Podcast Title Capitalization: Rules for Show Names and Episodes

Podcasting has its own set of capitalization challenges. You've got the show name, episode titles, series names, and then the various directories - Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube - that each display titles differently. Getting capitalization right helps your show look professional and makes a difference in how people perceive your content before they ever press play.

This guide covers how to capitalize podcast titles in AP, APA, MLA, and Chicago style. We'll also cover episode naming conventions, how podcast directories handle capitalization, and the common mistakes podcasters make.

Show Names vs. Episode Titles

Before getting into style-specific rules, it helps to understand how podcast titles break down. There are two distinct elements that follow different formatting conventions:

This follows the same logic as albums and songs, or TV shows and episodes. The whole work gets italics; a piece of that work gets quotation marks. The exception is AP style, which uses quotation marks for both since AP doesn't use italics.

Universal Capitalization Rules for Podcasts

These rules apply to podcast titles across every style guide:

• Always capitalize the first word of the title. "The" in "The Daily" is capitalized because it's first.
• Always capitalize the last word of the title, regardless of its part of speech.
• Always capitalize nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns. Words like "Crime," "Interview," "Weekly," "She," and "Quickly" are always capitalized.
• Never capitalize articles (a, an, the) in the middle of a title unless they're the first or last word.
• Never capitalize coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so) unless they're the first or last word.
• Short verbs are always capitalized. "Is," "Am," "Are," "Be," "Do," "Go" - these are verbs, not filler words.

Where the style guides diverge is prepositions - words like "in," "on," "at," "with," "from," and "between." Each guide has a different threshold for which prepositions get capitalized. Let's break it down.

AP Style Podcast Titles

AP style is the standard for journalism, media coverage, and entertainment writing. If you're writing about podcasts for a publication, a blog, or social media, AP is likely your style. The full rules are in the AP Stylebook.

AP style podcast title examples:

Notice "With" is capitalized (four letters) while "I" is capitalized because it's a pronoun, not because of its length. For the complete AP ruleset, see our AP style title case guide.

APA Style Podcast Titles

If you're citing a podcast in an academic paper - common in psychology, education, communications, and media studies courses - APA 7th edition has specific rules. APA treats podcasts similarly to other audio/video media.

APA in-text examples (title case):

APA reference list examples (sentence case):

The reference list format surprises many students. When listing a podcast episode in your references, APA requires sentence case - only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized. Show names in references remain in italics but also switch to sentence case. See our APA title case guide for more.

MLA Style Podcast Titles

MLA is the go-to for English, literature, and media analysis courses. If you're writing about a podcast for a class essay or citing an episode in a works cited page, MLA has clear rules.

MLA style podcast title examples:

The key MLA difference: "about," "after," and "over" all stay lowercase even though they're five or more letters. MLA lowercases every preposition regardless of length. AP and APA would capitalize all three. Check our MLA title case guide for the full rules.

Chicago Style Podcast Titles

The Chicago Manual of Style is used in book publishing, long-form journalism, and some academic fields. Its rules are close to AP but with nuances around phrasal verbs and "to" as an infinitive marker.

Chicago style podcast title examples:

Chicago's phrasal verb rule matters for podcast titles: "Wake Up," "Give Up," and "Break Down" get "Up" and "Down" capitalized because they're part of the verb, not standalone prepositions. Our Chicago title case guide covers this in depth.

Side-by-Side Style Comparison

Here's how the same podcast titles look across all four major styles. The differences are subtle but can matter in academic and professional contexts.

The biggest split is prepositions. MLA lowercases "with," "about," "after," "down," "over," and "up" since they're all prepositions. AP and APA capitalize any preposition of four or more letters. Chicago capitalizes "Up" and "Down" when they're part of phrasal verbs ("Wake Up," "Breaking Down") but lowercases "about" and "after" as regular prepositions. For a full breakdown, see our title case styles compared page.

Episode Title Naming Conventions

Beyond capitalization, how you structure your episode titles affects discoverability and listener engagement. Here are the most common podcast episode title formats:

Episode Number Placement

Most podcasters include the episode number. There's no universal standard, but these are the most common patterns:

Note that the episode number prefix doesn't change the capitalization rules. "Why" starts a new clause after the colon or dash, so it's capitalized as the first word of that clause. "Is" is always capitalized as a verb.

Guest Name Formats

Interview podcasts often include the guest's name. Here are the common approaches, all using title case:

Topic-First vs. Hook-First Titles

Two schools of thought on episode naming, both following the same capitalization rules:

Both approaches follow the same capitalization rules. The key difference is whether you lead with the keyword or the emotional hook. For SEO, topic-first titles tend to perform better since podcast directories index episode titles. For more on how capitalization affects search, see our headline capitalization for SEO guide.

How Podcast Directories Display Titles

Just like streaming music platforms, podcast directories display whatever the creator submits. There's no automatic capitalization correction. Here's what each platform does:

• Apple Podcasts: Displays your submitted title exactly as entered. Apple's Podcasters guidelines recommend using title case for both show and episode names, and they explicitly discourage ALL CAPS.
• Spotify: Shows your RSS feed title as-is. No automatic formatting changes. Spotify for Podcasters doesn't enforce a capitalization standard, but their editorial playlists use title case.
• Google Podcasts / YouTube: Displays titles from your RSS feed without modification. YouTube's own style tends toward sentence case for its editorial picks, but your podcast title stays however you enter it.
• Amazon Music / Audible: Preserves your submitted capitalization. Their editorial content and curated lists use title case.
• Pocket Casts, Overcast, Castro: Pull directly from your RSS feed. What you enter is what listeners see.

The bottom line: your RSS feed title is your title everywhere. Set it right once and every directory inherits it. Use consistent title case for a professional appearance across all platforms.

12 Common Podcast Title Mistakes

These are the capitalization errors podcasters make most often. Each shows the wrong version and the correct version using AP style.

Want to check any podcast title instantly? Use our headline capitalization tool - paste in a title, pick your style, and get the correct capitalization in one click.

Podcast Title SEO Tips

Your podcast title and episode names are indexed by Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google. Capitalization alone doesn't directly affect rankings, but it influences click-through rate and perceived professionalism. Here are some practical tips:

• Put keywords at the front of episode titles. "Personal Finance Tips for Your 20s" will perform better in directory search than "Tips and Tricks - Personal Finance for Young Adults."
• Don't keyword-stuff your show name. Apple Podcasts has explicitly warned against adding keywords to show names. "The Growth Mindset Podcast" is fine. "The Growth Mindset Podcast - Leadership Business Success Entrepreneur Tips" will get flagged.
• Use title case consistently. Title case is the standard across professional media. Inconsistent capitalization (some episodes in title case, some in sentence case, some in ALL CAPS) makes your show look disorganized.
• Keep episode titles under 60 characters when possible. Long titles get truncated in most podcast apps. Get the key information in the first 50-60 characters.
• Avoid special characters. While ampersands (&), pipes (|), and brackets work in RSS feeds, they can render inconsistently across apps. Stick to standard punctuation.

For a deeper look at how title capitalization affects search performance, read our headline capitalization for SEO guide.

Quick Reference Checklist

Before you publish your next podcast episode, run through this list:

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