Paragraph in Podcast Description

Is it possible to define separate paragraphs in the podcast description. I haven't come across any explanation of this. Any help would be great.

You can include carriage returns in the <description> tag perfectly well, also HTML character entities such as & (for '&') and so on.

Similar Messages

Strange formatting and symbols appearing in podcast description fields

Hey guys!
Hope you're enjoying your weekend so far. I'm having problems with the text formatting in the podcast description sections. For some reason strange characters are added in the podcast description fields that aren't there when I initially enter them in. Examples "nbsp;" "mdash", "ersquo;s". I feel like its related to the font or when I use punctuation. Can anybody here point me to the solution?
Check out what I mean here. This happens in both the main description and in the individual show descriptions:
http://www.itunes.com/podcast?id=327062493a8Aw
Thank you in advance guys! Really appreciate it
Fei-Fei

These are incomplete html codes for characters - you've left off the ampersand which must begin them.
is a non-breaking space
’ is the apostrophe or quote - '
&emdash; is a wide dash.
Firstly: you cannot use these named codes in XML, you have to use the numerical equivalents. If you are handwriting the code you can use ' for the apostrophe. But in general you should avoid using any of these codes: the iTunes Store usually does not render them but displays them. You should stick to plain text and paragraph returns. You've used a straightforward apostrophe elsewhere - 'She's been pIcked up by al the major labels' - and that's worked; so use that instead of the quote, use a straight dash - instead of the emdash, and replace the non-breaking space with an ordinary one.

Podcast description gone in iTunes

I created the website for my podcast in iWeb, and then uploaded it to iTunes. Everything went fine, until somewhere along the process the "podcast description" in iTunes disappeared. Is it possible to fix this? I think I understand the problem, as at one point I messed with the first paragraph on the "podcast" page in iWeb. This is the paragraph that iTunes turns into the podcast description.
Basically, I'm just wondering if anyone knows how I can manually change or fix the podcast description in iTunes using iWeb.
Thanks,
henroast

These text are usually stored in an XML file.
On your webserver/iDisk, navigate to the podcast page and see if there is such file. Open it in an texteditor and find the tag where the description should be.
It should look like:
<item>
<title>Title</title>
+<itunes:author>Your Name</itunes:author>+
+<itunes:summary>A short description.</itunes:summary>+
+<enclosure url="http://url/to/sound.mp3" length="600000" type="audio/mpeg"/>+
+<guid>http://url/to/sound.mp3</guid>+
+<pubDate>Fri, 01 Jun 2005 10:20:00 CET</pubDate>+
<itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
<itunes:duration>0:12</itunes:duration>
+<itunes:keywords>one two three</itunes:keywords>+
</item>

Can't see podcast description text (Podcasts, Downcast)

Hi guys,
In a program like Downcast or Podcasts, when you open a file and click on the album artwork, it swivels and you get a paragraph of text description.
Basically the description is a summary of what's on the show, and is written by it's creator.
The problem is that this metadata seems to go missing when I copy the file onto my computer. Tag & Rename doesn't even show it in any of it's categories.
My question:
1) How and where do I input this metadata so that in Podcasts(or Downcast), when I click on the album artwork after opening a file, I get a text description of what's on the podcast?
Thanks for any help!

A podcast which uses a 'feed' (a text file in a specific format) so that it can be subscribed to in iTunes and appear in the iTunes Store carries all the relevant data in the feed. When you subscribe in the iTunes application (or the Podcasts app on an iOS device) the data is drawn from the feed.
If you copy the actual file out of iTunes, or if you are visiting a podcast which exists only as a web page and has no feed, then you will only find any descriptive data if the producer has specifically chosen to enter the data in the embedded tags in the media file. Many don't bother, particularly if the podcast in iTunes as this only reads the image data from the file, everything else coming from the feed: in this event you may be able to type the data in manually dependent on what program you are using, but you won't get it automatically.

Podcast Description not showing up in iTunes/Feedburner

Hi all,
After my podcast got approved all the information entered in Feedburner was getting
read in my Podcast in iTunes. After 2 months or so I started noticing that the Podcast Description got
removed, then the copyright info and finally the author information.
Here is a picture where I try to show where iTunes is not grabbing some of my feedburner information.
Its looks like some of the Feedburner information is going through, as you
can see in the picture, is grabbing my Podcast Picture, Category, new episodes, etc.
iTunes Podcast Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/pod…..d419121389
Note: This is a category I setup through Wordpress and re-directing the feed to my
feedburner account (.htaccess file)
Would love to know, what is causing this and if I have to do something in order for this
to get fixed.
Thanks in advance.
Pedro Sanchez, Jr.

The feed registered with iTunes is at
http://www.comopromovermimusica.com/category/podcast/feed
iTunes is not using a Feedburner-generated feed so any amendments in Feedburner are having no effect.
Your feed does not contain the 'iTunes declaration' at the top, nor any of the required tags for this information to show - 'itunes:author', 'itunes:subtitle' and so on. This I imagine is something you would need to address in Wordpress, but I can't advise on that.
Any ht_access modifications are not likely to have an effect (though possibly a 301 redirect may). If you want to move iTunes to the Feedburner feed the correct method is to add a special tag to the feed, following the instructions here:
http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/specs.html#changing
However this will have no effect if you don't have the itunes declaration at the top, which should look like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" version="2.0">
This is necessary for iTunes to be able to read the 'itunes:...' tags.
This page may help you in showing how a feed should look:
http://www.wilmut.org.uk/pc

I have typos in my podcast description. Updating the RSS does not correct this. How can I get iTunes to re-read my RSS???

I have typos in my podcast description. Updating the RSS does not correct this. How can I get iTunes to re-read my RSS???

Thanks for your help.
Here are the RSS feeds:
http://www.solidrockvista.com/Podcasts/Lite/rss.xml
http://www.solidrockvista.com/Podcasts/Phat/rss.xml
And here are the iTunes pages:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/james-world-lite/id162059136
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/james-world-phat/id162296074
Both Podcast Descriptions have typos.

How can I Edit Podcast Description?

How can I Edit Podcast Description?
Please help.

You don't say how you are making your podcast feed. I would tend to think from your question that you are not writing the feed yourself, but using either a program or one of the online services to do this. If this is tha case, you will need to look at their instructions: they should give you a place to enter the details.
If you are writing the feed by hand, then this page gives an example of how a feed should look:
http://www.wilmut.org.uk/pc

My podcast description won't update.

Hi,
Around a year ago I created my podcast through podomatic:
podomatic profile page link: http://www.podomatic.com/profile/48389
itunes subscribe link: https://itunes.apple.com/nl/podcast/palooza-podcast/id775971126?l=en
I would like to update/edit my podcast page description and individual podcast description on itunes, due to some recent changes. I have edited the descriptions on podomatic, yet it will not show up on itunes.
Any help to resolve this porblem will be much appreciated.
thankyou
Cal Lewis

Your feed is at http://paloozapodcast001.podomatic.com/rss2.xml
As far as I can see the itunes subtitle and summary tags match what appears in the iTunes Store and when subscribing. What exactly is not appearing as you expect?

Podcast description does not show in Ticker feed

I am having bit of a problem with embedding the podcast description in the ticker feed. If I have 'description' but nothing else turned on for the ticker settings in the workflow, the ticker bar will show only for an instant and then fade out. The description appears in the RSS feed fine.
Also, bit of a side question - how many characters can be in the description?
Thanks in advance,
Erik

I am having bit of a problem with embedding the podcast description in the ticker feed. If I have 'description' but nothing else turned on for the ticker settings in the workflow, the ticker bar will show only for an instant and then fade out. The description appears in the RSS feed fine.
Also, bit of a side question - how many characters can be in the description?
Thanks in advance,
Erik

Lyrics on iPod Photo, via podcast description

Hi everyone!
I love my iPod photo, except for the fact that it doesn't display the lyrics of songs, like the later models do. However, I was recently listening to an MP3, and by pressing the middle button to cycle through the different screens, I came across what looked like a lyrics screen with a vertical scrollbar! Total surprise! After investigating, I discovered that it wasn't a lyrics screen, but the contents of the "Podcast Description" field of the ID3 tag (the tag field code is TDS).
I suddenly realised that I could put song lyrics into this "Podcast Description" field, and they would be displayed on my iPod exactly like the lyrics screen on the newer iPods! Yay! The only slight problem is that I don't know how to add this ID3 field to my songs. iTunes doesn't allow you to edit this field (or any podcast fields), nor do any of the ID3 editors I've tried (ID3 Editor, Media Rage, etc).
So, my question is: Does anyone know how I can create and edit "Podcast Description" fields (TDS) in my MP3s? Maybe something in GarageBand?? Maybe something useful at http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/techspecs.html ?
Many thanks in advance!
Mac OS X (10.4)

You can view lyrics on your iPod, but not in the way that you wish to do so. Here is the alternative way. It may be of some help, but it is far from perfect for your purpose.
http://www.apple.com/support/ipod101/maximize/2/#3

ITunes is not updating my podcast description

Hello community,
I'm the admin for the Open Society Foundations podcast feed, and iTunes has not updated the podcast description or image and I can't figure out why not. Any advice or assistance appreciated. This is the feed with the current description: http://feeds.feedburner.com/OpenSocietyInstitutePodcast. iTunes is updating all episodes, it's just not updating the description, which is in the xml file as:
<itunes:summary>The Open Society Foundations work to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens. To achieve this mission, the Foundations seek to shape public policies that assure greater fairness in political, legal, and economic systems and safeguard fundamental rights. On a local level, the Open Society Foundations implement a range of initiatives to advance justice, education, public health, and independent media. At the same time, we build alliances across borders and continents on issues such as corruption and freedom of information. The Foundations place a high priority on protecting and improving the lives of people in marginalized communities.</itunes:summary>
<description>The Open Society Foundations work to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens. To achieve this mission, the Foundations seek to shape public policies that assure greater fairness in political, legal, and economic systems and safeguard fundamental rights. On a local level, the Open Society Foundations implement a range of initiatives to advance justice, education, public health, and independent media. At the same time, we build alliances across borders and continents on issues such as corruption and freedom of information. The Foundations place a high priority on protecting and improving the lives of people in marginalized communities.</description>
I've read through other threads here and I believe I've confirmed that iTunes is pointing to the correct feed, and that I'm using the right tags. But, clearly I'm doing something wrong -- just can't figure out what.
Many thanks!

Although on subscribing iTunes is showing the contents of the 'description' tag (I thought it wasn't before. but I could be wrong) the 'itunes:subtitle' and 'itunes:summary' tags are still empty. If you've made the changes, have you uploaded the changed feed?
When you add a new episode to your feed and upload it, it appears immediately for subscribers because their iTunes application reads the feed directly and the Store is not involved.
However because of the huge number of podcasts in the Store (thousands) the Store caches the feed and checks it for updates periodically. For this reason it usually takes 1-2 days for new episodes to appear in the Store: sometimes it can be less, and occasionally the whole process seems to get stuck and it can take several days.
You mention 'new episodes' but there is only one episode in the feed.

Can't update my Podcast Description - Help plz

Kia ora all - I sure hope I'm posting in the right section, I've also recently uploaded our podcast and am trying to get the main "podcast description" updated (the one you see when you click on one of the many possible podcasts).
I'm using "FeedForAll" but can also edit it in DreamWeaver. I just can't figure out where it's getting the old description from (when I look in the xml file I can't even find the one that is on iTunes. I've pinged it to update and it has just not correctly.
DOH! Any help would be great appreciated

Using FeedBurner can sometimes confuse things, but usually it's worth the hassle, because it so fun to see your stats (It is also great for making your XML code render nicely in a browser.) Be sure to read their terms of use before you burn your feed, though, because you want to first make sure that you are comfortable with the rights they may gain over your content.
I hand-code my feeds and use Burner, and have never run into an issue (I only have SmartFeed and BrowserFriendly activated); some people do have problems though. One thing you need to keep in mind is that signing up for FeedBurner will give your feed an additional URL, one that iTunes won't know about unless you jump through some hoops. This new URL is the one that has to be subscribed to in order to count subscribers/downloads. (That's a confusion factor right there - and it is the biggest problem you will have if you want to use your FeedBurner feed in iTunes.)
One method to fix that problem: If you have access to your server and understand the contents of the following, this is the method I use to keep my feeds under my control. Make sure you know what each of these steps mean and how to implement them before you make any real changes. This method has the added bonus of not needing you to make any changes in regards to iTunes, because they are also automatically redirected.
However, there are other ways to skin that cat, and they can be found here in the Technical Spec (look at the section on <itunes:new-feed-url>). If you are new to podcasting and iTunes, I would recommend reading through all of the Spec, so you have a basic working knowledge of how their system functions (or is supposed to function, anyway).
Otherwise, you can burn your feed and not mess around with telling iTunes about it, but the stats you get won't count your iTunes subscribers. Who you want to count is obviously up to you.
This post got sorta long and wandery, and I can't tell if it makes sense anymore, so if you want me to make any clarifications please ask.
Peach

Problem with my Podcast description

How do I change the description of my podcast in the iTunes store?

The text which appears as the 'Podcast Description' on the Store page is carried in the 'itunes:summary' tag in the top section of the feed. If you change it there and reupload the feed the changes will appear but it may take a couple of days.
This page about podcasting shows you a basic feed so you can see what it should look like:
http://www.wilmut.org.uk/pc
This Apple Tech Note has a diagram showing how the different elements of the Store page are related to the tags:
http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/specs.html#commontags

Podcast description to lyrics?

does anybody know how to automate the process of copying podcast descriptions to the lyrics tag?
basically apple has turned off the support of comments for the ipod touch, but lyrics functionality works (after the $20 update)...
any tag field changing update applescripts or other utilities floating around? anybody know how to create one?
you would make many happy if so...

Hmm. Well, yes, now I see the scripts icon at the top of my iTunes screen (I had named the folder Script; once I added the "s" to the end, the Scripts icon showed up). But for some reason the script is not working. Not only is the description not pasting into the lyrics field, but the description no longer shows up on the iTunes listing. I can see the description when I control-click on the file and look at "Show description", but not in the iTunes listing on my Mac or in the lyrics field on the Mac or the iPhone. I just added some new podcast episodes, and before even running the script, they came over to iTunes without the description showing up. Selecting them and running the script has no effect. Any idea what has happened?
(And I do appreciate you taking the time to help me on this.)

Listing Podcast Episode's on Podcast Description Screen

How do I list a history of recent podcast episodes on my Podcast description screen in the iTunes store?

Have you tried sorting by date?

Paragraph in Podcast Description

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for