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Episode Editor — Media

The Media section of the episode editor collects the audio and video URLs for an episode, plus per-tier audio variant overrides for shows with paid subscription tiers.

Audio File URL

The primary audio file for the episode. Paste the full URL to the hosted audio file — Benecaster links to this file rather than hosting it.

This is the base audio URL: the fallback that plays for any tier not covered by a specific variant (see Tier Audio Variants below). Every episode must have a base audio URL for the episode to appear in any subscriber’s feed.

Supported: MP3, AAC, M4A, OGG, OPUS, and any other audio MIME type your podcast host serves. The URL must be publicly accessible so podcast apps can fetch it.

Platform-hosted audio. If the address is on a membership platform such as Patreon (including Patreon video on stream.mux.com), Supercast, Supporting Cast, Memberful, Glow, Substack or Anchor, a Platform-hosted audio note appears under the field as you type: “This episode’s audio is hosted by the platform you’re leaving, which decides how long it keeps working. Move it to your podcast host and update the audio URL under Media.” It is a warning only, and the episode still saves. Only the address’s domain is checked, so a file whose name merely mentions a platform is not flagged. See Moving Audio Files Off Patreon.

Video URL

The video file URL for the episode, if applicable. Used when the episode type is set to Video in Show Settings. Like the audio URL, this is a link to a hosted file — Benecaster does not store the file.

When both an audio URL and a video URL are set, the feed uses the video URL if the show’s episode type is Video; otherwise the audio URL is used.

On your website, the video plays when the episode has no audio URL: on the episode page, on its archive card, in an [benecaster_episodes] list, and in the [benecaster_player] and [benecaster_latest_episode] shortcodes. When the episode has both, the website plays the audio, except where [benecaster_player media="video"] asks for the video. Only a visitor who can hear the episode gets the video; see Episodes Overview.

Preview Clip URL

Below Download tracking, in the Audio section, you can set a Preview clip URL — a short clip that plays on the website to visitors who can’t hear the full episode instead of the usual “locked” message.

Paste the URL to a hosted clip file, the same way you would for the main audio URL. The field’s placeholder shows an example: https://your-host.com/preview.mp3. Leave it empty for no preview — a locked visitor then sees the ordinary locked message, as before.

The clip is saved with the episode. It is never added to any podcast feed — not the RSS enclosure, not <podcast:trailer> — so it never reaches a listener’s podcast app. It only ever plays in the website’s web player.

Where it plays: anyone who can’t hear the episode — because it’s locked behind a tier they don’t have — gets a player with the clip in place of the locked message, in three places: the episode page, the episode’s card in the archive list, and the [benecaster_player] shortcode. Anyone who can hear the episode always gets the full file, never the clip. On the episode page, the subscribe section below the player still shows even when the clip is playing; on the archive card and in the shortcode, the clip player replaces the locked message entirely.

Requires the main Audio File URL above. An episode that only has an embed code or a video — with no audio URL — keeps its ordinary locked message even when a preview clip is set, because the web player has nowhere to put the clip without a base audio URL to swap.

An episode locked because of a required buy-up is locked the same way as any other locked episode, so its preview clip (if set) plays there too, for any visitor without the buy-up.

Developer: for a different clip per visitor, or a clip you don’t want to store as a URL here, see the show-preview-player-to-non-subscribers recipe.

Tier Audio Variants

The Tier Audio Variants section appears below the base audio URL field. It is only visible on shows that have at least one paid subscription tier configured.

Tier audio variants let you provide a different audio file for each paid tier on your show. A common use case: hosting public and paid versions of an episode — the public tier gets a 5-minute preview; paid tiers get the full episode — without maintaining two separate episode records.

How It Works

Each paid tier in your show’s tier hierarchy gets its own URL input field. The fields are displayed in tier order from lowest (least expensive) to highest.

The cascade-up algorithm fills in gaps: if a tier has no variant URL set, Benecaster uses the variant from the next lower tier that does have one. If no lower tier has a variant, Benecaster falls back to the base audio URL. This means you only need to set variants for the tiers that actually differ — you don’t have to fill in every field.

A placeholder in each field shows the URL that would be served to that tier if the field is left blank: either the cascade-resolved variant URL or the base audio URL. The placeholder updates live as you fill in (or clear) other fields, so you can see the cascade resolution at a glance.

A helper text line below each field shows which tier the cascade resolves to when the field is blank. For example: “Falls through to: Free tier (base audio)” or “Falls through to: Basic tier variant.”

On Your Website

Variants apply on your website as well as in podcast apps. A signed-in subscriber who can play the episode hears their tier’s file, picked by the same cascade as their feed, in the episode page player, the players in episode lists, [benecaster_player], [benecaster_episodes] and the Download episode link. Visitors who are not signed in hear the base audio URL, and a preview clip is unaffected. A visitor who arrives through an episode’s email link hears the file for the subscriber the link was sent to.

One difference from the feed: when a subscriber is beyond your plan’s subscriber limit, or your license is in its grace period, their feed moves them to the public version, but on the website they still hear their tier’s file.

A theme that overrides the episode player, episode-card player or download templates keeps playing the base audio URL until its override is updated. Developers can get the right URL for a viewer with benecaster_get_episode_audio_url().

Variant Fields

Each tier’s variant row has one field:

  • URL — the audio file URL for this tier. Leave blank to use the cascade-resolved URL from a lower tier (or the base audio URL if none exist).

When a variant URL is set and a subscriber in that tier downloads the episode, Benecaster serves that variant URL through the download proxy. The download log records which tier’s variant was served in the variant_slug column — used for per-tier attribution in analytics.

Clearing Variants

Setting a tier’s URL field to blank removes the variant for that tier. On save, Benecaster removes the entry from the episode’s stored variant data and the cascade-up algorithm takes over on the next feed request.

To remove all variants and revert to base audio for all tiers, clear every tier URL field and save.

See Also

See Also

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