episode allowance based on their recording month. If a month is full, pick a date in another month, add an episode pack, or upgrade. See Billing and Plans.

4. Create your episode ​

Click Create Episode. Your episode is created as a draft and opens straight in the episode workspace.

5. Get to know the episode workspace ​

The workspace has six tabs: Overview, Details, Show notes, Guests, Media, and Publish. See Create an Episode for a full tour.

6. Add your audio ​

Go to the Media tab and upload your audio file. Supported formats: MP3, M4A, and WAV, up to 500MB. See Upload Audio for details.

Is your podcast hosted elsewhere?

On an externally hosted show the card is called Your recording and the upload is optional: it feeds the transcript, and a connected host can receive it. show.fm never serves it to listeners, and deletes it 30 days after the episode goes live. See Externally Hosted Shows.

7. Publish ​

Go to the Publish tab and click Publish Now. Your episode goes live in your RSS feed and reaches listeners on every platform your show is listed on.

You'll see an Audio required notice on the Publish tab until your audio upload is finished.

Is your podcast hosted elsewhere?

There is no Publish Now on an externally hosted show. The episode moves through four stages instead, and the Publish tab either walks you through copying it to your host and telling show.fm when it is live, or, if your host is connected, publishes it there for you. See Externally Hosted Shows.

On the Free plan?

Free accounts can publish 2 episodes per calendar month. Unpublishing doesn't return the allowance; it resets on the 1st of the next month. Paid plans publish without a monthly publishing cap.

Prefer to schedule it? ​

Instead of Publish Now, set a Scheduled Publish Date & Time and click Schedule. show.fm publishes the episode automatically at that time.

Audio Best Practices ​

For the best listener experience:

  1. MP3 at 128 to 320 kbps is a good balance of quality and file size
  2. Keep levels consistent: around -16 LUFS is comfortable for most listeners
  3. Reduce background noise before uploading; the cleaner the source, the better

What's Next? ​

Congratulations, you're a published podcaster! Some good next steps:

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