Tweets

There is tons of confusion about Apple's new Podcast Subscriptions.

(Plus: lots of misinformation about Apple "killing RSS feeds")

So I made a video that explains what's new, and what's stayed the same.

Full video here: https://youtu.be/g9ZVucX0J80

@JoseCanHelp 🤙

@jesseleite85 Very thankful. Did a few podcast interviews today with @erasmuselsner and @pekpongpaet.

As I went through my story it was so clear: I have so many things to be grateful for. 🙏

@rezzz Whoa! That’s sounds incredible!

Happy birthday to your boy! 🎉

@JackEllis @michaeldyrynda Yup. My kids are 11-18. Definitely a different stage of life. 😉

@BuilderDubya @laravelphp @LaravelLivewire @tailwindcss @Alpine_JS NICE: BEST STACK ON THE INTERNET.

@claire_emerson_ Silence! WHAT A GIFT!! 🎁

@chadkoh Nice! I rode my bike downtown Vernon today. Love pedaling.

@SamTheGeek No.

Big misconception.

Hosting on Apple is really only for "premium shows" or "premium bonus episodes."

@iroughol NICE! 🙌

@jtallant oh man. I've been there! the worst!

@mkadin It's not just you!

I asked about the same thing.

According to my anonymous Apple source, they've been having problems with the crawler.

@Teh_Franchise It's "Dirty Feet" which is a cross country run event here.

@chrisyour 🤘

@joshuaanderton oh yikes. No podcasting?

@michaelkoper 😮

@takeitev There’s really no way for us to know (as a hosting platform).

Apple has given us very little notice about any of this.

Here's a list of all currently known bugs in Apple's new Podcasts Connect:

https://transistor.fm/apple-podcasts-problem/

Some of these have been solved for some users, but still aren't working for others.

My recommendation: let's all chill until Apple's engineers have made things more stable. 😎 https://twitter.com/TransistorFM/status/1385664215776567296

@dougblackjr thx!

@thejonasme Pretty sleepy after a bad night's sleep. 😬

Weather is beautiful though. Nice sun. Going to drink more coffee now.

@noahwbragg Way to go. It's a hard market out there! You're lucky to get anything these days.

@janetacarr Whoa! Congrats on making the jump!

@shawnfrompdx I just woke up. Had a bad sleep (eyelash in my eye?).
Trying to get something done before some meetings this afternoon.

@BrendanOfEarth wow.

Road biking, or cross crountry mountain biking, downhill?

@takeitev Nice. What’s for dinner?

@ramon_fritsch Best part of the day. Coffee?

@gimenete Yikes. That bad?

@KennethCassel @SlipApp Nice’ 🙌

@camlangsford Ooooh. Nice!

@m1guelpf You are the most productive person I know!

@Webboltio Damn! That sucks. Hope you feel better. 🙏

@shawnfrompdx Dang. Sorry to hear you’re not feeling great!

Any sun in your part of the world? ☀️

@erasmuselsner Yes! 🙌

@MrSimonBennett Oooh. Nice.

Just woke up. Had a bad sleep. Trying to get something done before some meetings this afternoon.

@noahwbragg Congrats! Still in Seattle?

I didn’t sleep very good last night (had an eyelash in my eye?)

I’m up now. Working a bit from the couch.

☀️ Sun’s coming through the window.
☕️ Coffee’s good.

🙏 Hope y’all have a good day.

How's everybody doing today?

@itsMeBennyB Thanks!

@itsMeBennyB I’m just used to Netlify!

@MrSimonBennett Whoa! Profit Well emails must be looking 📈 💯

@ArunTU @KineticBear I was eventually (after 8-10 hours) able to get access to Podcasts Connect.

@noahwbragg Nice! @getRewardful is great.

@AlbanBrooke @CroweTim The show I added yesterday just worked!

https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1385395789581545476

Update: I can now submit a new podcast RSS feed to Apple's Podcast Connect! 🙌

✅ RSS feed is being read properly
✅ Artwork bug is fixed
✅ Was able to submit with no errors

The UI for adding a show in Apple Podcasts should definitely be changed.

If you had just created a new podcast on a hosting platform, which option would you choose? 🤔

Really confusing for new podcasters.

Starting a @TwitterSpaces in about 30 minutes (4pm Pacific) to talk about what’s going on with the new Apple Podcasts.

(@nathang will prob join, hoping to have others as well)

https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1385285260104011779

@AustinWalper Like, it's not just every moment in our lives that brought us here, but millions of other events in the world and in other people's lives.

It's wild to think how millions of events have all culminated in this exact moment.

@paulcolabrain Apparently, this is a bug and they're fixing it. 🤞

https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1385285260104011779

Got a DM from someone at Apple.

I asked about the RSS submission bugs:

"We've been having issues with the crawler. Hoping to have it resolved today." 👍

I asked why public RSS URLs were removed from the API:

"That's a bug. There was no intention to remove feed URLs en masse."

@snapey 🤬

RT @camlangsford: If anyone is looking for a podcast host make sure you check out @TransistorFM made my @mijustin and @jonbuda. They make i…

@NathanG 👀 oh interesting. I didn’t catch that

@JamesRParkinson Could you play audio at the same time though?

I can’t remember seeing that. 🤔

@jamespotterdev @TransistorFM @ApplePodcasts Yup, I ran into that in my walkthrough today. Definitely confusing.

@tudor_prodan Oh, this tweet assumes they’re already using + paying. 😊

@jamespotterdev @TransistorFM @ApplePodcasts That’s primarily for the paid shows.

They’re still encouraging free podcasts to use RSS:

https://podcasters.apple.com/support/899-set-up-your-show-for-a-subscription

@actkay 🙌

@KineticBear Wait, you have Apple’s number? 😮

@j_kirkland I hear they’re aware of all the issues. Hoping they can fix them quick! 🤞

@actkay @AlbanBrooke @CarryOnKerry @SkyePillsbury @NathanG @MrAsquith @arithisandthat @mralpete I recorded a quick summary here:

https://youtu.be/ory3uSw7qZg

@JamesCridland Yes! That makes it more clear. Thanks. 👍

@JamesCridland "Cannot see any show without this turned out"

Not sure I understand. The podcasts aren't visible on Apple Podcasts?

Ok. I've been trying to submit this feed through Podcasts Connect for 5+ hours.

Hopefully Apple fixes these bugs soon. ✌️

For folks (like @NathanG) here's the full video of my attempt (and how it compares to submitting to Spotify):

https://youtu.be/sWzAxMsT1HU

WTF.

You now need to enter your phone number to submit your show to Apple Podcasts?!

Still cannot figure out why Podcast Connect is showing these errors. There's definitely a bug on Apple's side.

When I try to submit I get an error message.

"Need show art" (it's there)
"Need phone number" (WHAT)

This is going to be very bad for the open podcast ecosystem.

Apple has removed public RSS feeds from the iTunes Podcast API (even from older, existing shows).

To allow your RSS feed URL to be visible, you now have to log in to to Podcast Connect and find this little checkbox.

@aykut_ibrisim 🤦‍♂️ I wish I could try that. Looks like everything just went offline again.

I found the issue @marcoarment was talking about:

In Podcasts Connect, there's a new checkbox called "RSS feed access."

You now have to *explicitly* allow Apple to expose your RSS feed's URL through the iTunes Podcast API.

Here's what happens when I try to submit a valid podcast RSS feed to Podcasts Connect currently.

It gives these errors:
- No show art
- No language set
- No website set (even though it's optional)

Check my feed; it has all the valid tags:
<itunes:image>
<language>
<link>

Ok, this is weird: you can now add a show to Apple Podcasts without an RSS feed?

TBH, I'm really disappointed with Apple Podcast's new submission process.

Nearly every other platform makes it easy for podcasters to submit their show (with one click) via an API: Spotify, Google, @PodcastAddict, @Breaker, @ListenNotes, @PlayerFM.

Lots of friction on Apple.

Submitting to Apple Podcasts has always had a lot of friction:

- No API for 1-click submission
- You need a valid Apple ID (verified)
- You need to manually copy & paste the RSS feed into a form

It looks like this hasn't gotten any easier in the new Podcasts Connect.

@NathanG @TransistorFM I'll publish the whole thing shortly. I keep hoping I can get the whole process to work, but so far, no luck! 🤞

As a comparison, look how fast and easy it is to submit a podcast to Spotify from most podcast hosting platforms.

You click one button, and it's submitted! (No need to log in to Spotify, no manual review process)

This feed was approved in 15 minutes:
https://open.spotify.com/show/4aUpTXwGBIhtN50lpx3Bpg

I've heard multiple reports of people having a hard time submitting a new podcast RSS feed to Apple, so I've created a brand new feed (using @TransistorFM) to submit.

You can see it here:
https://feeds.transistor.fm/podcast-channel

@coreyrab Yup! You can log in to Apple and Spotify directly to get their player-specific stats. 👍

https://transistor.fm/public-podcast-stats

For existing podcasters, the biggest improvement is Apple Podcasts' new analytics.

You can drill into each episode, and see where listener drop-off occurred.

Really helpful feedback if you're trying to optimize your show. 💯

It took about 10+ hours before I was able to get access to my existing Apple Podcasts Connect account and see the podcasts I already had active on Apple Podcasts.

Overall, the new interface feels cleaner. 👍

Curious about Apple's new Podcasts Connect?

I just got access and tried to submit a new podcast RSS feed.

Here's how it went...

Building software (especially as an indie dev) is incredibly challenging.

Your tweets, upvotes, and positive comments have a huge impact.

It encourages us to keep going (even when things get tough).

@pupeno YES!

@adii Dang! That sucks.

Want to give an indie developer a great gift? 🎁

If you love their software, talk about it! ❤️

- Recommend indie apps to your friends
- Give kudos publicly in tweets and blog posts
- Leave a review on @produchunt, Capterra, etc.
- Make videos showing how you use indie products

@halarewich Wow!!! That unit looks incredible

@gruber Can't tell if you're being sarcastic here. 😉

I'm worried about something like this:

"Apple says Epic is violating its App Store guidelines by using its own payment system." – The Verge

Getting multiple reports that people’s podcasts have disappeared from @ApplePodcasts.

(I’m assuming this is a temporary glitch)

@jamespotterdev @TransistorFM @ApplePodcasts That’s just for paid content though?

@rsingel @CaseyNewton Not sure what you mean. In both cases, on Apple’s platform and outside, the price is set by the podcaster.

@CaseyNewton @rsingel It appears you can still do 3rd-party paid subscriptions. https://twitter.com/JamesCridland/status/1384650599367548932

@CaseyNewton @dhh There was already a pretty good way to do subscription podcasts (Sam Harris, Ben Thompson, etc have been doing this for years).

And adding them to a podcast player (like Apple Podcasts or @OvercastFM) only takes one click:

Ok. After a long wait, I'm now able to access Apple's new Podcast Connect.

Looks good! Definitely cleaner. A few new options.

The most helpful improvement is being able to see all your podcast reviews in one place.

@gruber And they’re still allowing folks to run their own paid podcast subscriptions, outside of Apple’s?

@jkspn @ApplePodcasts Yup. I’ve discussed that here:

https://youtu.be/ory3uSw7qZg

@Shubham Yup. It’s been 10+ hours for me.

@JamesCridland @benthompson @gruber @SamHarrisOrg Thank you! 🙏

@HeyHeyESJ I agree that copying and pasting a url is bad, but we’d already gotten around that using deep links.

One question: how will Apple treat existing paid private podcasts, where subscribers manually add RSS feeds to the player?

@benthompson, @gruber, @SamHarrisOrg, and others use this strategy currently.

Will that go away? (Will they be forced to shared 30% of revenue with Apple?)