Captivate.fm, an independent IAB Tech Lab certified podcast hosting, analytics, and monetization platform, has released a fully integrated guest booking and interview management system for independent podcasters.

The system allows independent audio creators to book and manage their guest interviews from one central location that is connected to their podcast hosting. In addition to allowing guests to proactively book shows, hosts can automatically capture all of the relevant guest data for use across their podcast’s workflow, including in the measurement of download uplift based on specific guests and in the automation of episode show notes.

Regarding the update, Captivate CEO Mark Asquith said, “Since I started podcasting in 2011, I’ve been using calendar-booking links for my guests that were provided by third-parties. That works, but it’s not as effective as it should be for the serious modern podcaster; there is no simple link to the other pieces of my workflow which means that I can’t, for example, pass my guest’s bio and social links automatically to my episode show notes, nor could I easily overlay the results of any given guest’s audience onto my own download numbers.”

Captivate has made that easy for the busy creator and in addition to saving podcasters huge amounts of time, it also reduces the cost of podcasting by removing one extra paid service from the podcasting stack.”

Alongside the release of these new features, Asquith also confirmed that the booking platform integrates from day one with the world-class remote recording platform, SquadCast, by automatically creating SquadCast recording sessions when a guest books an interview slot.

SquadCast CEO, Zachariah Moreno said “We’re really keen at SquadCast on making sure that podcasters have the most effective & efficient technology available to them so when Mark, Kieran and the Captivate team spoke to us about being the launch partner for the guest booking and interview management platform, it was something that we got excited about and said ‘yes’ to really quickly.”

The Captivate team is due to integrate this new guest booking and interview management service with the Podcasting 2.0 initiative and Podchaser in its next minor follow-up release.

Launched to celebrate International Podcast Day on September 30th, this upgrade follows Captivate’s recent release cross-promotional feed drops and network features, with the new guest booking & interview management features being available to all podcast creators for free, unlimited use on any Captivate plan.