Apple Podcasts content guidelines

Podcasting is an extraordinary medium that allows people to share information, perspectives, stories, and ideas with audiences around the world. With Apple Podcasts our guiding principle is simple: we want to provide a delightful, trusted experience for audiences, and rewarding opportunities for creators to distribute and monetize their shows.

To help creators and audiences know what to expect from each other, and from Apple Podcasts, we maintain the following content guidelines. These guidelines will evolve over time and we will keep creators informed of significant changes as they are updated.

In the event Apple reasonably believes that, based on human and/or systematic review, a creator’s content does not meet these guidelines, Apple may take action to label or remove the content from Apple Podcasts, suspend the sale of subscriptions, and/or suspend or terminate your account. We value the work creators offer on Apple Podcasts and will work to help resolve any issues that may arise.

For creators established in, and who offer subscriptions via Apple Podcasts to customers located in, the European Union, more information about redress options available to you in connection with an action Apple has taken against you, for example removal of your podcast from Apple Podcasts, is available here.

1. Inaccurate, Misleading, or Unauthorized Content

• 1.1. Metadata Accuracy. Podcast metadata (for example, titles, descriptions, language, etc.) must always accurately represent the corresponding content that is distributed.
• 1.2. Explicit Content. Creators must flag individual episodes with the “Explicit” tag if they contain explicit content (for example, profanity or content that may not be suitable for children).
  
• 1.3. Self-Censored Content. Apple Podcasts automatically censors certain explicit words in titles, so creators should not self-censor language in metadata, such as titles or descriptions. These metadata fields must be written as intended, and all words should be completely spelled out. For example, creators do not need to insert asterisks within explicit words. However, the use of censoring symbols as a stylistic name or brand choice is permitted, if you use that name or brand with such censoring symbols consistently in your name elsewhere, beyond Apple Podcasts.
  
• 1.4. Impersonation. Podcasts designed to mislead audiences by mimicking, copying, or duplicating other content or search terms are not permitted. Creators must not pretend to be someone else or claim they are affiliated with someone else without their permission and cannot use the artwork, description, or metadata of another creator’s show without permission. 
  
• 1.5. Manipulation. Creators must not encourage or cause any misleading, fraudulent, improper, unlawful, or dishonest activities that interfere with the integrity of Apple Podcasts. For example, creators cannot artificially increase, falsify, or otherwise manipulate a podcast’s follows, listens, ratings, or reviews, or attempt to influence search using inaccurate or inappropriate terms.
  
• 1.6. Incomplete Content. Don’t provide incomplete content, including sample or trailer episodes for podcasts which are not or will not be shortly available in Apple Podcasts. For episodic shows, you may choose to make a subset of your podcast episodes available on Apple Podcasts so long as the episodes are published to Apple Podcasts on a regular cadence.
  
• The amount of editorial content in an episode should greatly exceed any advertising content, so episodes must not consist primarily of advertising or marketing for products, content, or services outside Apple Podcasts without providing an editorial benefit for audiences.

• 1.7. Rights Infringement. Podcasts must not contain materials that infringe on the rights of others (for example, copyright, right of publicity, trademark, etc.). Creators must ensure their podcasts only include content that they have the rights to use.
• 1.8. Password-Protected Content. Content that requires a password is prohibited from the Apple Podcasts directory.
  
• 1.9. Duplicate Content and Repeated Submissions. Content may be removed if multiple copies of a show or episode are submitted. If creators seek to publish an updated version of a show or episode, they should upload a replacement to the original.
  
• 1.10. Use of Apple Inc. Copyrighted Terms. Podcasts not produced by Apple Inc. or its affiliates must not use Apple trademarks (such as the Apple logo, Apple Inc., or Apple Podcasts) in a way that makes the content appear to be Apple-branded or created by Apple. To learn more, see Guidelines for Using Apple Trademarks and Copyrights.
• 1.11. Artificial Intelligence (AI) Generated Content. Creators using AI to generate audio or video content — including synthetic voices, AI-generated hosts or on-screen personas, or AI-synthesized replicas of real individuals — must prominently disclose this to audiences in the content and metadata for each episode and show.
• 1.12 Misleading Use of AI. Creators must not use AI in violation of these guidelines, including to mislead or deceptively portray real-life events in their content (e.g., using AI to fabricate news stories or manipulate audio or video clips to present false narratives).

2. Illegal, Harmful, or Objectionable Content

• 2.1. Illegal Content. Creators’ content must comply with applicable law and regulations for the countries or regions where the content is distributed.
• 2.2. Harmful or Objectionable Content. Some content may not be suitable for distribution on Apple Podcasts, such as content that may lead to harmful or dangerous outcomes, or content that is obscene or gratuitous. For example, Apple Podcasts does not allow content that includes:
  
• Encouragement of suicide or self-harm.
• Encouragement of criminal activity or illegal acts.
• Defamatory, discriminatory, or mean-spirited content, including references or commentary about religion, race, sexual orientation, gender, national or ethnic origin, or other targeted groups, particularly if the content is likely to humiliate, intimidate, harass, or harm individuals or groups or includes specific threats of violence against certain groups or individuals. Professional political satirists and humorists are generally exempt from this requirement.

• 2.3. Cultural Sensitivities. Creators are responsible for being knowledgeable about and, if appropriate, addressing any cultural sensitivities before distributing a podcast in a given country or region.
• 2.4. Pornographic or Sexually Explicit Content. Pornographic or sexually explicit content is not suitable for distribution on Apple Podcasts. Examples include:
• Pornography, nudity, or content intended for sexual gratification. Depending on context and subject matter, exceptions for educational, scientific, and artistic expression may be permitted in certain cases.
• Content promoting sexual violence or sexual humiliation.
• Content that circumvents these rules through partial censoring (e.g., pixelation, blurring, sheer clothing).

Creators must flag individual episodes with the Explicit tag if they contain explicit content — for example, profanity, sexually suggestive themes or imagery, or other content not suitable for general audiences. See also Section 1.2.

Supplemental Guidelines

3. Advertising

• 3.1. Advertising Laws. All advertising must be in compliance with applicable law (for example, laws around disclosure of content as paid or sponsored advertising, the content of advertising, and what type of advertising may be included without an age verification).

4. Paid Content

In addition to the preceding content guidelines, the following guidelines apply to paid content available on Apple Podcasts through Apple Podcasts Subscriptions.

• 4.1. Subscription Accuracy. Creators must clearly and accurately describe what benefits audiences will receive in exchange for the price, and the description must match the benefits provided, including the frequency or cadence on which subscribers can expect new subscriber content. Creators must update this information if and when there is a change to the benefits or content that a subscriber might reasonably be expecting.
• 4.2. Duplicate Shows. A show must be associated with a channel and duplicate shows are not permitted. If creators offer free and paid versions of the same show on Apple Podcasts, they must link them using Apple Podcasts Connect.
  
• 4.3. Premium Experience. In order to ensure that customers receive a premium experience when buying subscriptions on Apple Podcasts:
  
• Creators cannot charge for content in Apple Podcasts if that content is available elsewhere for free at the same time in the same country or region.
• Creators cannot offer benefits, such as ad-free listening or early access to new content, if those benefits are available elsewhere for free at the same time for audiences in the same country or region.
• Creators cannot offer ad-free listening as a benefit if they do not have ads in their free shows.

• 4.4. Ongoing Value. Subscriptions are not intended to be one-time transactions. The value may differ for each subscription depending on the content and benefits offered by creators, but the subscription must supply ongoing value to subscribers.
• 4.5. Deceptive or Unfair Pricing. While subscription pricing is up to you, Apple may reject subscriptions that are excessively high or clearly unfair to customers. Creators must not offer subscriptions that try to cheat users with irrationally high prices. Annual subscription pricing should not exceed 12 times the monthly price.

5. Subtitles and Transcripts

• 5.1. Accuracy. Transcripts, subtitles, and captions that you provide to Apple for display with your content on Apple Podcasts must accurately reflect and correspond to such content.
• 5.2. Timing. Subtitles or closed captions included in HLS streams must include timing that aligns with the corresponding video segments.

6. Video

In addition to the preceding content guidelines, the following guidelines apply to video content available on Apple Podcasts.

• 6.1. Valid Video Content. Video podcast episodes should contain video content created or selected with editorial intent, such as live action footage, animation, screencasting, or archival footage. Episodes consisting primarily of static imagery, logos, artwork, or audio visualizers should be distributed as audio podcasts instead.