This short tutorial is intended to teach you how to take your existing podcast feed and get it listed in iTunes. You will need to know the url of your podcast feed in order to execute this maneuver, so find it before you start. Frequently the form of the feed will be rss.xml but that isn’t always the case. You will also need to have an Apple ID – this is the free ID you use in order to buy music, movies and TV shows through the iTunes store. If you don’t have an Apple ID you can also use an AOL login.
Select Podcasts in iTunes
First launch iTunes and select Podcasts in the top left corner of the iTunes window
Go to the Podcast Directory
Now in the bottom right corner of the iTunes window, click on Podcast Directory.
Submit a Podcast
When the iTunes store opens to podcasts, it is very long. You’ll have to scroll all the way to the bottom, and find the very bottom left area titled “Learn More”. Under that heading you should find Submit a Podcast link.
Enter your RSS feed URL
Enter your Podcast Feed URL in the window and click Continue.
Enter your Apple ID and password
In the fields shown, enter your Apple ID or AOL ID and enter the associated password, and hit Continue.
Wait
The final step is simply to wait until Apple enters your Podcast into their database. In my experience it only takes about a day or two. I don’t actually remember whether they send you a notification or whether you just have to keep searching in the iTunes store to see if it’s listed.
Huh, whoda thunk it’d be that easy? Who writes all that stuff like the show description and category? Is is somewhere in a podcast’s RSS feed already, do the iTunes Guards write it, or do you write it after they contact you to tell you it’s there?
Great question Will. Yes, all of the info like the show description and the category info are in the RSS feed. Check out this ScreenSteps tutorial that shows how to put it in using Feeder: http://www.podfeet.com/wordpress/tutorials/feeder/
thanks for this – very helpful post. just submitted our podcast and hope to hear back shortly.
cheers!
=ck
Cool! glad it helped you out. We all get here with help from others, have to pay it forward.
I submitted two podcasts to ITunes. One the first week and then another podcast the second week. The first podcast was posted and a page was generated by ITunes – no problem. The second was also posted and a page was generated by ITunes, the problem is that it wasn’t the same page. So there is no “go to one page and see both podcasts”. I’m worried that my third posting will be on another page (and so on). What am I doing wrong? Thanks JD