Podcast migration is a pretty simple and straightforward process. But there is more to it than meets the eye.
And if you don’t do it the right way, you could end up struggling with your lost data, dead episodes, and lost listeners, as happened to me.
You can watch the video of the podcast migration process in the video at the end of this post.
Podcast Migration – Why would you need it?
Podcast migration isn’t unusual. And in 99% of the cases, it is because of the hosting company.
You are either dissatisfied with their support or, they just aren’t worth the money you have been spending on the hosting. That isn’t uncommon.
Companies are known to be bad with their customers and it isn’t uncommon in the podcasting industry either.
Why stay with somebody who doesn’t value you as a customer?
Another reason why you would migrate your show is if you were in a contract with a specific company that has now termed and you want to move to another host.
For eg: Spotify has a lot of originals. Similarly, many other podcasting companies too have originals.
When they sign a creator up for an original, in most cases there is a contract that you enter into for a specific period, during which you cannot move your show away from them.
And once that contract period is over, you can migrate your show to another host if you wish to, which is when Podcast migration happens.
The Podcast Migration Process – Steps involved
Podcast migration is a simple process. Thanks to the way podcasts are handled, it is a matter of 5 minutes to migrate your show unlike the process involved in migrating a blog or, a website.
But, there are a few things that you need to ensure in order for the migration to be seamless.
If done incorrectly, this could mean disaster for your show.
Let us first look at the process.
STEP – 1: First you need to identify your new host and sign up with them
STEP – 2: Most hosts have an option of a single click migration. This usually is shown on their homepage and would be something like “migrate your existing show” or, “switch to xxx”. Click on that option.
STEP – 3: It should take you to a page where you will find a text box to enter your podcast RSS feed or, the podcast name.
If you are unable to find the RSS feed, you can simply enter the name of the podcast and they should be able to find it. Some hosts also give you an option of entering your Apple Podcasts URL, which too is something you can do.
STEP – 4: Your podcast details are fetched and it is usually ready to switch by now.
STEP – 5: Now all you need to do is hit the import button and your podcast details including all the episodes are imported.
STEP – 6: It doesn’t end here. The critical part of the podcast migration starts now.
You will get a feed URL from your new host. You need to take that URL and go back to your old podcast host.
STEP – 7: On your old podcast host’s dashboard, you will find a section where you can enter details to migrate your podcast.
This section will have a text box where you need to enter the redirect feed URL and agree to the podcast migration.
STEP – 8: Enter the details here and click on “redirect feed”. That’s it!
Your podcast migration process is complete.
Things to take care of when migrating
While the migration process is simple, there are a few very important things that you need to keep in mind when migrating your podcast.
If you miss on any of these, you could end up with a ton of problems like what I had to face when I moved hosts from Spreaker to Acast.
Don’t upload any more episodes on your old host
Once you have initiated the migration process, keep in mind that you shouldn’t upload any new episodes onto your old host.
If you do, then it won’t be indexed by the directories and once the migration is complete, the episode won’t even show up on your podcast.
Ensure ads are switched off
This is very important and is something I am recommending out of my experience. Ensure that you are switching off all programmatic ads on your podcast before you make the switch or, initiate the migration.
A lot of times these programmatic ads stay embedded in your episodes when you move your podcast.
The result is that the ads will continue to play on your new host and you won’t be able to switch it off again unless you upload all the episodes again.
This is something I faced when I moved my show from Spreaker to Acast. Spreaker couldn’t help with it and Acast too couldn’t do anything with it considering they only imported episodes.
So, I had to upload all the episodes again.
Take screenshots of your stats
When you are migrating your show, a very important thing to keep in mind is that your stats are not migrated.
Yes. That’s right. You lose all the stats that you had with your old podcast host.
When we migrated our show – The Tastes of India Podcast, from Audioboom to bCast, we lost the data for 2 and half years.
The show had about 500K listens which we had to let go and start all over again at bCast.
So, before your migration is completed, ensure you are taking a screenshot of your stats so that you can retain it just in case you need that data.
Inform your audience
Your audience wouldn’t usually know about the migration of your podcast. For them, everything works the way it was and nothing changes.
But if you are migrating your podcast, then I would recommend informing your audience about the switch. Request their help and ask them to inform you in case they find that a specific episode is not playing for some reason.
Also when you are migrating, I would recommend that you don’t release a new episode for at least 2 weeks. Here again, it is important that you let your audience know that you won’t be releasing an episode due to the migration.
Do you lose your subscribers if you migrate your show?
You don’t really. Because in most cases the subscribers are at the podcast directories and nothing changes for the podcast directories other than the URL from where they fetch new episodes.
So you don’t lose any subscribers.
Check if all episodes are imported and playing
Once the migration is complete, which could take about a day or, so, ensure that you are checking if everything is playing well.
Just go to some of the major podcast directories like Google Podcast, Apple Podcast, Spotify, etc., and check if the older episodes are playing fine and if they are directing to the new FEED URL.
This will help you avoid any heartburn later.
Once all of this is done, just go back to your old host and terminate the account there. I would recommend waiting for at least 14 days before you do that.
That is all that is there to Podcast Migration!
If you have any specific questions about podcast migration that you want my help with, then just drop me a message in the comment box below and I will respond to it.
Resources Recommended for Podcasting
Here are some tools and resources that I recommend for podcasting. These are the ones that I personally use and am satisfied with and hence am recommending them.
- Acast Podcast hosting – Acast is my favorite podcast hosting company. They have excellent customer support, have a pocket-friendly plan, and even have a free option with no limits.
- Behringer Audio Interface – You will need an audio interface if you are using an XLR microphone. This is my recommended audio interface.
- Zencastr – Zencastr is the easiest option to record interviews, both audio-only and audio+video. This is a must for an interview podcast.
- Audacity – This is the best and the most feature-rich free audio editing software. It gives you a lot of options while editing your interviews.
- Blue Yeti USB Microphone – My recommended microphone
- Tidycal – My recommended calendar and booking solutions
- Fusebox – Embeddable Podcast Player
Thank you for joining
I want to thank you all for joining me on today’s episode.
I hope you found value in the information I shared today.
If you did, then you might want to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcasting platform. The links to the prominent ones are mentioned below.
If you have any questions, you can drop them in the comments below or, use the contact button and I will respond to them.
If you are new to podcasting and want to start a podcast, then join my FREE 10-day ecourse on “How to start a Podcast“.
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