Can't read your feed

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Level 1

9 points

Can't read your feed

I am trying to submit an RSS feed to iTunes and am getting a vague "Can't read your feed" message. Any clues as to why this might be happening and what I need to do to fix it? I am very new to this!

My feed: http://picklemonkey.net/cloudflipper/cloudflipper.php?feed=https%3A//soundcloud. com/user-989231588/sets/inner-space

Posted on Jul 4, 2016 12:25 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 4, 2016 1:18 PM in response to aithusa828

This isn't a podcast feed, just a weblog one. It doesn't have the 'itunes:declaration' in the 'xlms' section at the top:

This means that iTunes would not be able to read any 'itunes:...' tags even if you have them. But the main problem is that you have no 'enclosure' tags containing the URL of your playable media files as required by iTunes. You have a link in each 'description' tag to a Soundcloud web page with an embedded player - this won't work. You must provide a direct link to your media file and if you enter the URL in a browser it must play directly in the browser and not force a download or appear in an embedded player. I don't know whether Soundcloud will provide a direct URL.

You may find it helpful to read my 'get you started' page on podcasting which explains the requirements and includes a sample basic feed so that you can see what one should look like: http://wilmut.uk/pc

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Answer 2

aithusa828 Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 4, 2016 1:19 PM in response to Roger Wilmut1

Thank you so much- can you tell me how to generate an RSS URL that fits these requirements? I have searched high and low and these generators were what was recommended, but apparently this isn't doing what I need.

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Answer 3

Jul 4, 2016 1:28 PM in response to aithusa828

I would have expected that if Soundcloud are constructing a podcast feed for you they would know what was required, but I'm afraid I can't advise on how to use their facilities. They are really dedicated to to providing a sharing service using embedded players and it may be that their feed is designed to accomodate only that. You will need to look at their Help and see whether they offer a specifically podcast feed.

Otherwise there are a number of podcast creation methods available - some are mentioned at the beginning of my page that I linked to, but I can't specifically recommend any of them as I've not used them (the program I used to make my podcast was excellent but unfortunately is no longer available).

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Answer 4

Jul 4, 2016 3:02 PM in response to aithusa828

See if these pages help:

http://podcasting.help.soundcloud.com/?b_id=10246

http://help.soundcloud.com/customer/en/portal/articles/2106990-setting-up-your-p odcast-s-rss-feed?b_id=9644

http://podcasting.help.soundcloud.com/customer/portal/articles/2161801-adding-tr acks-to-your-rss-feed

From what they say they expect to provide an iTunes-compatible feed so it's a question of researching the method to do it.

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