Podcast creators can now submit their RSS feed to YouTube and YouTube Music, the company revealed in a video uploaded to its Creator Insider channel. It was previously announced in August that support was coming for RSS feeds. The functionality was available as an invite-only beta test last year.
The move to embrace RSS feeds helps YouTube cement its position as a top destination for podcasts. Other platforms only make RSS feeds available for listeners, whereas YouTube takes episodes from an RSS feed and turns them into YouTube videos. This benefits audio-first podcasters since YouTube automatically takes an uploaded RSS feed and creates videos with the podcast’s show art as a static image.
Podcasters can submit an RSS feed to YouTube by going to YouTube Studio, clicking the “Create” button in the upper-right corner and then selecting “Submit RSS feed.” There’s also an option to connect an existing podcast to an RSS feed in the Content tab. When a new episode is added to the RSS feed, YouTube will automatically upload the video to the channel and notify subscribers.
Last week, Google reported that YouTube has more than 100 million paid users across YouTube Music and YouTube Premium.
Updated 2/8/24 with the removal of an incorrect statement that says Spotify doesn’t support RSS functionality.
YouTube to support RSS uploads for podcasters by year-end, plus private feeds in YouTube Music
