iTunes Store Compatible Podcast Hosts – byte-range issue

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iTunes Store Compatible Podcast Hosts – byte-range issue

Hi ...

Wondering if anyone has come across what should be – by now – commonly available info ... and yet instead still seems more like 'the big secret' ... like trying to find out the President's direct cell phone number ...

What hosting companies offer hosting packages that actually work with iTunes Store in 2012?

Ever since Apple started demanding byte-range access to podcasts, long-lived iTunes Store podcasts like mine, (and brand new ones as well) are no where to be seen on the iTunes Store (sure, the iTunes program still lets someone DIY subscribe to a RSS feed without byte-range access, but not the Store!).

PRICING – the little I have come across hosts that 'specialize' in podcasting, or hosts that can get you byte-range access, I find there pricing is way more expensive ... like going from $7/month (currently what I have) to around $40/month in one case.

Is this byte-range requirement meant to wash away all the podcasters that don't have 40$+/month to store a few files and offer a couple downloads? Maybe it's Apple's way to do some house cleaning and get rid of all the small podcasters without big budgets or monetized podcasts ...

I can tell you Godaddy's basic shared server plans don't work. That's what killed my podcast listing in the iTunes Store after years. And as of my last check in August, they are not enabling their shared server packages to provide byte-range access.

I think it's time to get a list going ... if someone is successfully getting listed in the iTunes Store, with your podcasts updates all properly reflected in the Store, how about letting us know where you're hosting your podcast files ...

It's a big internet world out there – I can't believe it has to cost so much to find a company that can serve up an mp3 to an iPhone ... with byte-range access.

iTunes Store Podcast Updating-OTHER, iTunes Store Podcast Update Failure

Posted on Aug 28, 2012 12:54 PM

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Answer 1

Aug 28, 2012 1:42 PM in response to Jazzy CDN

www.libsyn.com works 100% with iTunes and their requirements.

Pricing on Libsyn.com starts at $5 a month for 50 MB of uploads in any 30 day window. Once a file is over 30 days old it no longer counts against your uploads and frees up space for more uploads. All older uploads continue to work just fine.

We have others accounts that allow for additional uploads.

With Libsyn.com - there is no fee for the downloads. So if your show does get featured by iTunes - your account will not get shut down and you will not get a big bandwidth bill.

If you have any questions about the libsyn.com service please let me know.

rob at wizzard dot tv

I am the VP of Podcaster Relations with Libsyn.

Regards,

Rob Walch

Libsyn

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Answer 2

Aug 28, 2012 2:05 PM in response to Jazzy CDN

Jazzy CDN wrote:

That's what killed my podcast listing in the iTunes Store after years.

As a matter of public interest, can you confirm that your podcast was actually removed from the Store? And were you told that the absence of the byte-range requests facility was the reason?

I ask because so far, although new submissions have been rejected on this matter, I hadn't heard of existing podcasts being removed. My own podcast (which hasn't been updated for four years, so I'm slightly surprised that it hasn't been removed before) is still there, and coincidentally is hosted on GoDaddy's shared server package: I don't have an iOS device so I can't check if there's a problem. Possibly the iTunes Store is working through all existing podcasts checking them for this... shouldn't take them more than ten years.

If they are going to start taking down existing podcasts we're going to get a lot of aggrieved people on here asking why... I can feel a boilerplate answer coming on...

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Answer 3

Jazzy CDN Author

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Aug 28, 2012 3:12 PM in response to Roger Wilmut1

Hi Roger ...

The podcast was definitely removed from the store. It was there for over 2 years, weekly updates through the whole period. Now, not a trace of it on the store (just searched it again). And it had climbed rather high in the ratings _ had you searched the store for jazz podcasts, it reached a high of No. 4 out of hundreds.

To be exact, this is as much as I ever got from Apple help explaining why it wasn't updating from my RSS feed:

"After pinging your podcast repeatedly, our systems continue to show a reset request from your servers, keeping our backend systems from being able to update the podcast."

Translation?

You and I actually communicated about this on another thread a few months ago. Everything checked out OK beautiful with the RSS feed (except for a few zero-duration entries that I fixed manually).

I also posted on a Wordpress support board since I was using podPress to maintain my RSS feed. Feedback there was equally positive on everything to do with the RSS feed, accessing the mp3s, etc.

The only thing none of us could check out was streaming and byte-range request compliance from Godaddy.

A couple thoughts: This is to comply with streaming 'chunks' of a podcast at a time. If your podcast is small enough (time or maybe file size) maybe one 'chunk' is enough so there is never a problem since there is never another byte-range request after the first – just guessing.

Or maybe, no mobile requests have come in yet so it hasn't provked a problem?

Researching on my own, I found others talking about byte-range issues and Godaddy, and their podcasts no longer working on iTunes. I can definitely confirm the shared hosting options at Godaddy do not have byte-range enabled. I've talked with level 2 techs over there.

So, piecing together research, trying to translate Apple's deep-geek explanation, seeing enough mentioned about byte-range server requirements ... I added one plus one plus one plus ... and concluded this was the problem.

If I try to submit the RSS feed to iTunes now, it refuses stating it has already been submitted. The iTunes Store failed to parse the RSS feed for weeks so the podcast was never updated. Eventually, after maybe 10 weeks or more, one day it simply disappeared.

Of course, the RSS feed continues to be updated, other podcast platforms continue to be updated, I continue to see the podcast being downloaded in my podPress stats ... and as an iTunes user, I have a test podcast subscription running and soon as I post up another podcast, my subscription starts to run and it downloads.

Just the iTunes Store, and really, what else can it be that the Store is so fickle about?

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Answer 4

Aug 28, 2012 3:27 PM in response to Jazzy CDN

In fact I don't think the removal had anything to do with byte-range requests. It's rather that the server was reacting incorrectly to request specifically from the Store, though it was OK with the iTunes application and browsers.

Someone else had a similar problem and concluded it was a permissions issue - he moved the feed to another folder on his server and it worked. Not saying that this would solve your issue (of course if the Store can't check a feed then you can't put the redirection tag in to move it... catch 22) but it's a thought.

As to resubmitting, if you change the title slightly this should enable you to resubmit it - you've fallen over an annoying bug in the automated part of the submissions process. I should try moving the same feed, with a different title, to a different folder and trying again. You can always change the title back later (as long as doing so doesn't change the feed filename as it does in some applications).

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Answer 5

Jazzy CDN Author

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Aug 28, 2012 3:29 PM in response to Robert Walch

Hi Robert ... re: libsyn.com

Thanks for the nod to your company. However, I had noticed them.

I guess if you really want to compress down to talk-AM quality voice only podcast, you can get a few up in 50MB.

I'm producing a weekly community radio show and podcast it as well. Since there's music, one show (about 2 hours) needs to be around 80MB to hold onto a bit of quality. Frankly, 1MB is nothing these days ... it's like the 'penny' of storage space.

So, with weekly updates, you can see I'm up to 320MB/month.

One good thing about shared hosting is you're getting Gigs of storage for very little. I could offer a one-year archive of programs and never come close to the storage edge.

When I checked out libsyn, it just seemed to be working with rather outdated storage plans with maximums that were out of touch with typical storage offerings in 2012.

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Answer 6

Jazzy CDN Author

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Aug 28, 2012 3:36 PM in response to Roger Wilmut1

Roger ... re changing the title / moving the feed ...

When you say changing the name, you mean just giving a slightly different name to the podcast ... in the podcast name field?

There's another issue of concern as well ... there are currently hundrends of people subscribed to the RSS feed. If I relocate the Feed to a different folder, will that break the link for existing subscriptions?

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Answer 7

Jazzy CDN Author

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Aug 28, 2012 4:45 PM in response to Roger Wilmut1

Hey Roger ...

Just a followup question ... this seems rather dumb actually but where exactly is the RSS file?

After your suggetion to move the file, I booted up cyberduck to look at my hosting directory. The RSS feed url points to a subdirectory off my main website.

JazzBoulevard.ca/podcasts/?feed=podcast ... however in the podcast folder, there's nothing called RSS feed per se ... so what actually is the RSS feed file?

And checking permissions with Godaddy tech support, while I have full read/write access to those folders, anyone else has only read access. Is there some reason Apple Store might need to write something? Seems far-fetched. I imagine they would only read ...

Since you mentioned the permissions issue, do you have a specific permissions setting that is required? I think the tech said something like 777 or some numeric setting.

Anwyay, appreciate the help and thanks for offering your assistance ....

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Answer 8

Aug 28, 2012 6:41 PM in response to Jazzy CDN

Hi Jazzy,

What Libsyn offers is a way to have ever expanding storage for your account. We have many people with weekly episodes going back 7+ years. Again our storage is just about what you need right now.

And why most people host with us - is unlike with a shared server account - there is no limit on the bandwidth or issues if your account gets very popular. That is the draw to libsyn - it is for those producers that want to make sure they are hosting somewhere that can handle any amount of traffic.

For 320 MB of data a month - our 400 MB plan would work for you - but yes at $20 a month it is more than the $7 you are paying for now.

The other advantage to our service is we have tools to manage your RSS feed - so it is as easy as uploading a file - entering a title and hitting publish. No tech knowledge is needed.

And finally - we offer accurate stats - that are parsed and filtered by unique IP addresses. No over inflation of stats which happens all too often with a plain hosting (non-podcast hosting) account.

If you can't get your shared account to work - please check us out.

Regards,

Rob W

libsyn

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Answer 9

Aug 28, 2012 11:37 PM in response to Jazzy CDN

Your feed is at http://jazzboulevard.ca/podcasts/?feed=podcast - it validates in FeedValidator and can be subscribed to manually in iTunes (from the 'Advanced' menu).

As there is a '?' in the URL there is some sort of scripting calling the feed and I can't therefore work out where exactly the file is hosted. Although this works perfectly well in a browser and iTunes, it's always better to provide a direct link to the file without any scripting being involved. However, you say it has been working for some time, so that shouldn't be an issue.

Why the Store is getting a 'reset' response from the server is something I can't answer; I have no experience of server technology.

By changing the name of the podcast, yes the 'title' tag. The feed filename isn't clear anyway from your URL, but it doesn't appear it would be affected by changing the title.

However if the current URL can't be got to work, and you have to use a different URL, then you can leave the old feed in place (as subscribers can still access it) and add the redirection tag as described in this page:

http://www.wilmut.webspace.virginmedia.com/notes/podcast.html#move

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Answer 10

Jazzy CDN Author

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Aug 29, 2012 7:58 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

There was one anomaly with the podcast just prior to all the problems and eventual disappearance of the podcast from the iTunes Store – I noticed that the number of podcast downloads spiked on a number of specific episodes.

Examining the apache logs I was able to determine that on several episodes, specific ip addresses were making insane numbers of download requests for the mp3 file ... in one case around 4000 downloads to an ip address in Japan, in another maybe 1500 to some other ip address somewhere else.

These would occur over a very short period of time, hundreds in 10 minutes for example. I figured someone was hacking together some code and didn't realize some sort of loop occured and they filled their hard drive with copies of my podcast.

Anyway, it was after this the Store stopped updating new podcasts for the first time. After a few weeks and support emails, things seemed to return to normal. ITunes support would later suggest it was Godaddy who did something to restore things however I am unaware of anything Godaddy did – I certainly never initiated anything with them.

While the Store started updating again, it was short lived, there were a couple more anomalous download events (though not on the scale of 4000) ... and once again the Store stopped updating. This time for good.

After maybe 10 weeks the podcast listing disappeared from the Store. Of course, as mentioned, it continues ot be updated and function perfectly for subscribed listeners and other podcast websites.

XML FILE - while the RSS feed is referred to as an XML file, I find it weird that I cannot find the RSS XML file anywhere. And, from the feed, logically it would be in the .../podcasts/ directory - but it's not.

However, there is a .htaccess file which I suspect is somehow creating the feed on the fly - these are the instructions inside that .htaccess file:

# BEGIN WordPress

RewriteEngine On

RewriteBase /podcasts/

RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

RewriteRule . /podcasts/index.php [L]

</IfModule>

# END WordPress

So, given this, it isn't obvious how I would create an alternative feed since I can't even really find the first one.

BYTE-RANGE – considering that we now constantly hear that iTunes Store requires podcasts stored on byte-range enables servers and it has been confirmed as a fact that Godaddy does not currently have byte-range enabled servers in its shared hosting offerings, even if I was able to supply an alt-url feed, it seems safe to assume this Byte-Range issue would surface. Don't you agree?

One final frustration – I use podpress to update the RSS feed (whereever it is) and having crawled all over the fields podPress offers, I have yet to find the field for the actual podcast name. I seel all the others, including where to add a new RSS feed url, but wouldn't you know it, it seems there is no where to access the podcast's name. I think I'll have to post over on the podPress support blog for that one.

My latest research speaking with BlueHost yesterday – their tech people (who actually answer phones) said their hosting packages do include Byte-Range access servers. Thier prices and storage options are a good deal so right now, I'm thinking about them instead of Godaddy.

I wonder if anyone else is hosting on BlueHost and getting good results with the iTunes Store ...

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Answer 11

Aug 29, 2012 8:03 AM in response to Jazzy CDN

Obviously the ability to handle byte range requests is a must, and if a service doesn't offer it then you should look elsewhere - though remember it's the episode media files which are affected, not the feed. They could be on different servers (if that was what you wanted) and as long as the server hosting the media files was compliant it wouldn't matter about the server hosting the feed. However it's obviously neater to keep everything together.

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Answer 12

Jazzy CDN Author

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Aug 29, 2012 8:32 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

yup ... my thinking. Gotta have byte-range enabled servers now.

So, where 'are' people hosting their mp3s that makes the iTunes Store happy? (and doesn't cost premium pricing)

Have you heard of anyone hosting with BlueHost - their pricing is certainly what I'm looking for ... and one of their tech support people claimed yesterday on the phone to me, that they do indeed have byte-range enabled servers ...

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Answer 13

Aug 29, 2012 8:42 AM in response to Jazzy CDN

I haven't: someone may chip in.

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