I got an email from Apple last week about some changes they applied to the way podcasts are categorized in the iTunes music store.
Today we launched a revised set of categories for podcasts listed in the iTunes Music Store. We’re sending you this email to let you know how to change your podcast feed to accommodate these changes. The revised categories and subcategories are listed at the bottom of this message. Please take the time to change your podcast feed as soon as possible. Please note that we will support the use of the old category names for the next few months, so there is no immediate deadline for making these changes. We will send another message before discontinuing support for the old category names.
When we read your RSS feed, we capture and store up to 3 category+subcategory pairs, and we use all of them to populate the browse lists that you see when you click the “Browse” link in the Music Store. However, the first category+subcategory pair listed in your feed is the most important, since it is the one listed as the Category field on your podcast page, and it is the only one used to map your podcast into the category feature pages.
Most of the old categories and subcategories are now automatically mapped to corresponding ones within the new system. For example, if your podcast was listed under “Arts & Entertainment > Photography”, it will now appear under “Arts > Visual Arts.” However, 3 categories have been removed and do not have a similar replacement: “International”, “Talk Radio”, and “Public Radio”. Those categories overlapped with others in the old system, making some podcasts difficult to find. If one of these categories is listed as the first subject in your podcast feed, that category information will be ignored and the second category will be used to determine eligibility and placement in that feature page.
It goes on to explain that these changes will take time to show up on their podcast directory, and any changes that I make will take 1-2 weeks before they show up in their system. No big deal, but you would think that making changes would be a bit more instananeous. It could be that they are hand checking every podcast as they come in. How would you like to have that job?
I’ll throw in the list of the new categories that they’ve added to the store, but you’ll have to click to the rest of the post to see them. I should add that even though the new categories are there, there might not be any podcasts that fit all of them yet.
Categories are listed below, with their subcategories listed beneath them:
Arts
* Design
* Fashion & Beauty
* Food
* Literature
* Performing Arts
* Visual Arts
Business
* Business News
* Careers
* Investing
* Management & Marketing
* Shopping
Comedy
Education
* Educational Technology
* Higher Ed
* K-12
* Language Courses
* Training
Games & Hobbies
* Automotive
* Aviation
* Hobbies
* Other Games
* Video Games
Government & Organizations
* Local
* National
* Non-Profit
* Regional
Health
* Alternative Health
* Fitness & Nutrition
* Self-Help
* Sexuality
Kids & Family
Music
News & Politics
Religion & Spirituality
* Buddhism
* Christianity
* Hinduism
* Islam
* Judaism
* Other
* Spirituality
Science & Medicine
* Medicine
* Natural Sciences
* Social Sciences
Society & Culture
* History
* Personal Journals
* Philosophy
* Places & Travel
Sports & Recreation
* Amateur
* College & High School
* Outdoor
* Professional
Technology
* Gadgets
* IT News
* Podcasting
* Software How-To
TV & Film