
The simplest way to set up an RSS feed is to use a podcast hosting provider, most of which operate as one-stop-shopping for everything a podcaster might need. Without an RSS feed, people would have to go to your website and download every episode à la carte, and let’s be honest: unless they are your mom, they’re probably not going to do that. RSS feeds make it easy for people to find your podcast in their app of choice (Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, etc.) and subscribe. But do you need an RSS feed to develop a listening audience? Yes, you do. Do you need an RSS feed for your podcast?ĭo you need an RSS feed to record podcasts and put them on the web? No. By clicking on that icon, you reveal a URL that gives direct access to that website’s feed of new content. The next time you browse the web, look for the RSS icon (it looks a little like a broadcast signal). Readers use them to stay up to date on content from their favorite websites.

Some of the most popular RSS readers are used for text articles and blogs.

Note that RSS readers can grab more than just audio. The app will show you all the latest episodes, and-if you allow it-download them automatically. If you want to stay up to date on a podcast, simply subscribe to it within your podcast app. When you subscribe to the feed, your podcast app gets all the latest data.When you press play or hit the download icon, your podcast app is streaming or downloading audio data from the URL in your RSS feed. Underneath their snazzy interfaces, they are simply grabbing links to podcast audio files. This includes an episode title, an episode date, an episode description, and a link to download or stream the audio. An XML file is a text file that contains metadata about episodes. Podcast publishers create XML files of all available episodes.RSS feeds can also be integrated into social media sites using applications like The Old Reader.

Yes, podcast apps use them, but so do news aggregators that operate within a web browser. People use RSS feeds to access podcasts, blog posts, and pretty much anything that can be described via an XML file. They fetch episodes as links from an XML feed, they download the audio, and then they play it back on your computer or mobile device. (Most podcast apps hide the link and collect the audio for you.) In fact, most podcast apps are combination audio players and RSS feed readers. Podcast RSS feeds help podcast fans stay up to date on the latest episodes, which appear in chronological order with a title, description, and link to the audio file. ( RDF stands for Resource Description Framework, which is an industry metadata standard that nobody talks about anymore.) The acronym can also stand for rich site summary or RDF site summary, though these are slightly antiquated terms. RSS stands for really simple syndication.
