When Taylor Swift finally sat down with Travis and Jason Kelce on New Heights, the internet did what it always does for a truly rare Swift moment: it blew up. The YouTube stream reached 1.3m viewers and even glitched under the load.
Within 24 hours, the episode had gained a huge 13m views. For comparison, the most recent episodes of Joe Rogan’s show average around 725k views on YouTube.
Below, we break down Swift’s playbook to drop a widely successful podcast interview.
Rephonic is a podcast database designed for PR professionals, marketers and founders looking to find and pitch podcast guesting opportunities.
Carry icon status
Taylor Swift is in a league of her own. She was Spotify’s global top artist in both 2023 and 2024, the only artist with four GRAMMY Album of the Year wins, and the Eras Tour is the highest-grossing tour ever.
Given her huge fame and influence, and the fact she had never been on a podcast before, it’s no surprise that this episode gained so much traction.
Guest tip: If you’re not Taylor, you can still manufacture “event value” by showing up with genuinely new stories, assets, or data no one has heard before.
Make the most of close ties with a popular podcast
Travis Kelce, Swift’s partner, hosts New Heights with his brother Jason. The show has one million followers on Spotify and more than three million subscribers on YouTube.
At first, it might seem like a strange place to reveal the details of her new album. On paper it’s for NFL fans, a group that has arguably not overlapped with Swift's audience in the past. In reality, the Swift–Kelce brand has expanded the NFL’s audience, especially among younger women.
Guest tip: Book guest spots on shows whose audience overlaps the people you want to reach. Use Rephonic to check listener demographics before you pitch.
Tease the episode before it drops
New Heights first hinted at the upcoming episode by sharing a teaser on their social media featuring a silhouette of Swift.
This was followed by a collaborative reel where Taylor teased the album’s artwork. Fans were eager to see the album cover, which drew them to watch the podcast episode.
Guest tip: Once the release date is set, share clips or posts that hint at an invaluable piece of information that is impossible to fully satisfy without watching the episode.
Premiere the episode on YouTube
The New Heights episode was pre-recorded and then streamed live on YouTube so viewers were unable to rewind or skip ahead until it ended. One likely reason for this approach was to concentrate engagement and increase the chances of going viral.
Guest tip: It’s worth checking if the podcast you’re interested in guesting on has a YouTube channel for extra reach, and if so, how big their audience is. You can see this info on Rephonic.
Drive one clear call-to-action
Swift’s goal was to generate pre-orders for her new album. The episode description therefore included that CTA and the link to her website, following the episode everywhere it was distributed (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts etc).
Guest tip: Confirm with the producer that your link (or code) will be included in the show notes. It’s great for conversions and also gets you backlinks.
Promote the episode
Episode promotion landed neither solely on Swift nor New Heights. They worked together to get as many eyeballs on the episode as possible.
Swift and New Heights posted joint reels using Instagram’s Collaborate feature.
The episode is pinned as the feature video on New Heights youtube channel.
Even the NFL did a collab reel with New Heights that shows Swift and Kelce talking about the NFL.
Guest tip: Work with the podcast host to produce an episode promotion strategy and contact brands and outlets that might be interested in sharing any newsworthy content.
Final thoughts
You can’t bottle Swift-level fame but you can copy some of the tactics that made this podcast appearance explode: tight audience fit, valuable content, episode teasers, a clear CTA, and coordinated promotion.
If you want to gain visibility for yourself, colleagues or clients through podcast interviews, Rephonic makes it easy to find and pitch the right shows. Search for podcasts in your niche and view listener numbers, demographics, social reach, contact info, previous guests, and lots more.
Article credits
Written by Becca Butcher, marketing specialist who frequently analyzes Rephonic’s data across 3 million podcasts.
