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PittCaleb

Q: Publicly Accessible Podcast, but not broadcast or searchable?

We are producing an in-house podcast which we want to be publicly accessible, but we don't want everyone to be able to easily find it.  Obviously as soon as the link is made public, it's in essence out there, but we don't want people to be able to search for "xxx" and fine it in the iTunes store.

 

Putting the XML file on our site works, but not as neatly as it would if in the iTunes directory.

 

Is it possible to submit a PodCast to the iTunes store/repository/directory yet have it not be indexed/searchable/listed?


Thanks,

PittCaleb

Posted on Jun 16, 2016 7:57 AM

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Q: Publicly Accessible Podcast, but not broadcast or searchable?

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  • by Roger Wilmut1,Helpful

    Roger Wilmut1 Roger Wilmut1 Jun 16, 2016 9:46 AM in response to PittCaleb
    Level 9 (78,345 points)
    iTunes
    Jun 16, 2016 9:46 AM in response to PittCaleb

    This is not possible - once a podcast is in the Store it's searchable and there's no way of preventing this.

     

    If you place the feed file on your server and use a robots.txt file to prevent search engines from listing it then only people to whom you give the URL will be able to access it. (If you want to know how to do this, please ask - it's quite simple).

     

    If you use http at the beginning of the URL then accessing it will open it in the visitor's default feed reader: you could put the file in a web page (also blocked from search engines) with a note explaining how to subscribe to it in iTunes. If you begin the URL with itpc instead of http then Mac users who access the URL (again, best done from a link on a web page) will automatically be subscribed in iTunes. However Windows users who don't have iTunes installed will get an error telling them to install it.

     

    Incidentally, should you wish to password-protect the podcast (and each episode) this is possible in iTunes (although the Store doesn't allow it).

  • by PittCaleb,

    PittCaleb PittCaleb Jun 16, 2016 9:48 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Publishing
    Jun 16, 2016 9:48 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

    I was not aware of the iptc protocol option.  Do you know if there is similar to force Podcast Client launch in Android?

     

    Have confidence iTunes will work, right now, it launches News, but then re-directs to iTunes.  If this would go straight to iTunes, that would be great; only open issue would be Android client auto-launch.

     

    PittCaleb

  • by Roger Wilmut1,Helpful

    Roger Wilmut1 Roger Wilmut1 Jun 16, 2016 10:28 AM in response to PittCaleb
    Level 9 (78,345 points)
    iTunes
    Jun 16, 2016 10:28 AM in response to PittCaleb

    I don't know of any other case of being able to auto-open an RSS/Podcast reader. Android users will probably have to subscribe manually, in which case the http version would be preferable - of course if you use this, so will iTunes users, and you may find it advisable to give instructions on how to do this.