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Service

Podcast portal development

For podcast networks, audio publishers and established independent shows who need a platform that owns their feeds, hosts their audio, reports downloads honestly and keeps sponsors informed, rather than renting all of that from a hosting account they do not control.

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The problem

What goes wrong today

Where it usually starts

A network that grew from one show now runs nine, and the operational seams show every week.

  • Each show sits on a different hosting account because they were started by different producers, so the network manager has nine logins and nine download reports in nine formats.
  • A sponsor who bought reads across three shows wants a single figure and gets a spreadsheet stitched together by hand on the last day of the month.
  • The feed for the flagship show was set up years ago with the wrong category and a missing artwork size, and one directory has silently stopped updating it.

Where it gets harder

Transcripts are produced for accessibility but live in a folder nobody links to.

  • Chapters are typed into show notes by a host at midnight.
  • A subscriber-only bonus feed is shared with a single private link that has leaked, so the paid tier is effectively free.
  • Episode scheduling is a calendar reminder: someone has to be awake to press publish at six.
  • Listener voicemails arrive on a phone number that belongs to a former producer.
  • The network has an audience, sponsors and a back catalogue, and no system that treats them as one business.

Scope of the service

What the build covers

A custom podcast platform build normally covers shows, episodes, feeds, hosting and the people around them. Show and episode management holds artwork, descriptions, seasons and episode numbers, and each show publishes an RSS feed that validates against the requirements of the major directories, with the network owning the feed address. Audio hosting runs on configured storage with a delivery layer that records downloads, so statistics come from your own logs rather than someone else's dashboard. Transcripts and chapters attach to each episode and appear on the episode page and in the feed. Scheduling and embargo publish episodes at the set time without anyone awake.

Host and guest profiles collect appearances across shows. Private or subscriber-only feeds issue a unique feed address per subscriber through the membership engine, so a leaked link can be revoked for one person rather than everyone. Sponsor read tracking records which reads ran in which episodes and reports downloads for the sponsor's window. Listener surveys and voicemail submissions arrive through forms and audio upload into a queue per show.

Deliberately out of scope

  • Recording and editing, which stay in your production tools
  • The directories themselves, which read your feed but are not controlled by the platform
  • Sponsor sales and invoicing, which stay in your finance system with the platform supplying the figures

When the scope grows

Scoping scenario

A network of nine shows wants to migrate every feed to addresses it owns without losing subscribers, host all audio in one place with per-episode download reporting, run a paid bonus feed per show and give sponsors a monthly report across shows. The feed migration and the per-subscriber private feeds are what make it a custom build, and the scope document names them.

Deliverables

What you receive

  • Discovery notes from mapping each show, its feed, its hosting account and its sponsors
  • A written scope document naming the show, episode, feed, hosting and sponsor stages and what is left out
  • Designs of the show page, the episode page with transcript and chapters, and the producer workspace
  • The build, with feeds validated against directory requirements, deployed to your hosting or ours
  • Feed migration with redirects so existing subscribers follow the shows to their new addresses
  • Import of the back catalogue with audio, artwork, show notes and transcripts
  • Training for the network manager, producers and hosts
  • Handover material and full ownership of the source code, feeds and audio

Process

How a project runs

Each stage maps onto the project view in your client panel. Durations are set in your proposal, never on this page.

  1. Onboarding

    Access to every current hosting account and feed, the sponsor schedule and the audio archive.

    Project stage: Onboarding

  2. Planning

    Discovery with the network manager and a producer; feed migration order, storage choice, private feeds and sponsor reporting go into the scope document.

    Project stage: Planning

  3. Design

    Show and episode pages with player, transcript and chapters, and the producer workspace, designed for phone and desktop.

    Project stage: Design

  4. Development

    Built in layers: shows, episodes and feeds, then hosting and download statistics, then transcripts and chapters, then private feeds and sponsor tracking.

    Project stage: Development

  5. Client review

    Producers publish a fortnight of real episodes through the platform while the old feeds still run, and report what does not fit.

    Project stage: Client review

  6. Revisions

    Changes from the review are made and re-checked against the scope document and the feed validators.

    Project stage: Revisions

  7. Ready for launch

    Back catalogue imported, feed redirects set show by show, directory listings confirmed, launch checklist signed off.

    Project stage: Ready for launch

  8. Delivered

    The network publishes from the new platform; hosting and maintenance continue under their own agreement if taken.

    Project stage: Delivered

Integrations

Commonly integrated

Systems this kind of business usually asks us to connect. Each integration is confirmed during discovery; none is assumed.

  • Object storage and content delivery for audio files
  • Podcast directories that read the feeds
  • Transcription services for automatic first drafts
  • Payment providers for subscriber-only feeds
  • Email platforms for new-episode and subscriber messages
  • Analytics platforms for website and player usage
  • Dynamic ad insertion services where the network uses them

How we would approach it

Worked example

Concept demo

A nine-show network consolidating its feeds and sponsors

In this scoping scenario, a network running nine shows on several hosting accounts wants every feed moved to an address it owns without losing directory subscribers, all audio hosted in one place with per-episode download figures, a paid bonus feed per show and a monthly sponsor report across shows. The scope we would propose: a show-by-show feed migration with redirects held in place until the directories have followed, hosting on configured storage with download logging and a reporting model that counts consistently across shows, per-subscriber private feed addresses that can be revoked individually, and a sponsor module that attaches reads to episodes and reports downloads in the sponsor's window.

The custom route is needed because nine feeds with different histories have to be migrated in a controlled order, and because per-subscriber feeds and cross-show sponsor reporting both go beyond a single-show setup.

Concept demo: a scoping scenario written to show how we would approach the work. It is not a delivered client project.

Pricing

What affects the price

Every proposal is priced on scope. These are the factors that move it most for this kind of build.

  • Number of shows and episodes per month
  • Size of the back catalogue and the hosting accounts it must be migrated from
  • Whether audio hosting is needed or an existing provider is kept
  • Private or paid feeds and the payment provider involved
  • Transcripts: who produces them and whether a transcription service is connected
  • Sponsor reporting detail and the number of sponsors per month
  • Listener submission channels such as surveys and voicemail
  • Hosting choice: your own hosting or ours

Start from a package

Podcast network package

Show and episode management, directory-valid feeds, audio hosting with download statistics, transcripts and chapters, private feeds and sponsor tracking for podcast networks.

Custom build
View the package

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

When is the package the right choice instead?

If you run one or a few shows, host audio in one place and need valid feeds, episode pages and basic download figures, the podcast network package usually fits through configuration. Migrating many feeds from different hosts, per-subscriber private feeds or cross-show sponsor reporting point to the custom route.

Will we lose subscribers when we move our feeds?

The migration keeps the old feed addresses redirecting to the new ones until the directories have followed, and we confirm each listing before the old host is closed. The scope document sets out the order and the checks for each show.

Where does the audio live?

On storage configured under your own account with a delivery layer in front of it. You own the files and the download logs, and the platform reads statistics from those logs.

Can a sponsor see their own numbers?

Sponsor reports are produced for the network manager to send. A sponsor login that shows only their reads and figures is a scoped option when the network wants it.

Who owns the platform afterwards?

You do. Source code, feeds, audio, transcripts and listener data are handed over at delivery. Hosting and maintenance are optional and separately agreed.

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