RSS Feed Requirements

Submit Your Podcast and Update Your Show

To submit a podcast to the Blubrry Podcast Directory, the feed must be RSS 2.0 compliant with the iTunes namespace.

RSS 2.0 Specs: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/rss.html
iTunes Podcasting Specs: http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/specs.html

RSS Feed Specifics

The podcast feed must have the following tags to be accepted by Blubrry.

  • <title> in channel element
  • <guid> in item elements, each must be unique
  • <description> in channel element
  • <itunes:image> in channel element
  • <pubDate> or <dc:date> in item elements
  • <title> in item elements
  • <enclosure> in item elements

Additional iTunes and RSS tags such as <itunes:keywords>, <itunes:duration>, <link>, etc. are optional, but highly recommended to enhance discovery by viewers and listeners.

If you are using WordPress with the PowerPress podcasting plugin, your feeds already include all of the required and optional tags, you’re all set!

Why is my listing on Blubrry Not updated?

There are a number of reasons why your feed might no longer be updating in the Blubrry Podcast Directory. Items to check:

Ensure Your Feed is Valid

You can check that your feed is valid by going to CastFeedValidator.com.

Check That Your Feed is Ordered Properly

Even though the RSS 2.0 spec does not clearly indicate whether the order of the items in your feed is significant or not, many feed-reading applications including blubrry.com assume that the latest post will be stacked on the top of your RSS feed.

Check That Your Feed Works by Manually Subscribing to it in iTunes

For whatever reason, you may find that your feed is no longer including the correct attributes and tags, which can prevent your podcast from appearing correctly in iTunes. The best way to test this is to manually subscribe to your podcast in a copy of iTunes.

Make Sure You Are Using a Supported Media Formats

There are only a handful of media file formats that are supported for podcasting.

  • Audio Mpeg3 (.mp3)
  • Audio ACC (.m4a)
  • Video H.264 (.mp4 and .m4v)
  • PDF Format (.pdf)
  • Electronic Publication (.epub)

In addition to the formats above, Blubrry also supports the following formats. Note, these formats can only be played using specific software and hardware.

  • Ogg Audio (.oga and .ogg)
  • Ogg Video (.ogv and .ogg)
  • WebM Video (.webm)