Audience Members: Share Your Private Podcast with Per-Listener Links

What Audience Members Are — and When to Turn Audience Management On

Every PushPod feed is already private by default: the feed URL is unlisted, never submitted to Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any directory, so nobody can subscribe without the link. That single shared URL works well for personal listening — but the moment you hand the same link to several people, it becomes an all-or-nothing secret. One leaked URL means regenerating the feed address for everyone.

Audience Management solves that. Flip on the Audience Management switch in a podcast's settings and the feed stops accepting the bare URL: every subscriber — including you — fetches the feed through a personal access key embedded in their own RSS link. PushPod keeps a table of who holds which key, how often their player has fetched the feed, and when their access ends.

• Per-listener links — each member's RSS URL carries a unique access key, so links are independent, not shared
• Per-member visibility — a hits counter shows you each member's player activity
• Individual revocation — removing one member kills their link only; everyone else keeps listening
• Optional expiry dates — set access to end automatically, useful for time-boxed content like a course or a season

Use it whenever your audience is more than just you: a family archive shared with relatives, a course feed for a cohort, internal company audio, or a bonus feed for a small supporter circle.

How to Add an Audience Member to Your Private Podcast Feed

Adding a listener takes about two minutes — there are no invitations to configure and nothing for the listener to sign up for:

1. Open the podcast's settings — go to the podcast in PushPod and find the Audience Members card, described as "Restrict this feed to approved members with an access key".
2. Switch Audience Management on — the audience table slides open. You are already in it: the podcast owner is added as the first member automatically and cannot be removed.
3. Add the member — in the table's footer row, enter a name and/or email (one of the two is required), optionally type a custom access key, and optionally pick an expiry date. Leave the key blank and PushPod generates a secure 32-character key for you.
4. Copy their private RSS link — click the Copy Private RSS Link button on the member's row. The link looks like https://pushpod.net/rss/your-name/show-name/access-key — their key is part of the URL itself.
5. Send the link — share it through a channel you control (a private message, not a public post). The listener pastes it into any podcast app — Pocket Casts, Overcast, Apple Podcasts — exactly like subscribing to any show.

That's the whole flow: PushPod never emails anyone on your behalf, so you decide where the link travels and who receives it.

How Per-Member Access Keys Actually Gate the Feed

Under the hood, Audience Management turns your feed into a key-checked endpoint. Each request for the RSS feed is validated against the audience table:

Two details worth knowing: the member's email and name are labels for you — authentication is purely by access key, so a member can listen under any podcast app or device without telling you. And because the key rides in the URL path, podcast apps need no special support; any app that can add a feed by URL can consume a member link, per the standard RSS 2.0 enclosure model the Cloud-to-Podcast Sync Pipeline outputs.

Managing Your Audience: Editing, Expiry, Hits and Revocation

The audience table is your control panel — search it once your list grows, and per row you can:

• Edit a member in place — update their name, email, access key or expiry date; the owner's email is fixed, and no other member can take the owner's email address
• Set an expiry date — the member's link stops working the moment the date passes; no expiry means access continues until you revoke it
• Watch the Hits column — podcast apps poll feeds on their own schedule, so regular hits mean an active subscriber; a member who never fetches probably never subscribed
• Rotate a key — replace a member's access key and their old link dies instantly; send them the freshly copied link
• Remove a member — revokes that one listener immediately

If a link ever spreads beyond its intended recipient, revoking that member is the surgical fix — one listener loses access instead of the whole show. For catastrophic leaks affecting many links at once, you can still fall back to the nuclear option: change the podcast's RSS Name in settings and every feed URL changes at once.

How Many Audience Members Each Plan Includes

Audience member limits scale with your plan, applied per podcast:

The podcast owner always counts as the first member and doesn't consume a slot. If you try to add beyond your plan's limit, PushPod tells you directly: "Your plan is limited to N audience members. Upgrade your subscription to add more." See PushPod's New Plans: Free, Personal and Business for everything else each tier includes.

Sharing Member Links Safely

• Treat each private RSS link like a password — whoever holds it can subscribe
• Share one link per person — the whole point of Audience Management; never forward one member's link to a group chat
• Use expiry dates for time-boxed content — a course, a season or a trial period ends its own access; you don't have to remember to
• Revoke before re-share — if a listener changes devices or loses the link, rotate their key rather than leaving the old one live
• For sensitive audio — pair key-gated links with your cloud storage's own sharing permissions as defense in depth

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need Audience Management to keep my podcast private?

No. Every PushPod feed is private by default — it is unlisted and can't be discovered without the link. Audience Management adds per-listener access keys on top, so each member has their own link you can track and revoke independently.

How many audience members can I add?

The Free plan includes 1 audience member, Personal includes 3, and Business includes unlimited audience members. The plan limit applies per podcast, on top of the podcast owner who always has access.

Do my listeners need a PushPod account?

No. A listener only needs the private RSS link you send them. They paste it into any podcast app that supports custom feed URLs — Pocket Casts, Overcast, Apple Podcasts — and subscribe like any other show.

How do I revoke one listener's access without cutting off everyone else?

Remove that member from the audience table, or let their expiry date pass. Their personal link stops working immediately with a private-feed error, while every other member's link keeps working.

Is an access key the same as a password?

Functionally, yes — anyone holding a member's private RSS link can subscribe, so treat each link like a password. Share links only through channels you control, and if one leaks, remove that member so the key stops working.