Why Your Podcast RSS Chapters Aren’t Showing Up on Spotify (And What You Can Do About It)

Published by

Quinn

on

June 12, 2025

Here’s a blog post draft to help others who are running into the same issue I had when trying to add podcast chapters on Spotify.

If you’re a podcaster using PodBean or another host that supports chapter markers, you may have added rich chapter data to your episodes—only to find that those chapters don’t show up on Spotify. Even if you’ve included the chatpers in your meta data or added them manually in PodBean, Spotify doesn’t import them if you’re using an RSS Feed.

Here’s a quick explanation of what’s going on, and what you can do to work around it today.

🤔 The Problem

You added chapters to your episode using PodBean’s editor. When you play the episode through the PodBean web or mobile player, they show up just fine.

But when you syndicate that same episode to Spotify using your RSS feed, the chapters vanish. Why?

🚫 The Short Answer: Spotify Doesn’t Support Chapters via RSS (Yet)

While PodBean (and other hosts) add chapter metadata to the RSS feed—often using standards like Podlove Simple Chapters—Spotify simply ignores this metadata.

Even though the chapter data is technically there in your RSS feed, Spotify doesn’t render it for listeners. As of now, Spotify only supports chapter functionality for podcasts that are created directly within their ecosystem (like those hosted on Spotify for Podcasters, formerly Anchor).

✅ What You

Can

Do: Use Timestamped Show Notes

The most practical workaround right now is to include timestamps directly in your episode description. Spotify does recognize timestamps in descriptions and makes them clickable.

Here’s how to format it:

00:00 – Intro  
01:45 – What We’ll Cover Today  
05:30 – Interview with Jane Doe  
22:10 – Listener Q&A  
30:00 – Wrap-Up

These will become clickable time jumps in both the Spotify app and web player. It’s not as sleek as true chapter navigation, but it’s a helpful listener experience nonetheless.

📣 Help Spotify Help Us

If you’d like full chapter support on Spotify, let them know. The more creators who request it, the better the chances that Spotify will prioritize support for RSS-based chapters.

You can submit feedback via Spotify for Podcasters or tag them on social media.

🔁 TL;DR Recap

PodBean chapters show up on PodBean, but not on Spotify.
Spotify doesn’t support chapters via RSS feeds—only for native shows.
Use clickable timestamps in your episode description as a workaround.

How this saves you time and keep cranking on that content!

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