How to fix duplicate listings in Apple Podcasts or the other naughty proxy-based podcast apps.
Thank you for joining me for the Audacity to Podcast. I'm Daniel J. Lewis. If your podcast
is listed twice or more in Apple Podcasts or another podcast app or directory, stop.
Don't do anything about it until you listen to this episode. You will want the notes for
this episode. You'll probably want to review them because I know that some of this is unfortunately
more complicated than it needs to be and I'm going to try to explain it as best I can.
Some of it you just might not fully grasp unless you're actually in this situation
and trying to work your way through it. But here's the big key. Even if you're not in
this situation right now, this is what you need to do to avoid this problem from happening.
Do not resubmit your podcast if it's already listed. I'll talk about that a little more
toward the end of this episode, but that's the big important takeaway. It's even bold
in my notes for this episode. Do not resubmit your podcast if it's already listed. So
if you want to follow along with the notes for this episode or review them later when
you need them, or maybe you need them right now, I hope you're not in this situation,
but please go to theaudacitytopodcast.com/fixduplicates or the notes are a simple tap or swipe away
inside of your podcast app.
First, how do duplicate podcast listings happen?
There are two common reasons you might end up with a duplicate listing of your podcast,
either by your own actions or by some kind of automation out there.
Reason number one, a secondary feed was automatically discovered and indexed.
You might have used several different podcast publishing tools like your own website, powerpress,
multiple podcast hosting providers and such.
Or you might have used some automation tools for cross-posting your episodes to multiple
places like Spreaker, AudioBoom, PodPage and such. Or you used a feed proxy to mirror and
re-host your RSS feed for performance or extra features or anything like that, like FeedBurner
or PodcastMirror. And to learn more about what feed proxies are, I did a whole episode
about that previously and talking about the dangers that iOS 14.5 introduced. And I will
talk more about that in this episode too because it's totally relevant. It's what's causing
this problem with Apple Podcasts. But I've got a link to that previous episode with more
information in the notes for this episode at theaudacitytopodcast.com/fixduplicates.
Any of these tools might have created another RSS feed for your podcast and may even be
actively updating it. They could even be serving the exact same feed from the exact same publishing
tool but from multiple URLs, like an HTTP version and an HTTPS version. Same feed, just
different protocols there, HTTP and HTTPS. There might also be a case where there's a www and a
non-www version. Or it might be something like a subdomain like feeds.podcasthostingprovider
and then now it's feeds2.podcasthostingprovider or anything like that. There could be multiple
reasons that you might have the multiple RSS feeds from some of the different tools that you've used.
Podcast Index, Google Podcasts, may it rest in peace. And maybe a couple of other systems
search the web looking for podcast feeds to include and they'll often find those duplicates.
Podcast Index has a fairly smart deduplication process but it still gets some things wrong and
adds some duplicates here and there. But Google Podcasts was a little annoying with how they would
do it. At least they didn't create duplicates. But what they would do is often switch to the
newly discovered feed, even if it was only a redirect, and then require you to verify
ownership of that new feed before you could switch back to your desired feed. This created
the potential for someone else to steal your podcast in Google Podcasts. It was a horrible
way that they did it. I'm glad that aspect of Google Podcasts is going away. I'm not really
a fan of Google Podcasts going away, dying like it is, but at least this aspect we no longer have
have to worry about after it's dead. A couple of my own podcasts have been a victim of this
situation, where one of my podcasts even had I think as many as 8 different RSS feeds discovered
by Google Podcasts. And even though some of them were proper 301 redirects back to the
correct RSS feed, the automated system still wanted to change to them instead of keeping
the feeds that I had intentionally submitted for Google Podcasts to use. But at least that
didn't create duplicates of my podcast and I don't think it interfered with my
audience in Google Podcasts. Also I didn't really have much of an audience
inside of Google Podcasts which is part of the reason why Google Podcasts is
going away. If you're looking for a replacement to Google Podcasts as a
listener then I recommend you check out newpodcastapps.com or even just
podcastapps.com. That's a great list of podcasting 2.0 apps that you can check
out to really stay on the cutting edge of podcasting, podcast consumption, and podcast engagement.
That's podcastapps.com.
Or you might have heard of newpodcastapps.com.
It goes to the same place.
But back to this, other discovery systems might add the extra feeds as new podcasts
resulting in duplicates.
And at least at this time, none of the most popular podcast apps use automatic discovery
to build their catalogs.
Apple podcasts, not Spotify, not Amazon. Podcast index is really now the next
number one that is auto discovering RSS feeds for podcasts. But they are trying
to crack down on the duplication problem and avoid duplications. They kind of have
a proxy system where podcast apps can get the podcast index version of your
podcast from podcast index instead of from your RSS feed. But my understanding
is that although that situation exists, they understand the nature of this whole
problem this episode is about with the duplicates and the consequences of
deleting a duplicate. So I think most of those apps that work with the podcast
index version still look to your RSS feed as the authority on what's in your
podcast in some way or they're redirect or they don't worry about what's in the
index but get it from your RSS feed. Because these are smart podcast app
developers that understand the industry better so they've designed a better system.
That's the first reason you may have duplicates.
The second reason you may get duplicates of your podcast is the podcast was resubmitted.
I said this in the beginning.
I'll say it again now.
I'll say it again later.
Do not resubmit your podcast if it's already listed.
I see this happen far more frequently lately and definitely more than it should happen.
When podcasters switch podcast hosting providers like from Spotify for podcasters formerly
known as Anchor, to a provider such as Captivate or Blueberry, both great providers that I
do highly recommend.
The podcasters sometimes submit their new RSS feeds from those new podcast hosting providers
as new podcasts in the podcast apps instead of simply redirecting the old feeds, which
you can't do in almost all the places.
So they're doing an unnecessary step, creating an unnecessary duplicate, and not completely
recognizing the problem that they're creating and that they're not bringing any of their
audience over with them. This sometimes comes from bad advice or from an attempt, albeit
the wrong method, to reclaim ownership of a podcast in Apple Podcasts or another directory,
or it might even be from thinking you had to resubmit after changing the title or cover
art or podcast hosting provider or changing anything about the feed. Whatever the reason,
this usually results in listing the same podcast twice or more, even if you later properly
redirect the old RSS feed. Apple Podcasts used to prevent the same RSS feed from being
submitted twice, but I'm seeing indications that system either isn't working or isn't
used anymore. Because I know of one case that happened only a couple weeks ago as of the
time of this recording where someone managed to resubmit the exact same RSS feed a second
time and got it listed a second time in Apple Podcasts. The only difference was that that
second submission had the new title and cover art of the podcast, which Apple simply hadn't
updated yet in the old listing. But everything else about the podcast was exactly the same.
So I don't know why Apple let that through. Maybe the first version was submitted through
some kind of API and therefore wasn't listed in their kind of index that prevents duplicates.
I don't know, whatever it is, something wasn't working or isn't being used like it should be.
But the big takeaway is, again, do not resubmit your podcast if it's already listed.
And don't tell your long-time audience to follow your new listing either.
If you switch tools or anything like that, you need to put in a redirect.
Don't submit your new feed to the apps because that creates this problem.
But it's even worse in Apple Podcasts since iOS 14.5.
And this is a problem that a lot of podcasters don't know exists.
And I see even some podcasting consultants and podcast hosting providers not remember
or recognize that this problem now exists.
I did a whole episode about feed proxies and the big change that iOS 14.5 made.
But in short, before iOS 14.5, your audience was connected directly to your podcast RSS feed.
So regardless of what happened in the Apple Podcast Catalog, even if for whatever reason
cancel culture, copyrights, trademarks, anything like that, even technical problems, if your
podcast was kicked out of the Apple Podcast Catalog, your audience would still get whatever
you put in your feed and would follow whatever that feed URL would redirect.
So back then, you could simply redirect the duplicate listing and then delete it and you
wouldn't lose any of your audience.
Even if you were kicked out, removed by your own choice or by someone else's choice from
the Apple Podcast Catalog, your feed still existed and therefore your audience was still
connected to your RSS feed.
Those were the good old days.
But it's not like that anymore.
They changed this with iOS 14.5.
Go back to my previous episode about feed proxies and iOS 14.5.
I link to it in the notes for this episode at theaudacitytopodcast.com/fixduplicates.
It is another technical heavy episode but it's very important to understand what Apple
changed and it does give them some censorship control that I don't think they'll admit
to but I think it's one of the reasons why they changed this.
It also has great performance benefits.
But here's what's so different now.
Now even if your duplicate listing gets switched to your correct RSS feed, so you have two
Two listings, both with the correct RSS feed.
One of them was redirected maybe to the correct feed.
Everyone who followed your podcast through that duplicate is connected to Apple's proxy
of your podcast feed and not connected directly to your feed.
In other words, people in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and maybe a couple of other naughty
proxy based podcast apps are subscribed to the catalog listing of your podcast in that
not directly to your RSS feed. So if you delete that duplicate catalog listing, or
delete any of your catalog listings, you will lose the followers for that listing.
You will lose audience members. Even if you're okay with losing any ratings,
reviews, and rankings that duplicate listing might have accumulated, I suggest
that you should not accept losing your audience. It's a big problem that Apple
created and unfortunately they don't really have a good solution and there's some bad
advice out there and some people that don't understand that this problem exists and so
they're either giving bad advice or just not recognizing what kind of situation this is.
With that understanding in place, and I hope it was clear enough at this point, here's
how to fix your duplicate podcast listing in these proxy-based services like Apple Podcasts
and Spotify and maybe a couple others now or in the future.
If the podcast app in question behaves like Apple Podcasts and Spotify where your audience
is connected to the platforms proxy of your podcast or the catalog listing of your podcast
instead of directly to your RSS feed, then the solution is a little complicated or maybe
I should say a lot complicated.
And it's unfortunately incomplete and not fully effective, but these steps should help
and should get you most of the way there. But you're going to have to accept that it's not
going to be 100% safe and effective. In all the following steps, when I refer to the correct
listing, that will be the oldest listing that you have. The one that has the majority of your
followers, the majority of your ratings and reviews and rankings. That's the one you want to
keep. You want to keep that older one with its reputation. Even if it still has the wrong RSS
feed because that should be fixable with a simple redirect. So even if it's the
wrong feed, that's the one you want because that's where most of the people
have followed your podcast and it probably has the reputation and maturity
to it inside of the podcast apps. So maybe it has the ratings and reviews and
rankings and all of that. You want to keep that original one as much as
possible. You can fix the RSS feed, you can't fix losing your audience. But I
want to help you avoid that. So here's how to do that. Step one, ask the platform to
merge your listings. While this is most likely not possible, at least at this time, these
platforms need to know how frequent these problems are. So here's what I suggest you
send to them. And feel free to copy and update this version, which is in the notes for this
episode at theaudacitytopodcast.com/fixduplicates. Just update it, fill in some of the fields
with your own information, and you can put it in your own voice if you want or even run
it through chat GPT if you feel like it, but this is basically what you need to communicate.
And it goes like this, quote "Dear Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or whatever other platform
it is, my podcast, your podcast title here, is listed multiple times in your catalog and
that's negatively affecting me and my audience.
If possible, would you please merge these listings so I don't lose any of my audience
or earned engagement or rankings?
listing and then list your URL of the correct listing. Maybe it's an ID number like your
Apple Podcast ID or the Spotify ID for that listing. And then the correct feed, that's
their feed URL which may actually be different from the current listing. And you might want
to point that out to them if it is different. Then also list the incorrect listings, the
URLs or the IDs. And then you can continue. It's crucial for my audience's experience
ensure none of them are disconnected from my podcast through this merge process.
Even if I have to lose some other earned engagement or ranking, I need a promise that I won't
lose any of my audience.
Thanks in advance."
And then you can send that off to them with your name and contact information.
If they actually can merge your listings, because right now I don't think they can,
and they can promise you won't lose your audience, then great.
Most likely they'll come back saying either they can't merge the listings or they might
even give bad advice, as I've seen come from Apple sometimes, suggesting to delete the duplicates.
Do not do that!
At least not yet.
Now, in your interaction with them, please, please, please be kind so that you are giving
respect to them, so that they'll be happy to work with you as much as possible.
It's easier to work with people who are being kind, so please be kind to them even though
Though they probably can't fix this problem, but they still need to hear you ask.
They need to know how often this problem happens and how important it is to you that the problem
be fixed.
But you should probably assume that they won't be able to give you the correct help.
But I do still recommend asking anyway.
Since these naughty proxy-based platforms like Apple Podcasts and Spotify and maybe
a couple of others most likely can't provide the correct solution, deleting the duplicate
listing will harm your audience.
Your only other option is to ask your audience to re-follow the correct listing, but there's
a clever way to do that.
So you don't need to ask your whole audience or confuse your whole audience, only giving
the instructions, most likely, to the people who are affected.
So that leads into Step 2.
After you've asked the platform to merge your listings, Step 2, redirect properly.
Unfortunately, it seems most of these duplicates happen where the old but correct listing is
using the wrong RSS feed and your duplicate incorrect listing might be using the new correct feeds.
So you got the correct and incorrect separated.
You need the correct and the correct together.
So I know this will seem a little confusing and I highly recommend looking at the notes
along with this, especially if you're in this situation.
And maybe I'll be able to help you if you need some help or I can refer you to someone
else you can hire to help you.
Look at the notes, theaudacitytopodcast.com/fixduplicates to review some of this and to re-read any
of the parts that you need to try to better understand if it's necessary for you.
The old listing most likely has more followers and reputation.
So it's the listing you want to keep, especially if it's been around longer.
that old feed URL to redirect to the new feed using a 301 permanent redirect. None of this
302, 307, or anything like that. It needs to be a 301 redirect. And that is a permanent
redirect. So saying 301 redirect is the same as a permanent redirect. But I try to avoid
only saying permanent redirect because really that redirect needs to remain as a 301 for
forever. It needs to be permanently in place, permanently redirecting. Ideally. If you can't
have that then at least have it redirect for a few months. But typically, redirect for
forever. That's what it should be doing. A redirect happens before the contents of
the feed are loaded. So it really doesn't matter what's in that feed you're redirecting.
Or if it's even a feed anymore. It's the URL that's important. I could send you to
myawesomepodcast.com/feed/blahblahblah and have nothing there at all.
But I could set up the redirect on my server on the domain level.
It's just like forwarding mail from your old address to your new home.
It really doesn't matter who lives in the old home because your mail will be forwarded
before it even gets delivered.
That's what a redirect does.
It redirects people before ever loading whatever was at that destination URL.
So don't worry about keeping your old feed contents online at that URL or having a page
there or anything like that.
You need the URL itself and that needs to redirect.
Any half-decent podcast hosting provider should be able to permanently redirect your old RSS
feed to the new one.
Even the bottom of the barrel SoundCloud can do it.
And yes, I still think SoundCloud is the absolute worst podcast hosting provider.
Spotify for podcasters is close to the bottom, but they're not the absolute worst.
But they can also put in a 301 redirect permanently, or as far as I know it's permanent, for forever.
If you control the URL of your old feed, you might be able to use tools from your website,
your web hosting provider, or your domain registrar to redirect the old URL to your
new feed.
You could even use a third party tool like Cloudflare to put a redirect on the domain's
exact path and you wouldn't need web hosting at all because again, the contents of the
URL don't matter. It's the URL itself that matters. And that URL needs a 301 redirect
to the new feed URL. So you don't need your hosting for your old site. You just need that
URL. And domains these days are $15 to $20 for a .com domain or .net, .org and some of
those more popular ones. So it's really not that much of an expense to keep it. And you
You can use some free tools like Cloudflare or maybe something built in with your registrar
so you are redirecting the old URL to the new one.
Or your old podcast hosting provider should have the option for you to have a 301 redirect
from your old feed to the new one.
If they don't, you should be leaving them anyway.
Because they're making the world a horrible place if they don't do 301 redirects.
Step 3 then, make a new RSS feed with a single announcement episode.
by creating a new RSS feed with most of the same podcast information, like the same title,
cover art, same artist information, and some of the other stuff.
The easiest way to get this would be a separate category feed from your publishing tool if available.
But you need to be able to control what is in that feed.
And if that won't work, you could even open your RSS feed in a browser or download it,
save it to your computer, and manually edit it, which is kind of difficult for some and
Kind of dangerous, potentially.
But when you edit it, make sure you remove all the episodes and even change the title.
Maybe simply add "DUPLICATE" very prominently, maybe in all caps in the title or something similar.
And you may even want to add a banner across the cover art that says "DUPLICATE" "PLEASE
REFOLLOW" or something like that so that it is very obvious that anyone who sees this
duplicate listing can see that it is a duplicate and not the actual podcast you want them to follow.
since you've deleted all the episodes that were in it, then put in a single episode explaining
what you need your audience to do and link to your correct listings in all the affected apps.
Maybe even also including your RSS feed in plain text, so if they want that, they can
use that.
Now this announcement episode will be seen and heard most likely only by those who actually
need to do something as long as you are putting it in this separate announcement feed, not
in your main podcast feed that's going out to your main audience. I've got an example
script you can use, feel free to use that, put it in your own voice, run it through chat
GPT if you want, but these are the main points that you need to hit in this episode in a
way that I suggest that you could word it. It's in the notes at theaudacitytopodcast.com/fixduplicates
or a simple tap or swipe away. You could start off saying, "Hi, we're changing some back-end
stuff with our podcast and that unfortunately breaks part of our podcast. We would love
to keep you in our community, so we need you to do a couple of things to continue receiving
our podcast. First, re-follow our podcast in your podcast app, but it needs to be the
one without duplicate in the title and cover art. You can probably get there from the link
in this episode's notes or by searching for the same title. And make sure you include
those links in the text. Make sure it shows up as much as you can in the podcast apps.
And then you can continue saying, "Then, when you see that you're following the correct
podcast with all the episodes again, please unfollow this duplicate podcast and remove
it from your library."
That's all you need to say in that episode.
Make this new RSS feed then available online, even if you merely upload that XML file to
your web hosting or Amazon S3 or anything like that.
It needs to be online somewhere.
But you will not be using any regular redirects to it or from it.
At least not yet.
Step 4. Change the feed URL in the platform's portal. Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other
proxy-based platforms usually offer portals for you to manage your podcast listings on
their platform. These portals sometimes allow you to change the source RSS feed for your
podcast listing without having to do the redirect for your feed. This is the thing that in the
past I've urged podcasters NOT to change in Apple Podcasts Connect because it would
only affect Apple Podcast followers, but now you do need it because you want it to affect
only Apple Podcast followers because they're the ones affected by this problem.
And the same thing in other platforms that might be affected by this duplication problem.
Log into each platform portal that has your duplicate listings and change that source
RSS feed to the announcement feed you created in step 3.
This is only for the duplicate listing or multiple listings, not for the one that you
want to keep.
change anything about it yet. You've already redirected its old URL to the new one. This
will change the feed then for only your followers on that platform, not everywhere else. If
you change this in the Apple Podcast catalogs, it will change that source RSS feed for any
apps that use Apple's catalog in their apps, but that would only be for new followers in
those apps. And there is an option inside of Apple Podcasts to stop your podcast feed
from being included in the open API that other apps use.
So you can certainly disable or whatever it is to prevent your podcast from being redistributed
through the Apple API.
So that way the other apps won't pick up the duplicate listing.
But changing this option won't change the feed for anyone already following your podcast
in those other apps, even if they got that feed originally from Apple's API.
It's not like Apple has control over those other apps.
Apple has control over their own app.
And since iOS 14.5, they gave themselves a whole lot more control over what is on your
device in their app.
That's part of the reason why I keep saying this is like communist level control that
Apple has now because they can control what podcasts you're able to download through their app.
And it seems like they want that control.
But they probably won't say exactly why they want it.
But it's okay if the other apps don't completely update the same way because those
other apps aren't really suffering from this duplication problem.
Nearly all the other apps connect your audience directly to your RSS feed.
So your audience would go wherever that feed points in those other apps.
And even if there was a duplicate listing in those other apps, it wouldn't matter because
it's the RSS feed that matters in the other apps.
But in a proxy based app like Apple Podcasts and Spotify and a couple of others maybe,
it's the listing that matters.
And if that duplicate listing is using your correct RSS feed in the other apps, then your
audience would continue to get your podcast from that feed instead of from the app proxy
even if that duplicate listing no longer exists in the API.
Because the other apps connect your audience with your RSS feed, not with Apple's proxy.
Creating your source feed in these few proxy based apps should then add the duplicate information,
and that would be in the title, and in the cover art, and anywhere else you put the word
duplicate or make it obvious that this is a duplicate, it would put that information
and push that announcement episode out to only those who are affected because of the
way the Apple Podcast works with its listings.
So you change the source feed in Apple Podcasts and everyone who's following that listing
from the catalog will get the episode from the new source feed and they'll get only
that one episode.
Where you would then say, "This is a duplicate.
You need to unfollow this, follow the podcast from the correct feed."
That whole thing that I talked about in step three.
Then step five, after a few months, redirect and delete that announcement feed.
Leave that announcement feed online for at least three months.
You can start shutting it down after that.
Or you could leave it online for longer if you want to.
But it doesn't have to stay on there for forever because it's not something that people
would need to be redirected from necessarily.
You're doing the redirection as just a fail safe sort of.
And that's one of the two things you need to do with that announcement feed.
Number one, redirect the announcement feed URL to your correct podcast feed just in case
there are any stragglers somehow following that RSS feed and not the catalog listing.
By redirecting the feed you would ensure they get your new feed correctly, but probably
won't be so much of a problem.
This is just being super thorough at this point.
And then number two with it is delete the duplicate listing through the podcast portals.
That's in Apple Podcasts, Spotify and such.
Once it is redirecting you don't need to keep that announcement feed or episode online anymore,
but you do want to keep that redirect online for at least another few months or so or if
if possible, permanently, but you don't have to worry about it all that much because it
was primarily linked to a catalog listing and the catalog listing is gone, so the feed,
ideally, if the system is working correctly, no one is actually following that feed.
But redirect it just in case and you can delete the contents.
I know.
This is frustrating, it's technical, it's... the unfortunate conclusion for this is it's
It's messy and you might still lose some numbers.
I believe these steps are the current best way to do things if the platforms use their
own proxies and you can't merge the listings or they can't merge them for you.
It's still possible and even likely you'll lose some numbers through the cracks, so to
speak, inherent with this process.
You might see your download stats drop, but it will most likely be disengaged audience
members.
That's why I say you might lose some numbers. I didn't say people. Because, after all, if
those people don't follow you to the correct podcast listing, after months, were they really
that engaged with your podcast anyway? I know there are exceptions to this, so that's why
it's possible that some might fall through the cracks a little bit. And that is unfortunate.
It's messy and it might still decrease your stats a little bit. I really wish this whole
thing was not an issue at all. I wish that Apple wasn't using a proxy or
Spotify using a proxy. I wish that Apple, Spotify, and similar platforms had a way
of merging your listings, merging your ratings and reviews, and your ranking
authority, and all of that stuff. That would be wonderful if they could.
Unfortunately it seems like right now they don't and it seems like they won't
build that unless they see that this is a big enough problem basically
necessitating they're building something like that. And the bad instructions and platform
limitations make this complicated process necessary if you hope to keep most of your
audience. So back again to that important reminder, do not resubmit your feed. As much
as I'd like to bring in Smokey the Podcast Bear to tell you that only you can prevent
duplicate podcast listings, and it is majority on your responsibility, the unfortunate reality
is that it's still possible for some hosting providers, most likely the unknowledgeable
ones, to make this mistake and either tell you to resubmit your podcast with the new
RSS feed that they're providing or, even worse, they submit it for you. Do not let
this happen. Do not resubmit your feed if your podcast already exists. Probably the
only exception is if you've completely lost control of your old RSS feed and it's absolutely
impossible to get it back. But it usually is possible. Even in this case, it's still
better to change the source feed of your podcast and all the podcast apps you can instead of
resubmitting your podcast with the new feed. Because of that whole thing of people in Apple
podcasts and Spotify are following the catalog of your podcast, not actually following your podcast.
It's the proxies.
Listen to that previous episode where I talked about feed proxies and the changes with iOS 14.5.
This is messy.
I know.
It's complicated.
I know.
It's frustrating.
I would not want to be in your position if you're running into this.
One person that I worked with recently, at least they caught it quickly that their new
podcast had just been approved in Apple Podcasts and I was there with them
helping them through it. It was a customer of Podgagement and I saw that
they added the same podcast twice so I reached out to them and we started
talking through it and the podcast had just been approved by Apple. I urged them
you got to remove this quickly before you start getting subscribers on that
new one. You got to delete this listing. You can still reclaim the ownership of
the old listing through Apple's processes or Spotify might have some
processes. Spotify is a little weird with reclaiming ownership of a listing. They
might actually need you to resubmit the feed, but in that process you need to
make sure that if they require you to do that, that they can assure you that you
won't lose any of your existing audience to that old listing. That everyone needs
to follow over to the correct listing. So because this is complicated and messy, if
you need help for this I might be available for hire to help you with this
or I might be able to refer you to someone who can help you with this, but I really hope
you don't end up in this situation.
And this is the episode that I've wanted to put out there because my podcasting heart
breaks for some of the podcasters I see in this situation where their audience is split
and it seems like the only solution is going to cost some of their audience, especially
some of their ratings and reviews, that maybe they really like some of their ratings and reviews.
Now if you are a customer of Podgagement and you're in this situation where you've got
multiple listings and the multiple listings for the same podcast have their
own ratings and reviews and you don't want to lose those, please reach out to
me. Because there's something I can do in my back-end system where even though it
won't change what's in Apple Podcasts or the other systems, at least when you log
into your Podgagement account you would be able to see all the same reviews that
you had on the other podcast. So if you're in that situation, you've got
ratings and reviews on both listings and you want those merged together in
podgagement, so you still have a record of all those ratings and reviews, please reach
out to me before you delete your duplicate listings so we can work on that, duplicate
those over on our system, merge them together for you so you still have that record of those.
But I really hope you're not in this situation.
The big thing is do not resubmit your feed.
If you see that anyone else is in this situation, they've got duplicate listings, please send
them to this episode.
even send this episode alone with your correspondence with Apple and Spotify or any of those other
naughty proxy-based podcast apps. Let them know that this is a problem and the details
and the complicated process involved with this because this needs to stop. And I really
hope that you don't end up in this situation and that if you are in this situation, I hope
this helps you. You can share this episode out from theaudacitytopodcast.com/fixduplicates.
I know this was a heavy episode, so maybe it didn't give you all that much for the
guts, but at least it taught you some of the tools that you need to fix this problem.
So now it's time for you to go start and grow your own podcast for passion and profit.
I'm Daniel J. Lewis from the Audacity to Podcast.
Thanks for listening.
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