Adding audio to a Substack publication
Substack does not allow custom code inside a post body. Here is the realistic path to offer an audio version of your articles despite that limit, with no hacks and no false promise.
Substack made the choice of a closed, deliberately simple environment: you write, you send, the platform handles the rest. That is a strength for publishing fast, but it is also a limit as soon as you want a feature Substack does not offer natively, such as an audio version of your articles wired to an external tool. Let us say it plainly: on Substack, you will not be able to drop a third-party player into a post body the way you would on a site you control. That does not mean audio is out of reach, but the path is different, and it is better to know it before committing.
The limit to know before you start
On a site you host, adding audio often comes down to placing a small piece of code that shows a player in the right spot. That is what our plugin does for a standalone site, as the WordPress page describes. Substack does not allow that gesture: the editor accepts no custom HTML or JavaScript inside a post body, and that is a deliberate platform choice, not an oversight. Trying to get around it would waste your time, and the workaround would break the first time the editor changes.
The right way to think about it, then, is to give up on inserting a player into the Substack page, and instead produce the audio outside it, then attach it to your publication through the means Substack does allow. There are two, and they complement each other.
First path: the RSS feed as a trigger
Every Substack publication exposes an RSS feed. That is an open door, and exactly the kind of entry point a voicing service knows how to hook into. The principle: an external service watches your feed, spots each new post as it goes out, and produces an audio version of it without you touching Substack. You keep writing as usual; the audio is made in the background.
This is the general approach we detail in integrating audio via API or RSS feed, and how it works precisely is described on the RSS feed page. It has a decisive advantage for Substack: it needs no access inside the platform, only the public address of your feed. You change nothing, you attach a sensor to what Substack already publishes.
Second path: the podcast version of your articles
Substack natively offers an audio section and podcast distribution. That is the natural hook for audio produced from your texts: rather than a player inserted into each post, you feed your publication's audio thread with the spoken version of your articles. The reader then listens from the Substack audio tab or from their usual podcast app, without anything changing in the body of your written posts.
This logic, turning a stream of articles into a listening thread, is the one we describe in turning your site into an automatic podcast, and the mechanics are laid out on the automatic podcast page. On Substack it takes on a particular meaning, because it is the channel the platform actually leaves open to you.
What this path gives you, and what it does not
Let us be honest about the outcome. On Substack you will not get the small player at the top of the article with highlighted text following along, because the platform does not allow it. You will get an audio version of your articles, produced automatically on publication, and listenable where Substack agrees to host it: its audio section and its podcast distribution. For many publications, that is the essential part: the subscriber can listen, on the move, to what they would not have had time to read.
If the in-page player really matters to you, the true answer is not to force Substack, it is to have a site you control, where insertion is free. Many authors in fact keep both: Substack for sending and subscriptions, a site of their own for reading and listening comfort.
Try it on your own articles
The free plan of WeDispatch lets you produce the audio version of your texts today, from your feed: try it now. The plans, from 69 to 419 EUR excluding VAT per month, are detailed on the pricing page.
Give your articles a voice with WeDispatch
This blog is itself voiced by WeDispatch. Curious how it sounds on your content?
Book a demo