Apple says I need iTunes:type tag to match Subscription

  • We’ve recently added Apple Subscriptions to our podcast, but evidently Apple doesn’t match on episode number alone (leaving us with duplicate content in our Apple Podcasts listing). They’re (now) telling me they also need the <itunes:type> tag in the feed, and I can’t find a way to add this with PowerPress.

    Is this something easy to do? I looked around and couldn’t see a way to do it. Thanks!

    • This topic was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by davethenerd.
Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • Plugin Support Mike Dell

    (@benzoid)

    With an apple subscription feed, that is managed at Apple. Not PowerPress.

    We will soon be implementing a way to manage that at Blubrry.com if you host with us.

    PowerPress generates an RSS feed which is not used or required for an Apple subscription show.

    -Mike

    Thread Starter davethenerd

    (@davethenerd)

    Thanks, Mike! I should’ve been more clear.

    You’re right that Apple manages the subscription portion of things, and Powerpress manages the public feed.

    Apple slurps in that public feed and then integrates their Subscription episodes plus the feed into what’s shown to users of Apple Podcasts. I know you know all this, of course, I’m just walking us down the path.

    The issue is in that integration. We publish an “early access” episode to Apple Podcasts, which means we’re going in and publishing in Apple Podcasts *before* it appears in the public feed that PowerPress creates. Apple podcasts *tries* to match episodes in the two places so that duplicates don’t appear, and *that* is the crux of my issue.

    It needs to match on two things: itunes:episode and iTunes:typeitunes:episodetype. Powerpress happily puts iTunes:episode out there, but it doesn’t have a way of populating iTunes:typeitunes:episodetype.

    And without that second bit of criteria upon which to match, Apple Subscriptions thinks these are two separate episodes and lists them twice in people’s feeds.

    So what I need is a way to add iTunes:typeitunes:episodetype to my feed, and I was hoping there might be a way to do that within Powerpress. ??

    https://podcasters.apple.com/support/899-set-up-your-show-for-a-subscription has the details and… now I’m realizing that my communications from Apple are also confused. The email I got from Apple Podcast Support today said “itunes:type” was needed, but that support doc says “itunes:episodetype” is the feed it’s looking for. I’m assuming the support doc is correct and itunes:episodetype is what’s necessary.

    Have you folks encountered this before? Any thoughts?

    Thread Starter davethenerd

    (@davethenerd)

    Ok, I *think* I found it. When publishing next week’s episode, I found the “Type” option at the bottom of “Apple Podcasts (optional)” > “See More Settings”. It was set to “Full (default)”. I went to a previous episode and changed it to “Full episode” (which should be the same, right?) and… voilà, itunes:episodeType now shows up in the feed for that one episode. (I’ll still need to wait to see if this solves Apple’s matching problem, but at least I can test it and tell them I’ve got it in the feed now :).

    Is there a reason PowerPress isn’t putting itunes:episodeType in the feed when “Full (default)” is selected, or is that an oversight in the code?

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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