Any time someone wants to either distribute a show to one of the various podcast listening apps (Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, etc.) or move a show from one podcast hosting platform to another, they are required to prove that they own that show. The way that's been done historically, and the way it's still done on a number of listening apps and hosting platforms, is that a verification email is sent to the Show Owner email address as it appears in the RSS feed.

However, over the last few years many systems have begun hiding Show Owner email addresses from their RSS feeds so as to provide increased security for Show Owners.

Within your Simplecast Show Settings, you have the ability to enable or disable the visibility of your email address with your RSS feed. If, for example, you want to submit your show to a listening app, but you do not want your email address to remain visible in your RSS feed, this feature will allow you to enable visibility of your email address, submit the feed, then disable the visibility of your email address once again after you've successfully verified ownership.

It's a very quick and simple process!

📌 After following the steps below, please allow a few minutes for the changes to take affect in your RSS feed.

1. Click the DOWN-FACING ARROW in the upper lefthand corner of your Simplecast dashboard:

2. Click the GEAR ICON in the dropdown menu that appears:

3. Select the OWNER DETAILS tab:

4. Locate the OWNER EMAIL PRIVACY option in the Show Verification section of that page:

5. Choose to enable or disable visibility of your email address by either checking or unchecking that option.

6. Click SAVE in the upper righthand corner of that page:

📌 As a best practice, once you've finished distributing your RSS feed to the various listening apps, we recommend disabling visibility of your email address once again until the next time you need to verify ownership.

As an alternative to enabling visibility of your email address in the RSS feed, some listening apps and hosting platforms will provide you with a numerical code you can add to your RSS feed to verify ownership. This can also be managed from this Owner Details page.

In order to do this, simply follow steps 1-3 above to locate the SHOW VERIFICATION section in the OWNER DETAILS of your show. Then follow the steps below:

4. Paste the numerical code you were provided in the text field and click the ADD button:

5. Click SAVE in the upper righthand corner of that page:

📌 One common scenario in which you may be asked to enter a verification code is when transferring ownership of a podcast within Apple Podcasts Connect from one Apple ID to another Apple ID.

Still have questions? We'd be happy to answer them. You can reach our Support Team at support@simplecast.com!