iTunes Podcast How-To

Click here for a .pdf of this tutorial.

Introduction:

This document is the result of days spent searching the web looking for information on how to create an iTune podcast for my church.  During my research I found that just creating a “regular” podcast was not good enough for iTunes.  It seems that Apple has it’s own set of .xml tags for an iTune podcast.  Some of the tags specific to iTunes are listed below:

<itunes:category>
<itunes:explicit>
<itunes:summary>
<itunes:author>
<itunes:keywords>
<itunes:owner>
<itunes:image>

Click here for a tutorial on the iTunes tags.  One of the biggest problems was that I could not fine "all" of this information in one place. The example used in this document will be that of publishing .mp3(s) of our pastor’s sermons.  While I do know that there are other ways (some of them better ways) to do this, this tutorial will serve those folks (like myself) that do not know much or nothing about .xml.  This tutorial will try to shield you from ever having to edit the actual .xml code (see the example xml code below).

Example xml code

This tutorial assumes that you already have a working and published website up and running.  It also assumes that you already have a software package to edit your website and another software package to upload your changes.  Just for completeness, I am using a PC running Windows XP.  I will be using a scaled down COPY of our church’s website (Cornerstone Baptist Church in Amarillo, TX.) as the example.  The url to the example website is: http://www.nikoli.net/cbc-itunes.  I have disabled many of the links on this version of the website for this tutorial to reduce the size of the site. With that said, let’s get started!

 First let’s run down the list of “other” software that I will be using:

1. FeedForAll - $39.95 and can be downloaded from the following site:  http://www.feedforall.com.  You can download a free 30 day trial copy from their website.  (Sure, there are other “free” methods but this is the one I use).
2. Apple’s iTunes player – It can be downloaded from http://www.apple.com/itunes
3. Web browser – I will be using FireFox 2.0 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0

RSS Feeds:

Looking at the following sermon page located at http://www.nikoli.net/cbc-itunes/2Corinthians.htm you can see our target data that we would like to publish into an iTunes podcast. So, the first thing I need to do is create and add an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed to our website.  When you create an RSS feed it will produce an .xml file for you to publish.  I used “FeedForAll” to create our RSS feed.  You can think of this .xml file as a Table-of-Contents (TOC) of the items that you want to publish.  You can take a look at Cornerstone's .xml (TOC) file by going to the following link: http://www.nikoli.net/cbc-itunes/rss/worshippod.xml.  You should see something like figures 1 and 2.

Figure 1

Figure 2

As you can see, it's just an index of our target (data) page. Open the "target" page in a web browser and keep it open for now. Now open "FeedForAll".

Open "FeedForAll" (and do not use the wizard for this tutorial). Create a new RSS feed by selecting Feed | New from the menu. Now fill in the "Title", "Description", "Link" and "Pub Date" fields to your liking (see figure 3).

Figure 3

In "FeedForAll" click the "Items" tab and add one item for each of the items on the "target" page (see figures 4 and 5).

Figure 4

Figure 5

The items in the left hand pane of "FeedForAll" will be sorted in your final RSS feed by the date and time of each item in the "Pub Date" field. The blue up/down arrows will only sort the items within "FeedForAll" and NOT the final RSS feed! Be sure to fill in the link field for EACH item. If you are using Firefox as your browser you can right click each link on the "target" page and select "Copy link location" and paste it into the "Link" field on the "Items" tab. In Internet Explorer you would right click the link on the "target" page and select "Copy Shortcut" and paste it into the "Link" field on the "Items" tab.

Now it's time to save your .xml (feed) file. Select Feed | Save As from the menu and give your file a name. As you can see from figure 6, I named our's "worshippod.xml".

Figure 6

At this point you are ready to publish your own RSS news feed. To do so, just add an RSS/XML icon to any page on your website and link to the .xml file that you just created. In our case, I would link the icon to the "worshippod.xml file (see figure 7).

Figure 7

You can download some RSS/XML icons from here to get you started. Now upload ALL of your files that have changed (including your .xml file) to your website. Take care to keep the file paths intact (i.e. if you linked your RSS/XML icon to an .xml file in the /rss folder, make sure you upload the whole /rss folder to your website. If you saved your RSS image in a folder called /images make sure you upload the entire /images folder to your website).

Now let's test the RSS feed! Open a browser and point to your new .xml file. In our case, I would point to http://www.nikoli.net/cbc-itunes/rss/worshippod.xml. You should see your data displayed as a news feed that you can subscribe to if you have a RSS feed reader installed on your PC (see figure 1 and 2 above). Both Firefox 2.0 and Internet Explorer 7 have a built-in RSS feed reader. Here are some ideas for RSS readers if you need a little help getting started and you don't have Firefox 2.0 or Internet Explorer 7. That's all there is to creating and publishing an RSS news feed for your website!

Podcasting:

Well, if you've come this far, hang in there because the hard part is over. Technically speaking, you're ready to publish your .xml file "location" as a podcast to everyone EXCEPT the Apple iTunes Store! Remember those iTunes tags I talked about in the introduction? Well, the iTunes Store won't except your .xml link "location" without the iTunes tags! You will get an error saying that your .xml file doesn't have any "episodes". Oh no, what's a podcaster to do, open the .xml file and add the iTunes tags by hand? I'd rather drink poison! (smile)

Our super hero to the rescue! We're going to use "Feedburner" (http://www.feedburner.com), a FREE service to produce our iTunes tag infested .xml file. You will need to sign-up (register) for a free Feedburner account at their website (see figure 8).

Figure 8

On the next page paste the web address to your .xml file and be sure to check the box "I am a podcaster!" and click "Next" (see figure 9).

Figure 9

Give your feed a title and provide the last part of the web address that the public will use and click "Activate Feed" (see figure 10).

Figure 10

Congratulations! You've just setup you account at "FeedBurner" and are ready to add those nasty little iTunes tags. Click the "Next" button on the "Congrats!" screen to get started (see figure 11).

Figure 11

Heads up, this is the most important part! Make sure you check the box "Include iTunes podcasting elements"! Now select your "Category" and other items as you like, and click "Next" when done (see figures 12a and 12b).

Figure 12a

Figure 12b

This will bring you to the "Analyze traffic" or "Traffic Statistics" screen. Unless you have a need for the "Pro" stuff (and you may as far as I know), just select all of the free stuff to start with, you can always upgrade later if you like, and click "Next" (see figure 13).

Figure 13

Congratulations, you are ready to rock 'n roll. As figure 14 shows, you are done with this part!

Figure 14

This is the home stretch guys, hang in there! All that's left is to publish to iTunes! There are two ways to do that. The first is to go to the following link: https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/publishPodcast. iTunes should open to the "Submit Podcasts to the iTunes Directory" page. Paste the url from figure 14 into the "Podcast Feed URL:" text box and click "Continue" (see figure 15).

Figure 15

You will be required to create a free iTunes' account if you don't already have one. Click "Create Account". (see figure 16).

Figure 16

Provide the required account information and click "Continue". Apple will verify the url that you just posted before it will show up in iTunes. Our took two (2) days but Apple says it could take up to two weeks before you can search for your podcast in iTunes. However, you can subscribe to it right away! Open iTunes and go to Advanced | Subscribe to Podcast... on the menu bar and paste your podcast url into the resulting dialog box and click "OK" (see figures 17 and 18).

Figure 17

Figure 18

The second way to publish to iTunes is to open iTunes and go to the "iTunes Store" link on the far left hand side. Now click the "Podcast" link just to the right (in the white square). Click on the purple and white "Submit a Podcast" icon in the center section (see figure 19).

Figure 19

That's it, that all folks, you're now an iTunes podcasting demon! Once you get used to it, I know there are a number of shortcuts you can find to do some of the same things that I have showed you here today. However, this tutorial was just to get you started fast. Hey, if you don't like my way, there's always the xml code!

Removing or Blocking Your Feed From iTunes (Quote from the "Podcasting and iTunes: Technical Specification") below:

If you are no longer creating a podcast and you want it removed from iTunes, you should:

1. Log into iTunes.
2. Find and select your podcast.
3. Click on Report a Concern.
4. Select "is mine and I want it removed from the Music Store" from the Choose a Reason menu.
5. Explain why you want the podcast removed.

In most cases, we will remove the podcast from iTunes, especially if we find that the podcast is no longer available at the feed URL.
If you want to remove your feed temporarily, you can use the <iTunes:block> tag described in the iTunes RSS Tags section...

Postscript

(Feb. 6th, 2007): On Jan. 16th, 2007 FeedForAll released version 2 of their product that has built-in support for iTune tags. However, I still think it's a better idea to keep using the "FeedBurner" section above. The main benefits to publishing your podcast through a FREE service like "FeedBurner" are the statistics. Do you want to know how many subscribers you have to your podcast? Do you want to know what your subscribers are downloading? A good service like "FeedBurner" will track that kind of information for you. That is something the average user can't do on their own. Not even using version 2 of "FeedForAll". You can find a tutorial for "FeedForAll" version 2 and the iTune tags here.

Other useful sites:

Podcasting and iTunes: Technical Specification

My name is Lamar Thomas and if you think this tutorial rocks, then let me hear from you at: lamart2255@excite dot com. Cornerstone Baptist Church's REAL website can be found at: http://www.cornerstonebc.com.