Submitting a podcast to Itunes

Factual Questions
1

So, I’ve got an MP3. Now, how do I submit it as a podcast to Itunes?

When I click through to “submit a podcast,” it asks for an address of an RSS feed. I don’t know what that is. How does my MP3 file get an RSS feed address?

Also, how do I give it metadata, such as icons, chapter markings, descriptions, authors, etc. Will Itunes ask for that stuff once I give it an RSS feed address?

2

Absolutely no one in the know here?

3

An mp3 file isn’t a podcast. It’s an episode of a podcast. To have a podcast, you’ll need a web site to serve your files. The RSS feed is like an index of episodes; it lives on your web site and iTunes uses that to know when you’ve published a new episode.

There are a number of ways to do that, ranging from a self-hosted WordPress site, to specialized plugins for WordPress and other CMS/blog apps to help make it easier, to various turnkey hosts and services dedicated to podcasting.

Do you have a blog or a web site already?

4

Thanks for replying!

The podcast episodes will be included in the entries of a blog, along with non-podcast entries as well. The blog as a whole will have an RSS feed, but I am told that there will be no provision (as of yet anyway) for a separate RSS feed for the podcast only.

5

Ok. There are a probably a number of ways to easily come up with a feed for your podcast. I don’t know much about the details of podcasting but it’s even possible the main RSS feed will work.

Can you tell me the address of the blog, and what it’s made with? WordPress?

6

It’s not live yet. If that’s the only way that this’ll work, maybe I’ll private mail you when the website is available.

7

That’s fine. If you can tell me what software you’re using to run the blog I might be able to point you in the right direction. WordPress, Blogger, Joomla, Drupal …?

8

Ektron

9

Hmm, that’s an obscure one - I’m a WordPress guy, so I can only guess. I’d suggest two things:

  1. Ask on their forums. That’s your best bet for finding someone who has done this before. You’ll probably find that you can do something like, attach your mp3 files to posts in a category called “podcast”; then use an RSS feed that only contains things in that category.

  2. You can subscribe to a podcast directly via an RSS feed in the iTunes application, without going via the iTunes store (Advanced / Subscribe To Feed). So with a test site up and running, I’d try subscribing directly to its feed, post some mp3 files to the site, and see what happens. Once you’re happy it looks right you can submit the feed to the iTunes directory.

10

Thanks I’ll try it!