Apple walks back statement after freaking out podcasters
Podcasters can now breathe easy.
Apple is walking back an emailed statement to podcasters on Wednesday that seemed to suggest shows would be rejected or removed from Apple Podcasts if the episode numbers were included in episode titles.
The Cupertino, CA-based company rushed to send a clarification email on Thursday making clear that shows were not going to be removed if they historically included episode numbers in their titles.
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The confusion began earlier this week when Apple sent out an email with a list of best practices for podcast metadata — information connected to each show detailing titles, authors, and episode descriptions. The company recommended avoiding using placeholder text such as “[Title goes here]” and spamming keywords for blatant SEO purposes in podcast descriptions.
One recommendation in particular, however, caught the eyes of the podcasting community. Apple said to avoid numbering podcast episodes in the titles, a practice that’s become quite the norm for many podcasters.
“These practices could result in your show being rejected or removed from Apple Podcasts” stated the Apple email, immediately following the episode title tip.
Podcasters were outraged.
FYI Podcasters: Apparently if you have numbers in your episode names you can be removed from iTunes. I'm already hearing that this is actively being enforced by Apple already, so like... that's cool. I love having notice to make changes to my show before a new policy is enforced. pic.twitter.com/rbdjEeIA98
— RPG Casts (Tess) (@rpg_casts) February 27, 2019
I and many other podcasters have received an email from @ApplePodcasts telling us we shouldn't put episode numbers in our titles, or risk expulsion.
Hey, Apple, maybe we wouldn't need to if you displayed the right number in your ruddy iTunes app. pic.twitter.com/RkYFkAYYCC— Graham Cluley (@gcluley) February 27, 2019
literally every podcast I'm subscribed to has episode number in the title
— Ilya (@13xforever) February 28, 2019
It sure is nice that podcasting is such a lucrative business that we all have producers who can drop everything and get to work when Apple is like, “We might drop your podcast if you do something as egregious as putting an episode number in the title of your episode.” pic.twitter.com/dgzF7WV8pZ
— Dave Frost (@slomotionwalter) February 27, 2019
According to Apple’s email, it certainly sounded like a podcast could face removal from Apple Podcasts if a user did not abide by these tips. In fact, Apple has been known to actually go ahead and remove or reject podcasts which take part in the spammy “keyword stuffing” practice.
If the email was to be understood as it was written, podcasters would need to go back through their archives and remove any episode numbers from their show titles. This would be a rather time-consuming task if a podcaster had a long-running show.
However, podcasters no longer have to worry. Apple has clarified their original poorly-worded email. The company now states that while it discourages episode numbers in podcast titles, it will not remove podcasts from Apple Podcasts for this reason. The company, however is still urging podcasters to instead add the episode number via podcast metadata features launched with iOS11.
Apple’s original email to podcast publishers is posted below:
And here’s the follow-up email with Apple’s update on the situation:
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