How to Work With Audio in Substack
Podcast episodes, audio embeds and voiceovers
This post was updated in July 2025
Hi,
Hope you have had a great week.
Today’s post is about using audio in Substack.
Why use audio? Perhaps you want to share a song with your subscribers, or the call of a rare bird you heard. Or perhaps an audio version of each post is a special benefit you reserve for paying subscribers.
Some writers use audio in an ad-hoc way in their Substack publications by sharing audio content occasionally in their posts. Others add audio or voiceovers to every post. Still others create a whole podcast, which is like a TV series with multiple episodes, but with no images, only sounds.
There are five ways to use audio in Substack:
Create an audio post;
Create a podcast episode;
Embed a link to audio hosted on an external service like Spotify into an ordinary post;
Add Substack-hosted audio to an ordinary post;
Add a voiceover to a post.
When audio is ‘hosted’, it means the digital file which contains the sounds is saved in a certain location. An audio file hosted by Substack is saved on computers controlled by Substack (Substack servers). An externally-hosted file is one that is hosted outside of Substack, on another audio-sharing service’s computers.
When you send a post with audio to your subscribers by email they don’t receive a copy of the audio file in their inbox, they instead receive a link to the place where the audio file is hosted.
When a subscriber clicks to play the audio, it will either be played by Substack’s computers or by the external service, depending on where the audio is hosted, and is streamed to your subscriber’s device.
How to make an audio post
An audio post works almost exactly like an ordinary post with respect to creating, editing and publishing. However, it appears on your publication’s home page with a small headphone icon next to the post title.
To make an audio post, navigate to the posts section of your publication dashboard, find the New post button and choose ‘audio’ from the dropdown list.
Publication dashboard > Posts (tab) > New post [button] dropdown list > Audio post
Note that you will not be able to publish or send the audio post until audio has been added.
Upload or record audio by clicking the relevant button in the podcast editor. Supported audio formats are: mp3, mp4, aac, aiff, x-aiff, amr, flac, ogg, wav, and x-wav.
You can add text and images to an audio post, but only underneath the audio element.
When you are ready, you can publish or send your audio post just as you would for a normal post. On the publish page, there is also an option to ‘Set up podcast’ if you don’t have one already. You can safely ignore that if you wish.
When your subscribers receive an audio post, the post email contains a button or preview image that says ‘Listen now’. When clicked, the button opens a browser window or app on their device, which plays the audio.
How to make a podcast episode
A podcast episode is simply an audio post connected to a podcast.
Before you can create a new podcast episode, you first need to create a podcast for your publication.
Creating a podcast is relatively straightforward and can be done from the podcast section (tab) of your publication’s dashboard, or during the publish process of your audio post.
Simply follow the prompts to set up your podcast. If you need extra instructions, you can find them in Substack Support’s podcast article.
When you are ready to make a podcast episode, click on ‘New episode’ from the podcast section of your dashboard, or start a new audio post from your main dashboard.
Upload or record your audio by clicking the relevant button in the editng window.
Supported audio formats are: mp3, mp4, aac, aiff, x-aiff, amr, flac, ogg, wav, and x-wav.
You can add text and images to a podcast episode, but only underneath the audio element. Adding text is a good idea, because that text becomes the description on webpages and podcast show notes.
When you are ready, you can publish or send your podcast episode just as you would for a normal post. Check that ‘Add audio to podcast RSS feed’ is selected during publishing to ensure it gets added to your podcast.
Subscribers who receive your podcast episode get an email that contains a button or preview image that says ‘Listen now’. When clicked, the button opens a browser window or app on their device, which plays the audio.
In the Substack app, subscribers can listen to the episode directly on the app.
You can also distribute your Substack-hosted podcast to external podcasting services like Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Get instructions here.
How to add externally-hosted audio to an ordinary post
To add audio to a normal text-based post, you can add a link to an audio track hosted on an external service like Spotify or SoundCloud. Alternatively, you can insert Substack-hosted audio.
To add Spotify content, simply paste a link to the track into the post while it is in draft. Substack will automatically generate a preview image for readers to click. When clicked, the Spotify link will open the reader’s Spotify app if they have one, and play the audio track.
To add SoundCloud-hosted audio to a post, simply paste the URL of the SoundCloud track into a new line in the post. A preview image will appear inside your post for your readers to click.
How to add Substack-hosted audio to an ordinary post
To add Substack-hosted audio to a normal text-based post, click on the audio icon in the post formatting toolbar and choose ‘Audio embed’.
Post editor window (draft post) > Audio icon [on formatting toolbar] > Audio embed
You will be prompted to add audio. You can either upload a pre-recorded audio file or record sounds from your device directly into Substack. You will need to have a microphone on your device for this to work.
Substack supports all major audio file formats including mp3, mp4, aac, aiff, x-aiff, amr, flac, ogg, wav, and x-wav.
You can add as many audio tracks as you want to a post.
How to add a voiceover to a post
To add a voiceover using the Substack audio feature, click on the audio icon from your post editor and choose ‘voiceover’.
Post editor window (draft post) > Audio icon [on formatting toolbar] > Voiceover
You can either upload a pre-recorded voiceover or record your voiceover directly into the post-editing window in Substack.
Substack supports all major audio file formats including mp3, mp4, aac, aiff, x-aiff, amr, flac, ogg, wav, and x-wav.
You can only have one voiceover per post.
Audio FAQs
Is it possible to paywall audio posts?
Yes, you make it so that audio posts are only for paid subscribers.
If you have a podcast set up, you can provide your paid subscribers with a link to a private RSS which allows them to listen to paywalled episodes on their favourite podcast app. More info about that here.
Can subscribers download audio files?
People can download an audio file from an audio post but not from an ordinary text-based post. The download option is in the three-dot menu on the audio player. You can check the experience here.
When you embed an audio file in an ordinary text post, readers cannot download it.
You cannot add downloadable audio files to ad-hoc emails or welcome emails the way you can for pdfs and other documents. More about file uploads here.
Can free subscribers hear the voiceover in a post with a paywall?
Nope. Voiceovers in posts with free and paid content are locked so that only paid subscribers can access them.
Okay, that’s it from me for this week.
I’ve been using audio on Substack for more than three years now. If you need a hand with it, book a ‘Help’ call with me.
Until next time,
Karen
Thanks, Karen. Another post everyone writing on Substack should read.
This is an excellent read and very helpful. Even someone like me with an audio background finds it confusing but you've nailed it!