How to Connect Your Captivate Account to Apple Podcasts Delegated Delivery

One of the many ways podcasters can monetize is through premium content and memberships, whether at host-level with Captivate or via podcast platforms like Apple Podcasts and their Delegated Delivery feature.

If you’re using Apple Podcasts Subscriptions to offer premium subscribers on Apple Podcasts exclusive content, Delegated Delivery means you can create that content in Captivate and publish it straight to Apple Podcasts, and just for those paying subscribers!

Here’s how to get started.

Sign up for the Apple Podcasters Program

To use Delegated Delivery, you need to have a show subscription or channel subscription (if you have multiple podcasts). Before you do this, you need to be part of the Apple Podcasters Program. This costs $19.99 USD per year (though this can vary based on your country).

Sign in to your Podcasts Connect account (or create a new one if you don’t have one yet)
Join the Apple Podcasters Program and complete your agreement
Ensure you have at least one piece of premium-subscriber audio only uploaded via Podcasts Connect (for example, an ad-free version of your public episode)
Create your show subscription, or channel subscription

There are a few steps you need to go through to create either a show subscription or channel subscription, and this incudes specific artwork, what benefits you want to offer, pricing, if you want to offer a free trial, and more.

We highly recommend you follow all the steps in these help articles from Apple Podcasts on setting up either a show subscription or channel subscription.

Once you’ve followed the steps above, you can now connect your Captivate account to Apple Podcasts Delegated Delivery.

Connecting Captivate to Apple Podcasts Delegated Delivery

To connect Captivate to your Podcasts Connect account, and use the Delegated Delivery feature, you’ll need to generate an API key for Apple that you’ll then add to your Captivate account.

Log in to Apple Podcasts Connect
Click Account
Click Keys
Click the Generate API Key button
Give your key a name (this can be your show or channel name, or something that’s easy to identify it as the API key for Captivate)
By default, the Roles box will display Show Manager and be greyed out, since this is for your admin account. If you’re adding Team members to your Podcasts Connect account, you can give them separate keys and roles.
Click the Generate button

The next screen will show you the API key details, including the name you chose, the Key ID, and who has access to that key.

Copy the Key ID, and also download your API key file (you need both these options)
Log in to your Captivate dashboard
Click My Account
Click Apple Integration
Paste your API Key ID into the box, and upload your API key file
Click Save Changes

And that’s it - your Captivate account is now connected to your Apple Podcasts account, and set up to send premium/exclusive episodes out to your Apple Podcasts Subscription members!