There are currently over 1,000,000 active podcasts, highlighting just how much the podcast industry is growing! Here’s a collection of WordPress podcast themes to build your perfect podcast site.
The Unstoppable Rise of the Podcast
The NPR Podcast sketch from comedy show Portlandia has all the hallmarks of peak podcasting: soft-spoken hosts, quirky background music, a Blue Apron sponsor slot. But what does it really take to create a hit podcast?
Podcast advertising has turned out to be a lucrative business, with U.S. advertising spend set to reach an eye-watering $659 million in 2020.
If there’s a “podcasting bubble”, it’s not going to burst anytime soon.
“32% of Americans (approx. 150 million people) listen to podcasts at least once a month (though many listen to one podcast or another much more frequently than that).” – musicoomph.com
With so many new podcasts out there, you need more than a microphone and an RSS feed to launch your show into audio fame. Most importantly, you need a home base for your listeners to find your content: you need a website.
Making a website can seem like a daunting task, especially when you’re focusing your skills on audio production. By building your site on WordPress, you’ll have a super-customizable website that has the functionality to embed audio and create playlists, putting the listening experience first. Plus, you’ll have the flexibility to grow your website with your show by launching an online store, selling tickets for live events, featuring videos, collecting emails for your newsletter, and more.
Best WordPress Podcast Themes on Themeforest
Listed below is an updated list of top-selling WordPress podcast themes we’ve picked from Themeforest. These themes are ideal for any website built for podcasts or audio distribution:
1. Vlog - Video Blog & Podcast WordPress Theme
Vlog is the ideal website for podcasting, video-blogging, video courses and video sharing. It's fully compatible with Vimeo, Dailymotion and YouTube along with other common video formats.
A beautifully crafted theme, this theme contains in excess of 200 post layout combinations on a site that is optimised for speed. You can also monetise the website by placing banner ads on the homepage, archive pages or single posts.
2. Vice: Music WordPress
For those looking for a professional WordPress music theme, Vice is ideal for podcasts, radio stations and all aspects of music.
You can create podcasts by genre and include SoundCloud, Mixcloud or mp3 files in an MP3 player. Vice incorporates an interesting, interactive Google Map for events.
3. Soundbyte - Podcast/Audio WordPress Theme
With a drag-and-drop page builder, Soundbyte is the ideal WordPress Podcast Theme that includes a fully responsive layout to display beautifully regardless of which device it is viewed on.
Font adjusting, unlimited colours, a contact form, e-commerce support, an audio player, retina-ready design and search-engine optimisation, this WordPress podcast theme offers it all with no specialist coding skills required.
4. Wpcast - Audio Podcast WordPress Theme
WpCast is the fastest and most professional way to create an audio podcast website in WordPress. Featuring a non-stop music player and integrations with Apple Podcast (ex iTunes Podcast), and Google Podcast. It’s also compatible with Libsyn, Anchor.fm and Blubrry.
The WpCast theme includes demos and is Apple and Google-ready so that you can publish you podcasts in seconds.
5. Megaphone - WordPress Podcast Theme
Brand new at the time of writing, Megaphone is a WordPress podcast theme by Power Elite Author meks and has already seen a ton of sales. This is a fully-featured theme created to help you set up and manage your audio podcast website without the fuss of having to code yourself.
Choose from the many available layouts, curate your shows, leverage popular podcast platforms, and use the “always sticky” player to allow your audio to be heard continually whilst users navigate the site.
6. Vipo - Audio / Video Podcast & Vlog WordPress Theme
This homepage is a strong, full-page welcome to Vipo; a podcast and vlog WordPress theme perfectly suited to publishing your video or audio casts. Vipo gives you control over your own content, offering listener statistics, podcast transcripts, RSS2 feed generation and more.
7. Podcaster - Multimedia WordPress Theme
This WordPress podcast theme is specifically designed with podcasters in mind, so it’s simple and audio-focused. The most recent episode can be featured at the top of the home page, with an embedded media player at the very top, so your listeners can listen and subscribe as soon as they land on the home page.
Saying that, there’s a huge number of homepage layouts to choose from, including this dark variant:
The podcast episodes are organized as their own category, making it easy to create an episode archive. It’s all based on blog post format, so you can add show notes, videos, quotes, or other media. There are several color scheme options, but I’m partial to the yellow version, which reminds me of the (very well-designed) website for Radiotopia’s popular design podcast, 99% Invisible.
8. Castilo - Audio Podcast WordPress Theme
Castilo is one to keep an eye on; it’s already racked up a solid number of sales and a near-perfect 4.7 star rating. Castilo offers all that you’d need from a WordPress podcast theme–stylish presentation, integration with popular audio platforms, social channels for listeners to follow, and as an admin it offers very thorough statistics about total listens, listeners and listening sources.
Keep track of how many listeners use the site’s audio player, iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, direct downloads and other sources.
9. Sonus - Podcast & Audio WordPress Theme
Sonus pitches itself as more than just a WordPress theme; it’s a podcast publishing platform. Upload your audio, create a post, organize with seasons and episodes, then publish!
Make use of the sticky (and customizable) audio player at the foot of each page. Or publish using one of the supported plugins instead (PowerPress Podcasting plugin, Seriously Simple Podcasting, Podlove Podcast Publisher, and others).
10. Viseo: News, Video, & Podcast Theme
The second WordPress podcast theme from designer ProgressionStudios on our list, the Viseo theme integrates news, comments, and video. It comes with a premium plugin called Boosted Elements, which enables functions like sliders, pop-ups, and maps.
This WordPress theme is SEO-optimized and translation-ready. I like the trendy, Spotify-style gradients in the demo version, but if you don’t, it’s fully customizable.
11. Castpod - A Professional WordPress Theme for Audio Podcasts
If you already have an RSS feed or hosting on a podcasting service, this theme will be easy to launch–there’s a built-in migration tool that transfers the feed to the website. It’s mobile-ready, works with WooCommerce, and is super-fast (with load times faster than 95% of all tested websites).
12. Audioatro: Multipurpose Audio WordPress Theme
The coolest feature of WordPress podcast theme Audioatro is the audio visualizer, which adds a visual component to playback–check out the demo of this here. It’s a unique way to make audio more visual.
This theme also has video pages, Mailchimp integration, social sharing buttons, and is mobile-friendly.
13. Audonic: Music & Podcasting WordPress Theme
This theme supports playlists and podcast archives, and it’s made to work with oEmbed. With events, contact forms, video, and social media integration, this WordPress theme has all the features you might need for your podcast website.
14. Onair2: Radio Station WordPress Theme
Do you have a live show or a radio station? This theme will let you create a website for your radio station, integrating with all major providers (like ShoutCAST, IceCAST, Radio.co, and Airtime). There’s a nonstop music player, a schedule, sponsors, and more; plus space for blogging and stories.
As one user says, “our station has thousands of visitors and this theme is perfect for the performance and usability”. Tried and tested!
15. MyListing: Directory & Listing WordPress Theme
National Public Radio (NPR) is one of the biggest names in podcasts. They organize their podcasts with a directory page, which keeps their programs organized and easy to find–which is useful, with nearly 50 podcasts in their directory!
If you have more than one podcast, or just a lot of content to organize, take a page from NPR’s book and build your site with a directory theme. MyListing is a particularly well-designed theme, with card set-up, advanced filtering, events, and more.
Using Multipurpose Themes as Podcast Website Themes
Time to think outside the box–a WordPress podcast theme doesn’t actually have to have the word “podcast” in the title to be a good fit for your show! Most feature-rich website templates come with audio embed capabilities, so even if it’s not specifically marked as a “podcaster” theme, you’ll be able to play your show on your site.
In fact, with so many podcast creators doing more than just podcasts–like Gimlet Media’s launch of a film and TV division–it might be a good idea to plan for the potential growth of your (multi)media empire. Here are some WordPress themes that aren’t designed specifically for podcasts, but that would be great for a podcast website.
16. MagPlus
MagPlus is a super-popular theme with an incredibly robust feature list. It’s made with Visual Composer and has 40+ templates–like getting forty themes for the price of one. With 150+ elements like sliders, galleries, and different article layouts, you can create nearly any website you can imagine.
If you need some direction, check out their Podcast Pro demo (pictured below).
17. Writing
One of my favorite podcasts is The Memory Palace. It’s a show that’s hyper-focused on quality writing, and the website reflects that. There’s no fancy sliders, flashy images, or other distracting content.
If you have a podcast that’s focused on the writing or show notes, consider using a stripped-down WordPress theme, like Writing. Although text is the focus here, you can still embed audio into each post.
18. Zyra: Clean, Minimal WooCommerce Theme
A fresh, clean theme with a pastel color palette. There are fifteen demos, including a “coming soon” template that would work well for a to-be-launched show.
19. Startit: A Fresh Startup Business Theme
Business and entrepreneurship podcasts are some of the most popular podcast categories. If your business falls into this category, you need a modern, tech-focused look for your site.
Startit is built with the startup work in mind. It’s SEO-friendly, has MailChimp integration, and fresh animations, earning it the title of the “best-selling tech theme on Themeforest”.
Find Your Ideal WordPress Podcast Theme
Still looking for something else? Browse more podcaster-ready WordPress themes on Themeforest.
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