Graphene — Apple Podcasts ASO sweep

Created: 2026-05-19 Status: ready-to-execute. Per-show recommendations + cleanup punch list. Companion docs:

• 2026-05-19-icp-and-competitor-analysis.md — strategy foundation
• 2026-05-19-graphene-week-1-channel-execution.md — three-channel execution kit (this is the Apple section, deepened)

Reality check on the current slate

Pulled live from /api/story-seasons/public — 25 active shows across 6 universes:

Genre distribution: psychological-suspense (6), mystery (5), drama (4), scifi (4), literary (3), psychological-thriller (1), comedy (1), romance (1).

Strategic ASO call — focus on 8 priority shows this week

Doing ASO on 25 shows is overkill for week 1. Pick 8 flagships, optimize them deeply, apply a template to the other 17 later.

Priority criteria:

1. Universe flagship — one per universe (Hotel Diaries, Deep Cut, Pitchwire, Turing Logs, Mnemonic Expanse, Threshold Labyrinth)
2. Standout standalones — Clearance (12 episodes, longest), HOA Warz (only comedy on the slate)

Title cleanups (do these first — they apply across all platforms)

Three titles currently have engineering / process bleed that screams "unedited":

Also worth deciding: the universe-key the_mnemonic_expanse_265c1b has a UUID suffix in the slug. Public-facing universe label should be The Mnemonic Expanse — verify the display label resolves cleanly without the hash.

Network-wide ASO defaults (apply to every show)

Before per-show optimization, settle these once:

Author / show owner

• Always: Graphene (single brand across the network)
• Why: listeners searching Graphene should find the whole network. Don't use per-show writer pseudonyms here — that's better surfaced in show descriptions.

iTunes keywords (<itunes:keywords> in RSS)

Apply to every show:

audio drama, serialized fiction, fiction podcast, interactive podcast,
listener-driven story, weekly chapters, audio fiction studio, Graphene

Then per-show, add 2-3 genre-specific keywords (e.g., psychological suspense, mystery, AI fiction, dystopian, literary fiction).

Categories — primary + secondary picks

Note: Apple only allows TWO categories total. Picking subcategories where possible (over top-level) makes ranking easier — Fiction → Drama has thousands of competitors; Fiction → Comedy Fiction has hundreds.

Show subtitle (<itunes:subtitle>)

This is where you do the search-keyword work without polluting the show name. Pattern:

[Genre noun] · [Universe positioning] · [Cadence claim]

Examples:

• Mystery · A hotel where memory unravels · New chapters weekly
• Drama · A recursive cut into the actor's mind · Weekly chapters
• Literary scifi · The hidden art of dissent · Weekly chapters

Keep under 100 chars. Apple truncates.

Cover art rules

• 3000×3000 RGB PNG or JPEG. No transparency.
• Readable at 60×60 (the smallest size Apple displays). Test by zooming out to 5% — if the title becomes illegible, the cover fails.
• Avoid: small text in corners, multi-line subtitles on the cover (subtitle belongs in the metadata, not the art).
• DO include: show name in legible weight, one visual hook from the show (object, character silhouette, mood), brand-consistent palette per universe.

Per-show ASO blocks

For each priority show below, drop these values into Apple Podcasts Connect (or the source-of-truth — story_seasons table, RSS feed config — whichever you maintain).

1. The Last Reflection

2. Endless Rewind

3. Whispers in the Circuitry

4. Erasure — The Residue of Echoes

(Title cleaned per the punch list above.)

5. A Reverie in Dissonance

NOTE: confirm the actual premise — the description above is a best-guess from the title alone. If the real premise differs, rewrite using the actual story_seasons.premise text.

6. Glitches in the Fabric

NOTE: confirm premise — rewrite from the actual story_seasons.premise text if this doesn't match.

7. Clearance

8. The HOA Warz

Reusable template for the remaining 17 shows

For each of the other shows, fill these blocks following the patterns above. Aim for 15-20 min per show. If a show isn't sure to live for more than 6 chapters, defer until it earns optimization time.

Show name: [keep current, or apply title cleanup from punch list]
Author: Graphene
Subtitle: [Genre] · [One-line universe positioning] · Weekly chapters
Description (first 100 chars): [Genre] audio fiction. [Premise hook in 80 chars.]
Description (full ~280 chars): [Genre] audio fiction. [Full premise from story_seasons.premise, max 200 chars]. Part of [Universe], a Graphene universe. New chapters weekly. Listener letters shape what happens next.
Category — primary: [from genre→category table above]
Category — secondary: [from genre→category table above]
iTunes keywords: [universal list] + [3 show-specific]
Cover art: [single visual hook + readable title]

Execution mechanics

UPDATED 2026-05-19 (PR #17): the per-show iTunes infrastructure now exists. Migration 266 (story_seasons.itunes_subtitle / itunes_category / itunes_subcategory / itunes_keywords) + new public route GET /api/podcast/rss/show/:seasonId ship per-show feeds with independent channel-level metadata. The network feed at /api/podcast/rss is unchanged. Each Graphene show should now be submitted to Apple Podcasts Connect as its OWN podcast using its per-show feed URL.

To apply the recommendations above:

1. Show title — edit story_seasons.title directly in Supabase OR via the admin UI at /dashboard/admin/seasons.
2. Show description — comes from a combination of premise, setting, and season_publishings.show_notes (migration 247). show_notes takes precedence. Either set it explicitly via POST /api/story-seasons/admin/:id/generate-show-notes or update premise.
3. Subtitle — story_seasons.itunes_subtitle (migration 266). Set per show. Falls back to GRAPHENE.tagline when null.
4. Categories — story_seasons.itunes_category (primary) + itunes_subcategory (secondary). Set per show using the genre→category table above. Falls back to GRAPHENE.category/subcategory when null.
5. Cover art — poster_url. Already supported.
6. iTunes keywords — story_seasons.itunes_keywords (migration 266). Per-show extras; the RSS builder concatenates them with the universal network list (audio drama, serialized fiction, fiction podcast, interactive podcast, listener-driven story, weekly chapters, Graphene) automatically.

Per-show feed URL pattern:

https://www.hivejournal.com/api/podcast/rss/show/<seasonId>

Each Graphene show should be submitted to Apple Podcasts Connect (and Spotify for Podcasters) as its OWN podcast using that URL. They'll appear as separate entries in Apple's directory + rank independently in their own categories. The network feed at /api/podcast/rss continues to serve existing "Graphene" subscribers.

Setting the per-show values today (no admin UI yet):

Until per-show iTunes fields are exposed in the admin UI, populate them via SQL. Example for The Last Reflection:

update story_seasons set
  itunes_subtitle  = 'Mystery · A hotel where guests disappear into mirrors · Weekly chapters',
  itunes_category    = 'Fiction',
  itunes_subcategory = 'Drama',
  itunes_keywords    = 'mystery, hotel, supernatural mystery, mirrors, Hotel Diaries'
where title = 'The Last Reflection';

Repeat per priority show using the values from the per-show ASO blocks above. Admin UI follow-up tracked separately.

Spotify + Pocket Casts + Overcast

Same RSS feed serves all of them. ASO optimizations apply directly. A few platform-specific notes:

• Spotify indexes the show name + description heavily. Their algorithm rewards completion rate more than subscribe rate.
• Pocket Casts has a curation team that occasionally features indie fiction. Worth a one-time email to their editorial address with a flagship show pitch (The Last Reflection is the cleanest pitch).
• Overcast has Smart Speed (compresses silence) which audio drama listeners often disable. Show description can mention "best heard with Smart Speed off" if your audio production relies on pause timing.

What to measure post-sweep

• Apple Podcasts Connect → Trends tab → "Show page views" + "Followers" weekly delta
• Apple Search Ads (if you ever turn it on later) → search-term-level data on what terms are bringing impressions
• Subscriber growth → compare 30-day windows pre-/post-sweep
• Category rank → manually check weekly: search your subcategory (Fiction → Drama), screenshot top-100 position

A successful Apple ASO sweep shows results in 6-8 weeks, not days. Don't expect immediate impact. The work compounds.

After this week

Once the priority-8 are optimized + Reddit + TikTok are running:

• Apple Podcasts editorial pitch — once The Last Reflection has clean ASO + 3+ chapters live + cover art is sharp, email Apple Podcasts editorial team via Podcasts Connect with a 3-sentence pitch. Mention: format (serialized fiction), cadence (weekly), wedge (listener letters bend canon).
• Submit to Pocket Casts curation.
• Audit if per-show iTunes subtitle / category / keywords are worth the migration work. If category-rank is moving on the priority 8, yes. If not, the bottleneck is content not metadata.