Podcast RSS feed requirements

Apple requires podcasts meet technical requirements and content guidelines to provide a great experience for listeners and make it easier for them to find their new favorite podcasts.

To submit a podcast you must have an Apple Podcasts Connect account. If your podcast comes from an RSS feed, it must meet our technical requirements and include:

• Required tags
• At least one episode
• Artwork

Podcast RSS feed technical requirements

Your hosting provider should be able to help you address technical requirements. If the feed does not comply with these requirements, it will result in feed validation errors. RSS feeds can be self-generated and hosted, or can be issued via a hosting provider.

• RSS feed URLs must adhere to RSS 2.0 specifications, be publicly addressable (not password-protected), and include the following XML declaration:

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd"  xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/">

• Display your show artwork and allow streaming playback of your episodes by enabling your hosting server for HTTP HEAD requests and byte-range requests.
• Each episode must have a unique <enclosure> tag, along with its three required components — URL, length, and type — which specify the location and host of the episode. Apple Podcasts will ignore duplicate <enclosure> URLs.
• All episodes must contain a globally unique identifier (GUID), which never changes.
• Use only ASCII filenames and URLs that include a-z, A-Z, or 0-9. For more information, see encoding best practices.
• Respect case-sensitivity across all XML tags in podcast RSS feeds.

Incorrect casing:

<itunes:category text="Kids &amp; family" />

Correct casing:

<itunes:category text="Kids &amp; Family" />

• Date and time must conform to RFC 2822 specifications. The date must be “day of week, day month year” and the time must be in 24-hour format (without including a.m. or p.m.) with the time zone offset included. For example:

Incorrect date format:

<pubDate>7/6/2014 1:00:00 PM</pubDate>

Correct date format:

<pubDate>Wed, 6 Jul 2014 13:00:00 PDT</pubDate>

<pubDate>Wed, 6 Jul 2014 13:00:00 -0700</pubDate>

• Use ' (for single quote) or " (for double quote). Avoid using HTML naming conventions such as ’, ‘, “, or ”. For more information, see XML Character and Entity References.

Incorrect character format:

<description>Love to get outdoors and discover nature&rsquo;s treasures? Hiking Treks is the show for you.</description>

<title>&ldquo;Wilderness Area Garden of the Gods&ldquo; in Illinois is a delightful spot for an extended hike.</title>

Correct character format:

<description>Love to get outdoors and discover nature&apos;s treasures? Hiking Treks is the show for you.</description>

<title>&quot;Wilderness Area Garden of the God &quot; in Illinois is a delightful spot for an extended hike.</title>

• If using these symbols, use the appropriate programming:

Examples:

Incorrect code:

<title>Pets & Animals</title>

Correct code:

<title>Pets &amp; Animals</title>

Incorrect code:

<copyright>&copy; 2020 John Doe</copyright>

Correct code:

<copyright>&#xA9; 2020 John Doe</copyright>

Tip: Enter all other characters directly in an editor that supports UTF-8.