Podcasting on iTunes® requires several steps:
After you have created your RSS feed and upload it to a server with a publicly addressable URL (i.e., not behind a firewall), you should test your feed to see if it works with iTunes®:
iTunes® will display your Podcasts list page, which shows all of the podcasts to which you have subscribed. You should see an orange circle, which indicates that iTunes® is downloading your most recent episode. When the orange circle disappears, you should be able to see your Podcast title, a list of all the episodes referenced in your feed, and a check next to the most recent episode, indicating that it has been successfully downloaded. Double-click on the episode to play it in iTunes®. If you can successfully play the episode, then your feed is working and you can submit your podcast to iTunes®.
If the orange circle is replaced by ⓘ (circled i), iTunes® encountered a problem with your feed or episode. You should troubleshoot your episode and feed before submitting it. Please do not submit your feed until you can successfully subscribe using the Advanced menu.
If you can successfully subscribe to your feed using the Advanced menu in iTunes®, you're ready to submit your feed:
OR (if the link did not work) use the steps below:
You will need a valid iTunes® account, and you will need to be logged into iTunes®. If you are not logged in, iTunes® will prompt you to do so before accepting your submission. By requiring you to log in, iTunes® increases the likelihood of valid contact information for each submission. Your credit card will not be charged for submission of a podcast.
If you have created an RSS feed with all of the recommended iTunes tags, you will see a summary page immediately after you submit your feed URL.
If you have not included <language>, <category>, and <explicit> tags in your feed, you will see a second screen prompting you for this information. This information can be changed at a later date by including the tags in your feed. Your RSS feed is considered the current and authoritative source for information about your podcast.
There are a variety of errors that iTunes can encounter when you submit your feed. Almost all of them can be avoided by testing your feed using the Advanced menu prior to submitting your feed.
iTunes® has responded by saying that the feed has already been submitted. There are two possible causes:
To avoid listing duplicate podcasts, iTunes® blocks your feed.
If the submission is blocked because the feed URL has already been submitted, and you are in control of the RSS feed, then you don't have a problem: your podcast is in iTunes® and you can control it by editing your feed.
If you are the feed owner and the feed that is listed in iTunes® is not under your control, you can attempt to contact the owner by searching the web, finding the feed, and examining the code for contact information.
After your podcast is submitted, it is placed in a queue, where iTunes® staff check it for problems. Your podcast may be rejected for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to:
Podcasts that are added to the iTunes® directory will appear first in iTunes® search, and later in iTunes® browse. Appearing in the browse category that you specified can take up to two days.
The image associated with your podcast may require an additional 2-3 days to appear, because images are edge-cached by iTunes® and must propagate across the cacheing servers.
Whenever you create a new podcast episode, you should add a new <item> section to your podcast feed. This is easily done in FeedForAll Mac using the New Item Wizard. The iTunes® directory will list the episode the next time it reads your feed. The order in which the episodes appear is based on the pubDate for each item, with the most recent episodes appearing at the top of the list.
By default, the iTunes® directory reads every feed once per day. However, you can control this rate using the <ttl> tag. This tag affects the iTunes® directory but not what existing subscribers see in their iTunes client. The client picks up new episodes based on the preferences set by the user.
If you are no longer creating a podcast and you want it removed from iTunes®, you should:
If you want to remove your feed temporarily, you can use the <block> tag described in "How To Publish a Podcast on iTunes® Music Store or to Another Web Site Using FeedForAll Mac".
Podcasters occasionally need to move their feed from one location to another. In this case, you should not remove your feed. If possible, you should set your web server to return a 301 error and redirect when receiving a request for the old feed. Doing so will cause both the iTunes® Music Store and the iTunes clients that have subscribed to your podcast to pick up the new feed URL. Be sure to maintain the redirect for at least two weeks to ensure that most subscribers have attempted to download your most recent episode and have thereby received the new URL.
If you are running an Apache server creating a 301 error is simple.
Example 1:
To indicate that your feed has moved from http://www.oldserver.com/myfeed.xml to http://www.newserver.com/newfeed.xml - complete the following steps.
Example 2:
Suppose you want to simply change the location (subdirectory) of the feed on the existing (same) server.
For additional reference, click here. Please note that the documentation is for Apache 1.3 series but the code will work for 2.0 series.
If you don't know how to return an HTTP 301, you can use the <itunes:new-feed-url> tag described in "How To Publish a Podcast on iTunes® Music Store or to Another Web Site Using FeedForAll Mac".
This is easily accomplished using FeedForAll Mac. Follow these simple steps:
The tag will cause the iTunes® music store to be updated with the new feed URL, but it will not inform iTunes clients of the new location. You may choose to include an audio note in your podcast, informing your subscribers that your podcast has changed locations. After adding the tag, be sure to keep your feed running at the old URL for at least 48 hours.