Apple's u-turn: episode numbers won't get you chucked out after all; RODE release new firmware

• In an apparent u-turn, Apple has sent a (partial) email to podcasters reassuring them that “Your Show Won’t Be Removed for Having Episode Numbers in Episode Titles”, reverting the threat made yesterday. This is an embarrassing about-face for the company, compounded by the fact that their latest email looks suspiciously as if someone hit the “send” button before it was actually completed, and has made them the target of ridicule.

Aug 11 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

Apple does, however, still recommend that you follow their guidelines and take episode numbers out. But what do you actually need to do? Apple’s guidance is theoretically a good thing for accessibility, so here’s our FAQ on how to follow Apple’s guidelines about episode numbers, including use of the <itunes:title> RSS tag, which Apple Podcasts uses if it’s present.

Even before this mis-step, MacWorld noted that Apple may soon lose its #1 spot in podcasting. This threat, then hasty retreat, probably won’t help the company’s relationship with podcasters.

• Support across podcast apps for the episode number tag is very poor. We looked at episode number support in podcast apps - only two apps support episode numbers, and one does a pretty dismal and inconsistent job of it. Spoiler: it’s Apple’s.

• Libsyn are putting on a free webinar tonight at 7pm New York time about podcast metadata; it’ll contain some Libsyn-specific information but is open to everyone.

• Yesterday saw Nick Quah’s “HotPod Summit” take place in NYC. The twitter hashtag is probably helpful for some coverage of the event.

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• The company behind the RØDECaster Pro has released v1.1.0 of their firmware, which adds mix-minus on USB, enhanced UX, as well as multitrack recordings. It’s available for download now.

• In January, we reported the launch of Local to Global, with Nick Hewer - a podcast made for the UK government’s Department of International Trade. According to the Mirror newspaper, the “vanity project” cost £107,000 (US $141,000), but has achieved a total of just 8,398 downloads. For each listener to the seven part podcast, that’s an equivalent of £89 each (US $117).

• Alex Jones was on Joe Rogan’s podcast recently, and predictably went a bit mad. Sadly, it looks unlikely that he’ll make it onto The Daily as a guest.

• Spotify has hired Liz Gateley as Head of Creative Development. She’s ex Lifetime, a TV network, and “will oversee the original content development teams in both New York and Los Angeles as they develop projects in the comedy, sports, YA Fiction, scripted, news and documentary and music genres.”

• Yesterday, we noted that Serial and The Joe Rogan Experience still have episode numbers in their titles. In fact, Serial uses an <itunes:title> tag to give a different episode title to Apple, as per the guidelines. Joe Rogan’s podcast, however - one of the most popular in the world - still contains episode numbers in the title field. We have updated our podcast pages checking code accordingly.

• Podnews is in the US next week - in New York on Monday and Tuesday, and then at Podfest Orlando. If you have a moment, we’d love to catch up. Especially, after this week, if there’s beer involved.