Earlier this week, Apple sent an email to Apple Podcast Providers informing them of upcoming changes to how metadata is handled in Apple Podcasts. This evening, Apple has clarified those changes in a new email to podcasters.
Apple’s original email, sent to podcasters yesterday, explained a few things that publishers should avoid: including placeholder text from your hosting provider, verbatim repetition of the title or author name in the description, incorporating irrelevant content or spam, and adding episode numbers in titles.
Apple went as far as to say that doing those things “could result” in podcasts being removed or rejected from Apple Podcasts completely. “Poor-quality podcast metadata may affect new submissions as well as active shows to ensure our platform meets Apple’s quality standards,” Apple said in the email.
In tonight’s email (via Federico Viticci), Apple has clarified its metadata changes for Apple Podcasts. Apple says that podcasts will not be removed for having episode numbers in titles:
We’ve received a lot of questions about metadata best practices on Apple Podcasts. We want to provide more details and clarification as you think about improving your show’s metadata.
Your show won’t be removed for having episode numbers in episode titles
Starting with iOS 11 in September 2017, we introduced modern RSS tags to improve podcast metadata. These tags include support for seasons, trailers, and episode numbers. The new tags help us present your show to your listeners on Apple Podcasts and present listening data to you in Podcast Analytics.
Apple is seemingly loosening the changes it had originally outlined yesterday, though it continues to tout the new Podcasts features introduced as part of iOS 11.
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