Confused about Apple Podcast tag

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Level 1

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Confused about Apple Podcast tag

I'm confused as to how to set up the <itunes:type> tag in the new Apple podcast rss feed.

I want my podcast to be displayed latest (most recent) to first (oldest) episode, but I also want to have 2 or 3 seasons a year.

I use Feeder to write my RSS feed and according to their support personnel, this is not possible. They tell me that if I want episodes to appear latest to first, I need to set the <itunes:type> tag to Episodic and can't enter Season and episode numbers unless I set it to Serial.

But according to Apple Podcast documentation:

• episodic (default). Specify episodic for stand-alone episodes or when you want your episodes presented and recommended last-to-first. This option also supports seasons, with the newest episode at the top. For new subscribers, Apple Podcasts adds the latest, most recent episode in their Library.

I'd like to publish at least 2 seasons in a calendar year with newest episodes appearing at the top. If I set <itunes:type> to episodic, it only shows episodes by the year.

Is Feeder wrong? They seem to be on top of it in terms of keeping up to date with Apple Podcast tags and I'd be surprised if they are.

Currently, I have my podcast feed set to episodic and have episodes for 2016 and 2017 in the feed. I would like to divide these into at least 3 seasons, with the most recent podcasts being displayed at the top. If I set <itunes:type> to serial, the oldest episodes will be displayed first. For 2016 I can reorganize the numbering so everything is displayed correctly, but for 2017 I would have to renumber the episodes every time I release a new episodes so that the most recent episode is 'no. 1' and is loaded into iTunes or the iOS app at the top.

What am I not understanding?

Any feedback/insight would be much appreciated.

https://downtobusinessenglish.com/rss.xml

Apple Podcast URL: Down to Business English: Business News to Improve your Business English by Skip Montreux, Dez Morgan & Samantha Vega | …

Cheers,

Malcolm

Posted on Nov 21, 2017 5:18 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Roger Wilmut1

Level 10

131,540 points

Nov 21, 2017 6:59 AM in response to mkostiuk

These tags are new to me, too, so it's a learning curve. The <itunes:type> tag (which you use in the top section of the feed) simply dictates whether the order in the iTunes Application (and I suppose the Podcasts App) is most recent on top (for normal podcasts) or oldest on top (for anything like a serial book reading).

In order accomodate seasons there is another tag, <itunes:season>, which you use for each episode, i.e. between the <item> tags. Apple's documentation says:

<itunes:season>

The episode season number.

Where season is a non-zero integer (1, 2, 3, etc.) representing your season number.

To allow the season feature for shows containing a single season, if only one season exists in the RSS feed, Apple Podcasts doesn’t display a season number. When you add a second season to the RSS feed, Apple Podcasts displays the season numbers.

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Answer 2

Nov 21, 2017 7:07 AM in response to mkostiuk

Since you are hosting on libsyn - use the libsyn feed - it 100% supports all the iTunes tags.

And you can set up your feed to do what you want. It is 100% ok to have Seasons and be episodic. Newest at the top. This is normal for podcasts that follow TV shows for example.

Contact support at libsyn dot com for more help - and best to use the libsyn feed and tools when hosting on libsyn.

Rob W

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