New: enhanced private podcasts
Can podcasts be private? Yes! Here's how employers can create a private/internal podcast for their employees.
Private podcast tutorial video:
How does a private podcast work?
If you're starting an internal podcast for your company you probably don't want to make the podcast publicly accessible.
A private podcast RSS feed will allow your employees to:
- Subscribe to the podcast in their podcast player (Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts)
- Receive new episodes on their phone
- Download episodes on their phone for offline listening.
What can you do with it?
A private podcast allows you to give members access to a series of audio files that they can listen to in their favorite podcast app.
Here's how companies and organizations are using it:
- Offer ongoing audio training to your employees.
- Onboard new employees.
- Send a weekly "Message from the CEO" to all employees.
Here's how authors, course creators and online training organizations are using it:
- Authors are creating an audiobook version of their books, and giving folks who purchase the physical copy free access to it.
- Course creators, colleges, and online training organizations are adding audio lessons to their regular curriculum. Students receive individualized access and can listen in their favorite podcast app.
- Membership sites are doing exclusive private podcasts just for members.
How to create an enhanced podcast for your team
You'll need to upgrade to the Professional, Business, or Enterprise plan to use this feature. Each plan has a limit on the number of individual private subscribers you can have.
Once it's enabled on your account, you'll see the option to create an enhanced private podcast when you click "Add a new show:"
After filling out your Show Settings, you'll need to add an episode.
How to record audio for your private podcast feed
You can record your weekly podcast however you’d like:
- On your desktop, with a fancy microphone
- Or, simply record using your “Voice memos” app on your phone
Once you're done recording, upload your audio to Transistor straight from your phone or computer. Transistor will turn it into a podcast episode, and publish it to your private employee feed.
Employees get notified in their podcast app, or by email, that a new episode is available.
Companies that are using this are finding these audio updates are much more personal and “human” compared to traditional email updates.
How to share the private podcast with your employees
Now that your first episode is published, you can go to the "Subscribers" tab and add subscribers (members, employees, etc) to your podcast.
They can be add manually (one at a time), or via CSV upload.
Once you've added a subscriber, they'll automatically receive a welcome email that looks like this:
When they click the button in their email, they'll receive a list of podcast app options that are supported on their device:
They can choose their preferred option, and it should open the podcast in the listening app they selected
Note: sometimes, they might have to select an option twice for it to work.
Once they are subscribed, they'll automatically receive new episodes when they are published.
You can also send them this tutorial, which shows them how to add a private feed to their favorite podcast app.
How to remove a private podcast subscriber
If you have an employee leave your organization, or you want to remove access to a specific member, go to your "Subscribers" tab and click the "Remove Subscriber" icon.
What podcast apps support private podcasts?
These iOS podcast apps allow you to add private feeds:
- Apple Podcasts (video demo)
- Overcast (video demo)
- Pocket Casts (instructions here)
- Downcast
- Castro
These Android podcast apps allow you to add private feeds:
- Pocket Casts (instructions here)
- Podcast Addict
- Podcast Republic
- Player FM (register for an account first)
- Dog Catcher
- Beyond Pod
- Podcasty
- PodKicker
These podcast apps don’t support private podcasts:
- Spotify
- Castbox
- Google Play
- Google Podcasts
- Stitcher
- iHeartRadio
- Acast
- Podcast App
- PodcastOne
- DoublePod
- PodcastHD
- Podcast Guru
Note: In terms of security, we recommend that companies treat private podcasts the same way as internal company email: folks should know not to share it, but there's nothing stopping them from doing so.
That's because anything that's published on the public internet carries the risk of being discovered, and shared, by non-intended recipients. (Even when it's password protected).
This is especially true for podcasts because audio files are downloaded by individuals to their podcast players.
Furthermore, using simple screen recording applications, anyone could capture your audio (even if it was encrypted). There is, essentially, no way to make audio on the internet completely private. We recommend exercising your discretion when publishing content on private podcasts!
Most podcast players will not allow private podcasts to be submitted (or crawled) by public directories. Most podcast players will not allow a private podcast to be shared. However, Apple Podcasts currently has a bug which makes it possible to share a private podcast feed.
Justin Jackson