SoundCloud is the #1 place to host your podcast if you want more listens. Here are the step-by-step instructions on how to set up your podcast with SoundCloud.

First: Why SoundCloud?

SoundCloud is by far my #1 recommended media host for anyone who is doing podcasting. There is another service called Libsyn which I have used in the past and I just want to quickly show you why I recommend SoundCloud over Libsyn.

1. Price

The first thing is the price. SoundCloud smashes Libsyn in terms of the price. SoundCloud is $15 per month for unlimited storage and Libsyn is $75 per month for 1.5 gig of new storage every single month. So that is the top tier account. You can see the massive price disparity there.

2. Access To Their Audience

The second reason is that SoundCloud gives you access to an existing audience. SoundCloud has their own audience and you can get more views, more listeners and everything like that being on SoundCloud compared to Libsyn which basically has no audience at all.

While the SoundCloud audience is small compared to the Apple Podcasting app rembmer that podcasting started on iTunes which up until that point was almost exclusively for music. So SoundCloud has the potential to grow huge audiences just like Apple did and just like YouTube has done.

3. Awesome Player

The other reason is that SoundCloud has an awesome player which you can use on your website and all the options for players that Libsyn have are actually pretty crappy.

4. Statistics

Lastly, Libsyn does win out in the area of statistics. They do have better statistics than SoundCloud. However, I would rather get access to an existing audience and be able to reach more people than have more visibility on that audience. SoundCloud still has pretty good statistics and they’re good enough for me.

Why Not Just Host The Files On Your Own Website?

You might ask, “Why do I need to even get an account with SoundCloud or Libsyn? Why don’t I just host it on my own website and upload it to my own website?”

The reason is media hosting is actually really expensive. If your podcast is going to be successful then there are going to be a lot of people downloading your files. As the files are pretty big this will quickly chew up your server and it’ll either be extremely expensive for you or it will slow down and eventually crash your server meaning no one can visit your website.

Therefore by going with someone who is dedicated, so by going with either SoundCloud or going with Libsyn you’re going to save a lot of money.

How To Get Your Podcast Set Up With SoundCloud

Now let me show you how to set up your podcast with SoundCloud.

1. Go to soundcloud.com.

2. In the top right hand corner click the sign up button.

3. Enter your details and click sign up

4. Then you need to choose a user name for your podcasts. I suggest that you choose your brand, like podcastfast for me or you choose the name of your podcast like “start a podcast”.

Enter your date of birth and then click get started with SoundCloud.

5. Confirm your email address. Before you can do anything else you need to go into your email and you need to find the email from SoundCloud that says “please confirm your email address”.

Open that email and then click on the “confirms my email address” button.

6. Upload your first podcast episode. I will now explain why you needed to record your first podcast episode before getting your podcast set up. You will need this episode to move forward.

Before you can get a podcasting account with SoundCloud you first need to have an existing podcast. This means you need to have a SoundCloud profile and have uploaded at least one full podcast episode or you need to have an established podcast which is uploaded somewhere.

6A. Once you have signed up you need to login to SoundClo...