There may come a time when you want to move your podcast feed to another server, another location on your server or start using a service such as FeedBurner.

In their technical specification, Apple suggests two ways to change your podcast feed’s URL. The preferred method is to set up (or have your hosting company set up) a redirect to the new URL. This will cause both the iTunes Music Store (iTMS) and any subscribers to your feed to pick up the new URL and should also work for other podcatcher applications, including podcast-aware RSS readers.

New Feed URL Tag

Setting up a redirect is not always possible; Apple’s alternative suggestion is to use the <itunes:new-feed-url> tag to inform the iTMS that your feed has moved. In Feeder, you can see this as the New Feed URL field at the bottom of the iTunes Information section in the Extensions part of the Info drawer. Using this tag will inform the iTMS and subscribers in iTunes to use the new feed, but is not likely to work for other directories or podcatcher applications.

Using the New Feed URL Tag

The trick to moving your feed successfully is to ensure you have two different versions of your feed. The old version should contain the New Feed URL and the new version must not. Here are some tips for how to go about this using Feeder:

• Select your old feed in Feeder and choose Edit > Duplicate from the menu.
• Choose File > Publish Settings from the menu and change the publishing settings as appropriate. If you wish to use FeedBurner you simply need to change your feed’s filename. Click Save Changes when you’re done.
• Publish the new feed.
• Test the new feed in iTunes by choosing File > Copy Feed URL from the menu, switching to iTunes, choosing Advanced > Subscribe to Podcast and pasting the URL.

If everything looks good in iTunes, you can now select the old feed, put the new URL in the New Feed URL field and publish the feed. If you intend to start using FeedBurner, have FeedBurner burn the new feed and put the FeedBurner URL in the New Feed URL field instead.

Testing the New URL

You can test the New Feed URL tag is working by updating a subscription to your existing feed in iTunes and clicking the info button next to your podcast’s description. It should show the new feed’s URL.

The iTunes Music Store will switch to using the new feed URL the next time it checks your feed, and your iTunes-using subscribers will pick up the new URL the next time they update their podcast subscriptions. Users of other podcatchers will need to update manually, and you will need to update any other directories that list your feed. Apple suggests keeping the old feed around for two weeks to give everyone enough time to update.

By pure chance I just noticed that the latest iTunes RSS specification at the usual URL has now been updated to one with the date 2005-10-06, which doesn’t seem quite as recent as the one dated 2005-10-20 that we saw on the Apple Syndication Dev mailing list.

However, the one at the usual URL, is no longer the most recent or the one you see when you click the “Technical Specifications” link in the “Submit a Podcast” page in iTunes itself. That now links to this page, last updated 2005-12-07. No changes to the tags themselves, as far as I can see, just a better presented document with more information. There is also a FAQ here.

I was going to post this after posting to the Syndication Dev List, with the usual “this has been updated and nobody has mentioned it!” rantette, but list moderator Ernie beat me to it.

I notice iTunes has extended customer reviews in the iTunes Music Store to podcasts in the last couple of weeks (although they didn’t seem to be working at first). This is something I mentioned was missing before.

Currently there is no way to see the the top-rated podcasts in one place, but it’s better than the “Today’s Top Podcasts” for getting an idea of what’s good and what’s not.

I know many podcasters think it would be better still to replace that chart with something that keeps track of subscriptions over time, and I agree. That is where stuff like Podcast Alley’s voting system works better, requiring listeners to make their views known on a monthly basis in quick and easy fashion.

But anyway, it’s good to see this addition in iTunes.

There has been some discussion on Apple’s Syndication Dev mailing list lately about an update to the iTunes RSS specification, available in the mailing list archives and FAQ.

The specification includes some new tags, changes to the namespace location and clarification on other items, and while it still needs some improvement it’s another step in the right direction and a much bigger one than the last time. It also includes useful information on iTunes submission timescales, missing image problems and tips on how to get your podcast featured on the iTunes Music Store.

All this sounds great, but I wouldn’t have known about the updated spec to ask to see it, had I not heard Madge Weinstein ranting about it in an excerpt from her show played on the Daily Source Code. We’d been promised a look at this new spec on the mailing lists, and this spec, dated October 20th, didn’t appear until requested. Anyway, thanks Madge!

The spec has not yet officially replaced the one dated 7/7/2005 but the functionality is live in iTunes and Sam Ruby has updated FeedValidator accordingly, which is great because FeedValidator practically runs Feeder’s support “department”. The changes are hardly major or screaming urgent; Feeder will be updated in due course.

I like Yahoo’s podcasting directory, I think it works well and I was trying to work out why. I guess it comes down to giving listeners more “say” or control over their podcasts that is more in the spirit of podcasting itself, as shown by the likes of Podcast Alley and Odeo. You can rate podcasts, comment on individual shows and add “folksonomy” tags (i.e. chosen by users rather than a predefined list).

One of the biggest ways I’ve long thought iTunes’ podcatching support is “wrong” (lousy show notes aside) when compared to Safari’s RSS support is that while it’s easy to subscribe to a podcast in iTunes, it doesn’t make it easy for you use the iTunes podcast directory with another podcatcher application such as iPodderX or one of the many podcast-aware newsreaders (e.g. NetNewsWire, NewsMac Pro or NewsFire). With Safari you can choose your RSS reader in its RSS preferences and it always respects that - no world domination stuff.

But now, looking at Yahoo’s directory makes me think back again to the way podcasting was prior to iTunes and has shown me what is actually missing from the iTunes Music Store approach at present. It’s the interaction thing, making you feel a part of your favourite podcasts rather than being a layer away. iTunes has its subscription charts (a daily aggregate?) but that’s about it; there’s no way to say how you feel about something after you’ve subscribed.

Of course, it’s early days and competition is always good.