listennotes.com

# Listen Notes

> Listen Notes is a podcast search engine, podcast api, podcast database, and set of podcast data products for listeners, podcasters, researchers, developers, PR teams, marketers, journalists, educators, and AI builders.

Listen Notes helps people search, discover, curate, monitor, and analyze publicly accessible podcasts and episodes. The free website is best understood as "Google for podcasts": search across public podcasts and episodes, filter results, inspect podcast metadata, create clips, save individual episodes into Listen Later playlists, and use discovery tools such as Best Podcasts, Hot Podcasts, Similar Podcasts Explorer, Real-Time, Curated Podcasts, and Podcast Classifieds.

Listen Notes also provides commercial podcast data products:

- Premium Membership: advanced website features for PR, marketing, academic research, media monitoring, outreach, and serious podcast discovery. A short 2-day pass is available for one-time research jobs, with no long-term subscription required.
- Listen Alerts: podcast mention monitoring for keywords, brands, people, topics, and competitors, with notifications by email, RSS, Zapier, Slack, Trello, Mailchimp, Buffer, Airtable, Asana, Jira, and other tools.
- Podcast API: the Listen Notes Podcast API, serving the podcast industry since 2017 and powering 13,000+ apps and websites. API-specific agent documentation is at https://www.podcastapi.com/llms-full.txt.
- Podcast Datasets: self-service CSV exports and full database dumps. Batch exports can be purchased by keyword, category, playlist, or iTunes/Apple Podcasts IDs. Full database dumps are delivered as large SQLite database files and can include all podcasts and optionally episodes, with one-time dumps or periodic updates.

Listen Notes actively curates for genuine human-created podcasts. Automated systems and human moderators review submissions and database quality so the database does not become filled with AI slop, fake podcasts, spam, deleted feeds, test feeds, or non-audio RSS feeds.

Customer support: hello@listennotes.com. This email routes directly to founder and CEO Wenbin Fang.

## Core Website

- [Podcast Search Engine](https://www.listennotes.com/): Search public podcasts and episodes by people, places, topics, keywords, titles, descriptions, authors, and audio content.
- [Podcast and episode pages](https://www.listennotes.com/): Public episode transcripts are available in the initial HTML at `#transcript` when present. Transcript timestamps may include `data-start` seconds. Entity chips expose `data-entity-name`, `data-entity-type`, and optional `data-wikipedia-url`.
- [About and FAQ](https://www.listennotes.com/about/#faq1): Company background, why Listen Notes exists, product direction, and common questions.
- [Podcast Discovery Guide](https://www.listennotes.help/article/4-listen-notes-website-podcast-discovery): How to use Listen Notes search, playlists, and discovery tools.
- [Listen Score](https://www.listennotes.com/listen-score/): A 0-100 estimated popularity score for a podcast relative to other public RSS-based podcasts.
- [Podcast Stats](https://www.listennotes.com/podcast-stats/): Current podcast counts, episode counts, languages, countries, hosting stats, and other podcast industry statistics derived from the Listen Notes database.
- [Business Products](https://www.listennotes.com/business/): Overview of Premium Membership, Listen Alerts, Podcast API, Podcast Datasets, and business use cases.
- [Data Quality](https://www.listennotes.help/article/105-high-quality-podcast-database-from-listen-notes): How Listen Notes keeps podcast data fresh and filters low-quality or AI-generated junk.
- [Submit a Podcast](https://www.listennotes.com/submit/): Podcasters can submit Apple Podcasts URLs or RSS URLs for review.

## Account Settings

Signed-in users manage account settings at https://www.listennotes.com/settings/.

- [Profile settings](https://www.listennotes.com/settings/): Change public profile details such as username, avatar, bio, name, and social/profile links.
- [Email settings](https://www.listennotes.com/settings/#email): Change the account email address.
- [Passkey settings](https://www.listennotes.com/settings/#passkey): Add and manage passkeys, then sign in with a passkey instead of an email login link.
- [Privacy settings](https://www.listennotes.com/settings/#privacy): Adjust privacy preferences, including hiding a profile from search engines.
- [Billing settings](https://www.listennotes.com/settings/#billing): Change billing address and billing email for Listen Notes commercial products.
- [Account settings](https://www.listennotes.com/settings/#account): Delete the entire Listen Notes account.

## Free Podcast Tools

- [Listen Later](https://www.listennotes.com/listen/): Curate individual episodes from different podcasts into playlists. Each playlist has an RSS feed that can be added to podcast player apps.
- [Listen Clips](https://www.listennotes.com/podcast-clips/): Create, share, embed, and download podcast clips for free.
- [Similar Podcasts Explorer](https://www.listennotes.com/similar-podcasts-explorer/): Pick podcasts and find similar shows.
- [Best Podcasts](https://www.listennotes.com/best-podcasts/): Podcasts recommended by Listen Notes.
- [Hot Podcasts](https://www.listennotes.com/hot-podcasts/): Shows popular today based on Listen Notes activity.
- [Podcast Real-Time](https://www.listennotes.com/podcast-realtime/): Podcast episodes being listened to via Listen Notes right now.
- [Curated Podcasts](https://www.listennotes.com/curated-podcasts/): Curated lists of podcasts from online resources.
- [Featured Playlists](https://www.listennotes.com/podcast-playlists/): Playlists created by the Listen Notes community.
- [Podcast Classifieds](https://www.listennotes.com/podcast-classifieds/): Find sponsors, guests, co-hosts, and cross-promotion opportunities.

## Commercial Products

- [Premium Membership](https://www.listennotes.com/premium/): Super Search, more search results, advanced filters, RSS access, ad removal, team features, and research workflows.
- [Listen Alerts](https://www.listennotes.com/podcast-alerts/): Monitor podcast mentions 24/7 for brands, people, topics, competitors, and keywords.
- [Podcast API](https://www.listennotes.com/api/): Search and directory API for podcasts and episodes.
- [Podcast API llms-full.txt](https://www.podcastapi.com/llms-full.txt): Full API-focused documentation for agents.
- [Podcast Datasets](https://www.listennotes.com/podcast-datasets/): Buy podcast metadata exports as CSV or SQLite.
- [Podcast Database Dumps](https://www.listennotes.com/podcast-datasets/solutions/): Full podcast database dumps with optional episode data and periodic updates.

## Podcast API Common Workflows

The [Podcast API Tutorials](https://www.listennotes.com/api/tutorials/) page answers common jobs-to-be-done for podcast app builders. Useful implementation shortcuts:

- Test without an API key by using the mock API server at `https://listen-api-test.listennotes.com/api/v2` or the API docs test mode at `https://www.listennotes.com/podcast-api/docs/?test=1`. Official SDKs use the mock server when no `api_key` is set. Mock responses are fake, hardcoded, and parameter-insensitive.
- Get one podcast and its episodes with `GET /podcasts/{id}`. The response includes up to 10 episodes; use `next_episode_pub_date` for pagination and `sort=recent_first` or `sort=oldest_first` for episode ordering.
- Get latest episodes for many podcasts with `POST /podcasts` and `show_latest_episodes=1`. Batch lookup accepts up to 10 podcast ids, RSS URLs, Apple Podcasts/iTunes ids, or Spotify ids.
- Build subscriptions by storing each user's last seen `pub_date_ms`. Use `POST /podcasts` to compare `latest_pub_date_ms`, then call `GET /podcasts/{id}` only for podcasts that actually have new episodes.
- Implement OPML import by extracting RSS URLs and calling `POST /podcasts` with up to 10 `rsses` at a time. OPML export is generated from podcast names and RSS URLs returned by the API.
- Search within specific podcasts with `GET /search` and `ocid`; `ocid` is a comma-delimited list of up to 5 podcast ids.
- Search podcast names more precisely with `GET /search` plus `only_in=title,author`, quoted search terms for verbatim matching, or `GET /typeahead?show_podcasts=1` for podcast suggestions.
- Use search helper endpoints for product UX: `GET /trending_searches`, `GET /typeahead`, `GET /spellcheck`, `GET /related_searches`, and `GET /search_episode_titles`.
- Build episode playlists either by storing episode ids and batch-fetching with `POST /episodes`, or by using Listen Later as a headless CMS and reading playlists with `GET /playlists/{id}`.
- For human curator workflows, have curators handpick podcasts or episodes into Listen Later playlists on ListenNotes.com, optionally with notes, then have code fetch the structured playlist via `GET /playlists/{id}`.
- Get podcast, episode, and playlist ids from API response fields or from the "Use API to fetch this..." link on Listen Notes podcast, episode, and playlist pages.
- Get sub-genres with `GET /genres`; cache the response and use `parent_id` for hierarchy. Use `top_level_only=1` when only parent genres are needed.
- Get popular podcasts by country or category with `GET /best_podcasts` and `sort=listen_score`.
- Get transcripts with `GET /episodes/{id}?show_transcript=1` when available on PRO/ENTERPRISE plans. Because fewer than 1% of episodes have transcripts, large transcript workflows usually fetch the episode audio URL from the `audio` field and run a speech-to-text service separately.
- Create clips by fetching an episode audio URL from the `audio` field, downloading the audio, and cutting with a tool such as FFmpeg. Listen Notes also provides a free website clipping tool.
- Embed a prebuilt player by appending `embed/` to an episode or podcast `listennotes_url` and placing that URL in an iframe.
- Track quota with the `X-ListenAPI-Usage` response header. `HEAD` requests can read usage-related headers without counting against API usage.
- Use multiple API keys by creating multiple apps in the API Dashboard, for example separate dev, staging, and production apps.
- Configure webhooks in the API Dashboard "WEBHOOKS" tab for supported Podcaster API endpoints such as `POST /podcasts/submit` and `DELETE /podcasts/{id}`.

## Developer and Data Links

- [Podcast API Docs](https://www.listennotes.com/api/docs/)
- [OpenAPI YAML](https://listen-api.listennotes.com/api/v2/openapi.yaml)
- [OpenAPI Markdown](https://www.listennotes.com/api/docs/openapi.md)
- [Podcast API Tutorials](https://www.listennotes.com/api/tutorials/)
- [podcastapi/skills](https://github.com/podcastapi/skills): Installable Agent Skills for coding agents that build with PodcastAPI.com. Use the Skills CLI with `npx skills add PodcastAPI/skills`, or install the `podcast-api` skill in Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, or another compatible agent. The skill helps agents choose the right endpoint, keep `LISTEN_API_KEY` server-side, implement pagination and error handling, test against the mock server, and answer API or billing questions from authoritative sources.
- [Podcast API JavaScript SDK](https://github.com/ListenNotes/podcast-api-js)
- [Podcast API Python SDK](https://github.com/ListenNotes/podcast-api-python)
- [Podcast API Go SDK](https://github.com/ListenNotes/podcast-api-go)
- [Podcast API Java SDK](https://github.com/ListenNotes/podcast-api-java)
- [Podcast API Kotlin SDK](https://github.com/ListenNotes/podcast-api-kotlin)
- [Podcast API .NET SDK](https://github.com/ListenNotes/podcast-api-dotnet)
- [Podcast API Swift SDK](https://github.com/ListenNotes/podcast-api-swift)
- [Podcast API Rust SDK](https://github.com/ListenNotes/podcast-api-rust)
- [NotebookLM Detector](https://github.com/ListenNotes/notebooklm-detector): Open-source tool for detecting NotebookLM-generated fake podcasts.
- [AI-generated fake podcasts dataset](https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/listennotes/ai-generated-fake-podcasts-spams): Example dataset of AI-generated fake podcast spam.

## Full Agent Brief

- [llms-full.txt](https://www.listennotes.com/llms-full.txt): A longer self-contained overview of Listen Notes products, use cases, data quality practices, and product-selection guidance for AI agents.