Selling Podcast Access with Paid Memberships Pro

Want to sell access to your show? With the free Paid Memberships Pro plugin, listeners can pay to become Premium Listeners — and only they can view and play your restricted podcasts and episodes. Everyone else sees your custom message with a signup link instead of the player. This tutorial walks through the full setup, step by step: Paid Memberships Pro takes the payment, its free Roles for Membership Levels add-on automatically gives paying members a WordPress role (and removes it if they cancel), and AiO Podcast Studio restricts your podcasts and episodes to that role.

What you’ll need before starting:

• WordPress and AiO Podcast Studio Pro already installed — access restrictions are a Pro feature.
• The free Paid Memberships Pro plugin (installed in Step 1).
• A Stripe or PayPal account to receive payments.

Contents

• Step 1: Install Paid Memberships Pro
• Step 2: Create the “Premium Listener” Membership Level
• Step 3: Connect a Payment Gateway
• Step 4: Install the “Roles for Membership Levels” Add-On
• Step 5: Enable Restrictions in AiO Podcast Studio
• Step 6: Restrict Your Podcasts and Episodes
• Step 7: Test the Full Flow
• Good to Know

Step 1: Install Paid Memberships Pro

1. In your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins → Add New Plugin.
2. Search for Paid Memberships Pro.
3. Click Install Now, then Activate.
4. You’ll now see a new Memberships menu on the left sidebar. You can skip or follow the setup wizard — the steps below cover everything you need.

Step 2: Create the “Premium Listener” Membership Level

1. Go to Memberships → Settings → Levels and click Add New Level.
2. Name it Premium Listener.
3. Set the price: a one-time Initial Payment, or tick Recurring Subscription for monthly or yearly billing.
4. Click Save Level.

Step 3: Connect a Payment Gateway

1. Go to Memberships → Settings → Payment Gateway & SSL.
2. Select Stripe (or PayPal) and follow the on-screen steps to connect your account.
3. Leave Gateway Environment set to Sandbox/Testing for now — you’ll switch it to Live after testing in Step 7.
4. Click Save Settings.

Step 4: Install the “Roles for Membership Levels” Add-On

1. Go to Memberships → Add Ons.
2. Find Roles for Membership Levels and click Install Now, then activate it.

That’s it — the add-on automatically creates a WordPress role named Premium Listener to match your level, and assigns it to every member who pays. If a membership is cancelled or expires, the role is removed automatically — and with it, their podcast access.

(To double-check or change which role a level assigns, edit the level under Memberships → Settings → Levels and look for Role Settings in the Other Settings section.)

Step 5: Enable Restrictions in AiO Podcast Studio

1. Go to Podcasts → Settings and open the Restrictions tab.
2. Tick Enable Restrictions.
3. Write your Restricted Access Message — this is what non-paying visitors will see instead of the player. Include a link to your signup page, e.g., “This episode is for Premium Listeners only. Join now to get access.” (Paid Memberships Pro created a Membership Levels page on your site during setup — link to that, or directly to the level’s checkout page.)
4. Optional: tick Show Restricted Label and enter a label like Premium — it appears next to restricted titles in listings.
5. Click Save Changes.

Step 6: Restrict Your Podcasts and Episodes

1. Edit a podcast or episode.
2. Open the Access Restriction section.
3. Tick Restrict Podcast Access? (or Restrict Episode Access?).
4. Tick Premium Listener as the allowed role.
5. Update the post.

Repeat for every episode you want to sell — restricting a podcast does not automatically restrict its episodes. Tip: leave the trailer unrestricted as a free teaser.

Step 7: Test the Full Flow

1. Open your site in a private/incognito browser window — a restricted episode should show your message with the signup link, and no player.
2. Sign up and pay through the checkout page. With the gateway still in Sandbox/Testing mode, use Stripe’s test card 4242 4242 4242 4242.
3. While logged in as that new member, open the restricted episode — it should now play.
4. Cancel the test membership under Memberships → Members, then check the episode again — access should be gone.
5. When everything works, switch Gateway Environment to Live in the payment settings (Step 3).

(Administrators always have access to restricted content, so never test with your own admin account.)

Good to Know

• Existing members don’t get the role retroactively → The role is applied at checkout. If you add the Roles add-on to a site that already has paying members, use PMPro’s one-time bulk update script. For a handful of users, just edit each user and set the role manually.
• Ticked roles = allowed → On each episode, everyone without a ticked role — including logged-out visitors — is blocked. If no roles are ticked, any logged-in user has access.
• Multiple tiers → Create more levels (e.g., Gold Listener) — the Roles add-on creates a matching role for each. On top-tier episodes tick only Gold Listener; on mid-tier episodes tick both roles. A user with any one ticked role gets access.
• Use AiO Podcast Studio’s Access Restriction section → Not PMPro’s own “Require Membership” box. Only the plugin’s own restriction protects the player, episode grids, and shortcodes, and shows your custom message and label.

Reference: Restricting Podcast Access · Roles for Membership Levels Add On documentation