podcast declined - how to resubmit?

You've fallen over a bug in the automated part of the submissions process whereby you are told a feed has already been submitted even if it was subsequently rejected or removed. The workaround is to change the title slightly - you can change it back once accepted provided doing so does not change the feed URL. If you can change the feed filename, and hence its URL, this is also a good idea, as is changing the URL in the 'link' tag (this can easily be changed back afterwards). If you can't get this to work, go to https://itunespodcasts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new and click the disclosure triangle at the right of the 'Choose a topic' field - choose 'Submission enquiry' as the nearest appropriate option and explain what the problem is. (The old email address for Support has been discontinued.)

If your podcast contains music which is copyright but has been cleared you should indicate this in the main description as otherwise the Store staff will assume that, as in so many cases, you are using uncleared music.

I tried to upload our first episode yesterday and received an email saying it was under review, however I haven't heard back and people have told me it usually only takes a couple of hours. Is there anyway I can check on it's progress? I am worried that I hadn't initially ticked the explicit content rating on podomatic at first, so I change that and tried to resubmit it but got the message stated above. I found some of your other posts Roger where you mentioned changing the title and resubmitting and I tried this (by changing the title on Podomatic's settings) and it still sees it as the same rss feed.

The feed is:

http://invertypodcast.podomatic.com/rss2.xml

and the show is called invert y gaming (now, it was initially invert y)

bmb

It can take a couple of weeks for a podcast to be assessed and accepted or rejected. Evidently yours is under way. so your can't submit it again. However as it stands at present it's likely to be rejected.

The URL of your media file is http://invertypodcast.podomatic.com/enclosure/2015-07-27T14_13_36-07_00.mp3

If you enter this URL in Safari or another browser you will find it forces a download instead of playing in the browser as it should. This means that although it works when subscribing the Store cannot stream it on its page, so you are likely to get a rejection with the notice 'We had difficulty in downloading episodes from your feed'.

You need to set Podomatic not to download the file. Also it has to be capable of handling 'byte range requests', the method used by iPhones, which is mandatory. I can't check whether it handles this as long as it's forcing a download. If you can sort the download out post back and I'll check it.

Hi Roger

thanks for this, the only option I can find is: Stream media only (downloads not allowed, exclude from RSS)

Is that likely to be it? Have asked some friends that use podomatic to host their show on iTunes what they do but can see any other options. Have clicked that on for now anyway, although I can't see that being it.

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with Podomatic. The two tests you should always carry out when preparing a podcast are, subscribe manually in iTunes (from the File menu) and enter the URL of the media file in Safari (preferably) or another browser - it should play directly in the browser, not download. However at present the media file URL is returning 'file not found'. The option you describe appears to render the file invisible to the feed. It's got to allow a download but not force it - this is the normal behaviour when a media file is placed on an ordinary web server. Podomatic have hosted other podcasts which have worked so there must be a way of getting it correct.

Subscribe manually seemed to work, I wasn't aware of the other one as I followed Apple's help guide to submit and they didn't mention that. I see what you mean though as having cut and pasted that link it auto downloads. I will see if I can get someone to help me out at the podomatic end and get back to you.

Is there another site similar to podomatic you would suggest?

It's currently working when subscribing but I can't access it in a browser. I'm afraid I can't really advise on what site you should use. Free ones tend to have poor support and be problematic. On the other hand Libsyn for example has good support but you have to pay for it. I've not used any of them - when I was running a podcast I handled it myself (the program I used is no longer available).

I appreciate you get what you pay for but podomatic seemed like a great starting point as it has free accounts and paid, so the idea was to upgrade if it takes off. Will wait to hear from my friends about what they did to get around this issue and post up what they say.