Private Podcasting Pro

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Private Podcasting Pro

The Pro module adds private access controls inside each podcast workspace.

Enable private podcasting

  1. Open a podcast.
  2. Select Private Podcasting.
  3. Turn on Private Access.
  4. Configure Access Rules.
  5. Save settings.

When private access is enabled, the podcast overview shows a private status badge and the Subscribers section appears.

Delivery methods

Private RSS feed

Listeners receive a tokenized RSS URL for podcast apps.

Website only

Listeners access the podcast preview on your website after logging in. Website-only access is useful when you do not want to distribute feed URLs.

Access rules

  • Access expiry (days): 0 means no expiry.
  • Feed use limit: maximum feed fetches per subscriber token; 0 means unlimited.
  • Episode use limit: maximum downloads per episode per subscriber; 0 means unlimited.
  • Guest checkout access: for website-only delivery, guest purchases can be skipped or can create a WordPress account and send a password setup email.

Subscriber management

Open Subscribers for:

  • Total, active, and revoked access counts.
  • Search by name, email, token, or source.
  • Load more access records.
  • Generate access for an existing WordPress user.
  • Generate access for a guest subscriber.
  • Copy private feed URLs in RSS mode.
  • Open website access in website-only mode.
  • Regenerate tokens.
  • Revoke, reactivate, or delete access records.
  • Rotate all tokens in RSS mode.

Token validation

Private tokens are stored as selector/secret pairs. The database stores a hash of the secret and encrypted secret data for controlled retrieval. Expired, revoked, or over-limit tokens are rejected.

Private preview and show notes

Private previews require admin access, a valid private token, or an authorized logged-in user in website-only mode. Preview show notes use an AJAX endpoint that checks the podcast, episode, and access state before returning content.

Podcast Player behavior

Private podcasts should not be registered as public Podcast Player sources. Selfhost skips or removes managed public player assets for private podcasts.

Switching back to public

Turning off private access makes the podcast public again. Review subscriber records and old private URLs according to your site's privacy and access policy.