iTunes Podcasts Scraper

Scrape podcast data from Apple Podcasts (iTunes) — one of the world's largest podcast directories with 2.5+ million podcasts. Search by keyword, browse top charts by country and genre, look up episodes for any podcast, and find all shows from a publisher. No API key or login required.

What you can scrape

• Search podcasts by any keyword across 100+ country stores
• Top podcast charts by country (40+ countries) and genre (19 genres)
• Episodes for any specific podcast (title, description, duration, air date, audio URL)
• Publisher catalogs — all podcasts from a specific publisher/network
• Filter by explicit content flag

Use cases

• Market research on podcast popularity and trending topics
• Build a podcast discovery tool or recommendation engine
• Track top charts across different countries and genres
• Analyze publishing frequency and episode metadata
• Discover podcasts by specific publishers/networks
• Monitor release dates and episode counts for competitive analysis

Input

Field	Type	Description
mode	select	search, topCharts, episodes, or byPublisher
searchQuery	string	Search keywords (required for mode=search)
country	select	iTunes store country (40+ options, default: us)
genreId	select	Filter by genre (19 podcast genres)
podcastId	integer	iTunes collection ID (required for mode=episodes)
publisherId	integer	iTunes artist ID (required for mode=byPublisher)
explicit	select	Filter: notExplicit, explicit, cleaned
maxItems	integer	Max records (1–500, default 20)

Example inputs

Search for technology podcasts:

{
  "mode": "search",
  "searchQuery": "technology",
  "country": "us",
  "maxItems": 20
}

Get US top chart podcasts (Technology genre):

{
  "mode": "topCharts",
  "country": "us",
  "genreId": "1318",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Get episodes for "The Daily" (id: 1200361736):

{
  "mode": "episodes",
  "podcastId": 1200361736,
  "maxItems": 50
}

Get all podcasts from Stanford (artistId: 1280771285):

{
  "mode": "byPublisher",
  "publisherId": 1280771285,
  "maxItems": 100
}

UK True Crime top charts:

{
  "mode": "topCharts",
  "country": "gb",
  "genreId": "1488",
  "maxItems": 100
}

Output

Podcast record (mode=search, topCharts, byPublisher)

{
  "podcastId": 1235836821,
  "podcastTitle": "The Future of Everything",
  "artistId": 1280771285,
  "artistName": "Stanford Engineering",
  "totalEpisodes": 380,
  "primaryGenre": "Science",
  "genres": ["Science", "Podcasts", "Technology"],
  "genreIds": ["1533", "26", "1318"],
  "explicitness": "notExplicit",
  "country": "USA",
  "latestEpisodeDate": "2026-06-05T14:00:00Z",
  "feedUrl": "https://feeds.simplecast.com/Y8_HoeNW",
  "podcastUrl": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-future-of-everything/id1235836821",
  "artworkUrl": "https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/.../600x600bb.jpg",
  "contentRating": "Clean",
  "recordType": "podcast",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-06-10T12:00:00+00:00"
}

Episode record (mode=episodes)

{
  "episodeId": 1000771328091,
  "podcastId": 1235836821,
  "episodeTitle": "The future of ultrafast materials and devices",
  "podcastTitle": "The Future of Everything",
  "description": "Engineer Aaron Lindenberg is an expert in...",
  "shortDescription": "X-ray flash photography to make movies of atoms...",
  "episodeGuid": "1fbc6902-6a83-4823-845f-4844c22b82b6",
  "durationSeconds": 2236,
  "airDate": "2026-06-05T14:00:00Z",
  "genres": ["Science"],
  "audioUrl": "https://example.com/audio.mp3",
  "episodeUrl": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/.../id1235836821?i=1000771328091",
  "podcastUrl": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/.../id1235836821",
  "feedUrl": "https://feeds.simplecast.com/Y8_HoeNW",
  "artworkUrl": "https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/.../600x600bb.jpg",
  "contentType": "audio",
  "fileExtension": "mp3",
  "contentRating": "Clean",
  "recordType": "episode",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-06-10T12:00:00+00:00"
}

Supported genres

Arts, Comedy, Education, Kids & Family, TV & Film, Music, Religion & Spirituality, Technology, Business, Society & Culture, Fiction, History, True Crime, News, Leisure, Government, Health & Fitness, Science, Sports

Supported countries (sample)

United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, India, South Korea, New Zealand, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Portugal, Poland, Russia, Turkey, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Peru

How to find a Podcast ID

The podcast ID (collection ID) is the number in the Apple Podcasts URL:

• https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-daily/id**1200361736**

The publisher/artist ID is the number after /artist/:

• https://podcasts.apple.com/us/artist/stanford/**1280771285**

FAQ

Do I need an API key? No. This scraper uses Apple's completely public iTunes Search API (itunes.apple.com/search) and RSS feeds.

How many results can I get from a search? The iTunes Search API returns up to 200 results per query. Use maxItems to control output.

Can I get all episodes for a podcast? The iTunes Lookup API returns up to 200 episodes per call. For podcasts with more episodes, consider parsing the RSS feedUrl directly (available in each podcast record).

What country stores are available? 40+ country stores. The country field controls which store's search rankings and charts are used. Podcast availability may differ by country.

What is a "cleaned" explicit rating? Apple's "Cleaned" rating means the content has been edited to remove explicit language (censored version).

Data source

Data is sourced from Apple's iTunes Search API and the iTunes RSS Generator. Both are publicly accessible without authentication.