The Apple Podcasters Program lets listeners subscribe to premium content directly inside Apple Podcasts. Once you enroll a show:
- Apple shows a Subscribe button next to your show
- Subscribers pay you directly through Apple (Apple takes a platform cut — see Apple's program terms)
- You can publish subscriber-only episodes that only paying listeners can hear
- Your free RSS show keeps working exactly as before
Disctopia delivers premium episodes to Apple using Apple's Delegated Delivery API, so your subscriber-only audio travels straight from Disctopia to Apple without ever appearing in your public RSS feed.
Before you start
- Enroll on Apple's side first. This article covers the Disctopia toggle. You still need an active Apple Podcasters Program subscription on your Apple Podcasters Connect account. If you haven't signed up yet, see Apple's Apple Podcasters Program overview.
- Connect Apple Podcasts on Disctopia. If you haven't already, follow the connect walk-through first.
- Pick a show. Premium enrollment is a per-show setting. You can have some shows on the Program and others not.
- Set your pricing on Apple. Apple controls subscription pricing, free trials, and tax. Disctopia can store notes about your pricing but does not sync them to Apple. See How to set or change premium pricing on Apple.
Step 1 — Open the show's Edit page
- Sign in to Disctopia.
- Open My Library → Podcasts.
- Click the show you want to enroll.
- Click Edit on the show — the Edit your podcast dialog opens.
Step 2 — Turn on "Premium subscription show on Apple"
In the Edit dialog, scroll to the Apple section (below the visibility, category, and rights fields). Check the box labeled:
Premium subscription show on Apple
Behind the scenes, this sets the IsPremiumOnApple flag on your show. From this point forward:
- New episodes you mark as Subscribers only will be delivered to Apple via Delegated Delivery
- Free episodes still go out through your public RSS feed exactly as before
- Episodes that were public before the toggle was flipped stay public — the toggle is forward-looking only
💡 Also check "Distribute worldwide on Apple Podcasts" if it isn't already on — the premium toggle assumes your show is being distributed to Apple in the first place.
Step 3 — Fill in the supporting Apple fields
Two other Apple-specific fields on this page are worth setting while you're here:
- Apple release frequency — Weekly, Bi-Weekly, Monthly, Daily. Apple uses this to schedule crawls and to display a "Releases weekly" label on your show page. Pick the cadence you actually publish at.
- Third-party content rights — Free-text notes describing where non-original material in your show comes from (licensed music, interview clips, fair-use material). Used internally by Disctopia's AI copyright pre-screen as context; not sent to Apple.
Pricing fields (Disctopia-side notes only)
You'll also see Monthly price, Free trial, and Offer annual plan fields. These are notes for your reference in Disctopia — they do NOT auto-sync to Apple. Apple sets the real live tiers in Apple Podcasts Connect → Subscription. Click the Open Apple PCC Subscription → button on the card to jump straight there. Full details: How to set or change premium pricing on Apple.
Step 4 — Save and publish
- Click Save at the bottom of the Edit your podcast dialog.
- Disctopia will reach out to Apple within a few seconds to register the show for premium delivery (this happens in the background through our Apple Service Bus queue).
- The show's Apple status in My Library will flip to Premium-enrolled.
Step 5 — Publish a subscriber-only episode
Once the show is enrolled:
- Upload an episode through Disctopia as usual.
- On the episode form, set Visibility to Subscribers only.
- Publish.
Disctopia automatically:
- Creates an Episode Container on Apple (via
POST /v1/podcastContainers) - Registers a Delivery for that container (
POST /v1/podcastDeliveries) - Uploads the audio file (and any artwork) to Apple's CDN
- Notifies Apple the delivery is complete
You can watch this progress in My Library → Apple Status on the episode row.
💡 The first time you publish to Apple Premium, the upload can take a few minutes longer than a normal RSS episode while we negotiate the Apple container handshake. Subsequent uploads are faster.
Status states you'll see
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Pending | Episode is queued for Apple Premium delivery |
| Uploading | Audio is being pushed to Apple's CDN |
| Delivered | Apple confirmed receipt — episode will appear for subscribers shortly |
| Live | Episode is live for Apple subscribers |
| Rejected | Apple rejected the delivery (you'll get an in-app notification with the reason) |
Common questions
Can I un-enroll a show later?
Yes. Open Edit your podcast, uncheck Premium subscription show on Apple, and save. Existing premium episodes already delivered to Apple will stay where they are; new "Subscribers only" episodes will stop going to Apple Premium and will only be available on Disctopia.
Do my existing public episodes get hidden behind the paywall?
No. The toggle is forward-looking. Public episodes published before you enrolled remain public on Apple. Only episodes you publish as Subscribers only after enrolling go through Apple's premium delivery.
Can I push the same episode to both free and premium tiers?
Apple's program treats premium episodes as a separate tier. To offer "the first half free, the rest for subscribers," you'd publish a free episode (RSS) and a separate longer subscribers-only episode.
How do payouts work?
Apple handles all billing, taxes, refunds, and payouts directly. You configure your bank/tax info in PCC and Apple pays out on their schedule. Disctopia is not involved in the payment flow — we only deliver the audio.
Why doesn't Disctopia's Monthly price / Free trial / Annual plan sync to Apple?
Apple is the source of truth for pricing. If Disctopia auto-synced, a stale value on our side could accidentally lower a creator's revenue or trigger unexpected subscriber-notice emails. Keeping the Disctopia fields as reference-only notes lets you plan and remember your pricing in one place without risk of overwriting Apple.
What if my upload gets flagged for copyright?
Subscriber-only audio episodes go through the same copyright pre-screen as everything else. See What happens if your upload is flagged for copyright.