How to Work With Audio in Substack
Podcast episodes, audio embeds and voiceovers
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 four 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 and ‘lives’ within 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 ‘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
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 podcast episode just as you would for a normal 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 works almost exactly like an email with respect to sending and publishing. However, a podcast episode appears on your publication’s home page with a small headphone icon next to the post title.
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. If you need instructions you will find them on Substack’s support pages.
When you are ready to make an audio post – the ‘podcast episode’ – click on ‘New episode’ in the podcast section of your dashboard.
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 a podcast episode, but only underneath the audio element. Adding text is a good idea, because that text becomes the description on your web page and in social previews.
When you are ready you can publish or send your podcast episode just as you would for a normal post.
Email 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.
How to add externally-hosted audio to a normal post
To add audio to a normal post, as opposed to a ‘podcast episode’ 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 a post
To add Substack-hosted audio, click on the audio icon from your post editor 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 will be prompted to add audio. You can either upload a pre-recorded audio file or record your voiceover directly into the post-editing window in 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 have only one voiceover per post.
Okay, that’s it for this week.
I’ve been using audio on Substack for more than two years now. If you need a hand with it, book a ‘Help’ call with me.
Cheers!
P.S. I’m loving the comments in our weekly accountability thread. If you haven’t checked it out yet you can do that here.
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!