The Australian Podcast Awards, powered by iHeart, are looking for shows that celebrate the best of the podcast medium, rewarding programmes that create high-quality, episodic content, consumed by their subscribers and podcast app listeners.

To that end, judges will be asked to reward entries with an appreciation of the podcast audience and medium, and that do so consistently.

Programmes (and audio submitted) for the main awards must have been either produced in Australia, by Australians, or for Australian audiences and published between 1st August 2021 and 31st July 2022 inclusive.

Entrants to most categories must have at least six proper episodes published before 31st July 2022; this is because we want to inform listeners of great Australian podcast series, rather than short-run or one-off works. Best Fiction, Best Documentary and Listeners’ Choice categories need to have a minimum of three episodes published before 31st July 2022.

To qualify for the Listeners' Choice Award podcasts must have been available to listen to on 31st July 2022.

Audio from the entries must have been available to download via RSS from the qualifying period, or free to access for a period of time and subscribable-to on an audio app or website. All episodes featured in the entry must be available now until the end of December 2022. 

1. Each entry MUST be submitted as a single MP3

2. There should be material from at least three separate episodes from within the qualifying period (Best Documentary, Best Fiction and The Climate Award can be from one or more episodes)

3. There should be a clear fade in/out between extracts. 

4. Your entry should include 3 to 5 clips (except for Best Interview, Best Documentary & Best Fiction where you can have 1-5 clips)

5. Your entry should be a maximum 15mins (in total - that’s the time of all the clips together) in all categories except Best Fiction & Best Documentary (where you can play a single extract of 30mins). 

6. No non-podcast audio should be included (so don't include any specially made introductions for us).

Entries should be predominantly in English or any Indigenous Australian language.

You may enter your podcast into no more than three categories - choose categories that will best reflect your series and that will help new audiences discover you.

Written submissions (for most categories) should be no more than 250 words (except for Sales & Marketing Awards, The Climate Award and Rising Star where you have up to 1000). In addition, we welcome listening statistics and track-listings.

If copyrighted content forms part of the entry, details of relevant agreements should be mentioned in the written submission.

Each nominee agrees to provide the Australian Podcast Awards with non-exclusive rights to present submissions in their entirety (or through clips we make) to promote the awards, both on the Australian Podcast Awards site and via other media outlets.

The Best New Podcast category is exclusively for shows that launched their first episode after April 1st 2020, and have produced at least six episodes between then and the 31st July 2022. The reason we have the first episode date from 1st April (rather than the normal 1st August) is to ensure that shows that launched around our eligibility period are not penalised.

The Bullseye Award is for podcasts with 5,000 downloads or fewer per episode (within a month of release). It is only to open for Independent Podcasters (or companies with an income under $200k) and is free to enter when you submit to any standard category - just opt-in on the Your Details page.

The Spotlight Award is for podcasts with 50,000 downloads or greater per episode within a month of release. It is free to enter when you submit to any standard category - just opt-in on the Your Details page.

Conflict of Interest: individuals or companies directly involved in production, judging and/or sponsorship of these Awards must alert us to any conflicts. We may choose to exclude an entry in certain categories; any potential conflicts of interest will be decided by the independent Chair of Judges.

Any disputes will be resolved on the principle of Equity.  

Judges’ decisions are Final.

Submissions for our public vote will be taken until Tuesday 15th November at 23:59 AEDT. One vote per email