Earlier in the week, Apple sent an email to Apple Podcast producers providing information on upcoming changes to how metadata is handled in Apple Podcasts. Apple has now sent a new email to clarify those changes.
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 a Thursday evening email (via Federico Viticci), Apple clarified the metadata changes for Apple Podcasts. In it Apple says podcasts won’t be removed for having episode numbers in the podcast 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 apparently backpedaling on changes it had originally outlined this week.