The industry portal Podnews found 1,778 podcasts on Spreaker that completely copy someone else's show. The basis is the Podcast Index from October 24, 2026: it counted shows that are hosted on Spreaker and on a second host with the same number of episodes. Among the copies are Crime Junkie, Hidden Brain and The Rest is Politics.
In its own test, Podnews copied its news podcast in a few minutes, using a free account without a credit card. For German-language shows this works just the same, because Spreaker reads in any public RSS feed.
How does the copying process work on Spreaker?
On the import page, the address of an RSS feed is enough. Spreaker then takes over the audio files, cover art, titles and descriptions of all episodes, without notifying the owner of the feed. Podnews found no notice about copyright there. If desired, the service checks the feed hourly for new episodes, so the copy stays up to date.
In the next step, the copy could be submitted to Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other directories; Podnews skipped this step. The editorial team did, however, apply for ad activation, for a show titled "Test". By the next morning the application had been approved, and Spreaker would now have inserted spots at the beginning, at the end and in pauses in the speech of every episode. According to Podnews, the platform keeps up to 41 percent of the ad revenue.
What do you lose through a copy?
Downloads of the copy are missing from your statistics and from the charts, and the advertising on it earns you no money. If someone subscribes to the copy by mistake, ratings end up there instead of on your show.
For podcaster Lisa Lacy, a copy of her show with more than 150 episodes appeared on several platforms within five days. According to her report at Podnews, the copy ranked 121st in the US Apple Podcasts charts in her category, while the original ranked 1st. Her network Gamut filed complaints, and an important directory listing disappeared after about 24 hours. Podnews had already described a similar pattern in October 2020 with Anchor's import feature.
What does Spreaker say about it?
Spreaker belongs to the US group iHeart and sent Podnews a statement instead of answers: the platform does not tolerate uploads without the necessary rights, the community guidelines are part of the terms of use, and the team intervenes in case of violations. In addition, the import respects the tag podcast:locked. Podnews counters that Spreaker does not even offer this tag to its own customers. The portal discloses that Spreaker is among its supporters.
What this means for your podcast
You set up the first protection in your own feed. The tag podcast:locked with the value yes signals to other hosts that they should not import the feed. The overview from Podcasting 2.0 names, among others, Buzzsprout, Libsyn, Captivate, RSS.com and the WordPress plug-in PowerPress as services that support the tag. The lock is only effective with platforms that adhere to it.
- It's best to check right away in your host's settings whether the feed lock is switched on. With many hosts the option is called Feed Lock or Podcast Lock.
- Search for your show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Spreaker, not only by title, but also by cover art and unfamiliar publisher names.
- Keep an eye on your download numbers. A sudden drop doesn't prove a copy, but it is a reason to look into it; how to evaluate the numbers is shown in a lesson on podcast analytics.
- If you find a copy, first secure screenshots, addresses and feed links. Then report the violation to the copy's host: Spreaker's content policies provide for reports under the US copyright law DMCA, and a deletion at the host often removes the copy from several directories.
If you are currently building your own show, the podcast course on TutKit shows you how to host it and publish it on Spotify and others.
Podnews published the investigation on October 27, 2026.
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