Private Feeds on Spotify

You can add private audio feeds from Hello Audio to Spotify for your listeners to choose as their podcast app. The process for you and your listeners is slightly different than other apps.

tl;dr

  1. Add feed to Spotify
  2. Listener copies unique access code
  3. Clicks lock in Spotify
  4. Enter listener email address and access code
  5. Follow!

There are nuances to this, however. The rest of this document covers those details.

Here is our help doc for your listeners who would like to use Spotify. Feel free to share this link with them.


Spotify nuances to consider 

  • Your private feed is visible to the public and appears in search results. The audio content is private (they can't press play), but your text (titles, description, author name, show notes) are available for everyone publicly. 

This includes links in your show notes. Be mindful if adding links to private content to your shows. Anyone can click those links.

  • All links that you would like to appear in show notes must be https, not http, otherwise they won't be clickable within Spotify.
  • Drip feeds will not work. The episodes are dated the same for all listeners. This means Instant and Date-Based episodes will show the same published date for all listeners.
    • Instant feed episodes will all be dated with the day you created the feed.
  • Universal Links will not work with Spotify. Listeners must be added as individuals with their own unique link to your content. This is what generates their unique access code tied to their email address.
  • Listener personalization will not work. It won't show the listener's name, but will show the fallbacks.
  • Tag requirements for episodes will not work. If an episode requires a listener tag, it will not appear in Spotify.
  • Dynamic content requiring tags will not appear in Spotify.
  • Feed expiration a number of days after being added will not work in Spotify.
  • Gating previous content before a listener joins with Advanced Date-Based feeds (membership style) will not work. All listeners will have access to the back catalogue in Spotify.
  • Spotify downloads are not included in your Hello Audio stats. They rehost the content and have separate stats from Hello Audio's servers.
    • You can claim your feed and view stats from their dashboard. View your Universal Link and click "Copy RSS Feed". Paste that link into the claim your feed page. It will send a confirmation code to your Hello Audio account email address.
  • Spotify's terms of service and content policies apply to feeds added to their platform.

1. Add your feed to Spotify

Inside each feed, navigate to the "Feed Details" tab on the right hand side of the page to expand and show the details of your feed. At the bottom, you'll see a "Submit to Spotify" button. Click that and wait about 15 minutes for your show to appear in Spotify. It may take longer for it to appear in search results or in the app.

Refresh the page and the button will change to "View on Spotify" along with a "delete" option to remove from Spotify if you'd like.

You can click that link, but it will likely show an error for about 15 minutes until the show has officially been added to Spotify. It may take an hour or more for it to appear in Spotify search results.

Once available, you'll see your artwork, title, and episodes appear at that link. You'll see a lock in place of the Play button. After authenticating, you'll be able to play the content.

Note that the web version will always show the most up-to-date version of your content. The desktop and mobile app take longer to update with changes. We recommend testing with the web version for that reason.


2. Adding yourself as a test listener

We recommend this step so you can assist your listeners if they have questions accessing the content on Spotify.

Note: The email address you use as a listener must be the same for all Hello Audio feeds on Spotify. Whatever you use as the first test listener will be connected to your Spotify account and used for all other Hello Audio verifications in Spotify. More on that below. Bottom line: remember what email address you use here for testing, and use it for other feeds moving forward.

Click "Add Listener" inside your feed and add your email address. It doesn't matter which email address, just remember to use it for testing Spotify feeds moving forward.

Open your subscribe link (the page with the app buttons) and see the Spotify option with the access code inside. Click the code to copy, then click the Subscribe button. Note that this only appears for feeds that have been added to Spotify.

In Spotify, click the lock icon and then "Get Access".

Link the accounts. This is where Spotify ties the listener email address you used above to your Spotify account.

Enter your email address and access code that you copied above, then Unlock.

You'll see that your unlocking was successful. Spotify links you back to the feed where you can now play the audio.

Click "Follow" to subscribe to the feed in your Spotify account.

In short, the steps were:

  • Add yourself as a listener.
  • Copy the access code from your subscribe page.
  • Click lock icon in Spotify.
  • Enter your listener email and code.
  • Follow!

Adding Listeners

You can continue to add listeners to your private feeds as you've been doing. They'll see the Spotify button in their subscribe page, along with a unique code. Know that you'll need to add them as unique listeners; the Universal Link won't work in Spotify.

When you block a listener, they will be blocked in Spotify as well; the lock icon will replace the play button for your content.


Giving access to current listeners who would like to start using Spotify

To get their unique access code, you'll need to make their subscribe page available. This is for listeners who already subscribed to your feed using a different app. Follow these instructions for reactivating their subscribe page so they can get the code. 

Note that they'll need to be added as unique listeners, not using the Universal Link. Spotify does not work with Universal Links.

If you'd like to make all listeners' subscribe pages available, you can set the grace period of the feed to 999999 hrs to make all pages accessible again. If you'd like, you can give them a deadline to subscribe in Spotify, then return the grace period to 1 hr when you're ready.

Here are instructions to share with listeners trying to access the content on Spotify.


Listener email addresses

Spotify works by connecting a single listener email address in Hello Audio to a single Spotify account. There can't be more than one email address associated with the same Spotify account. The email address is the one the listener provided to you when they signed up for your feed. Whichever email address they used first with their Spotify account is the one they'll need to use for all other Hello Audio feeds.

For example, I use derekpadilla+spotify@gmail.com for testing. Spotify now associates that address with all Hello Audio private feeds that I try to access with my Spotify account.

My Spotify account email address doesn't matter. My Hello Audio account email address doesn't matter. I just need to remember what I used for my first Hello Audio feed in Spotify as a listener.

We recognize this is a huge problem for listeners who sign up for different private feeds using different email addresses. If someone signed up for our Hello Audio Success Stories podcast using one email address, then joined your private course feed with a different email address, they need to remember which was used first because that is now tied to their Spotify account.

Spotify is aware of this issue. They recommend the listener contact their support at https://support.spotify.com/ to use a different email address with a Spotify account.
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