Podchaser Spec for RSS Additions

This is the 1.0 draft specification for all Podchaser additions to the RSS XML format as used by podcasts.

Creator Profiles

RSS feeds can use elements to tell Podchaser that a particular Creator had a role on a podcast or episode.

<pc:creator>

Can be used under either the <channel> element, or an individual <item> element.

Attributes:

  • id (recommended)
    • The PCID (Podchaser ID) of the creator. This should be used to exactly identify the creator, and can be found on the creator’s profile page on podchaser.com
  • role (required)
    • Can be one of ‘host’, ‘editor’, ‘guest’, ‘editor’ or any other role supported by Podchaser
  • active_from (optional)
    • The date that this creator started this role on this podcast, in ISO8601 date format
    • Only supported when used under the <channel> element
  • active_to (optional)
    • The date that this creator ended this role on this podcast, in ISO8601 date format
    • Only supported when used under the <channel> element

Child elements:

<pc:name> (conditional)
Contains the full name of the creator. If the PCID is given in the pc:creator id attribute then this is optional, if not we will attempt to find a matching creator using this name.

<pc:character> (optional)
If the role of the creator is voice_talent, then you may specify 1..N pc:character elements. The text should be the name of the character played by the creator.

Note: For backwards compatibility, the text of the pc:creator element can be the creator’s full name. This is deprecated functionality and may be removed in future.

If both active_from and active_to are omitted, Podchaser will assume the creator held this role on all episodes of the podcast, as well as all future episodes.

Examples:

Podcast roles:
<channel>
  ...
  <pc:creator role="host" id="123456">
    <pc:name>Jim Podcast</pc:name>
  </pc:creator>
  <pc:creator role="editor" id="328493" active_from="2018-02-15" />
  <pc:creator role="voice_talent" id="347398">
    <pc:character>Darth Mickey</pc:character>
    <pc:character>Father Holiday</pc:character>
  </pc:creator>
  ...
</channel>
Episode roles:
  <channel>
    ...
    <item>
      ...
      <pc:creator role="guest" id="847493" />
      <pc:creator role="guest">
        <pc:name>Eleanor Guestington</pc:name>
     </pc:creator>
      ...
    </item>
    <item>
      ...
      <pc:creator role="voice_talent" id="437383">
        <pc:character>Mr NPC</pc:character>
      </pc:creator>
      ...
    </item>
    ...
  </channel>
Name as element text (deprecated):
<pc:creator role="host" id="123456" active_from="2017-02-22" active_to="2018-01-01">Jane Podcast</pc:creator>

Available roles

Podchaser allows users to add their own custom roles, but the most commonly used roles are as follows:

  • host
  • guest (only on episodes)
  • editor
  • voice_talent
  • producer
  • crew
  • executive_producer
  • composer
  • sound_design