🎙️ iTunes Podcast Search Scraper

🚀 Search Apple Podcasts catalog and bypass the 100-result cap to pull up to 5,000 unique podcasts per keyword.

🕒 Last updated: 2026-05-06 · 📊 24 fields per record · 5M+ podcasts · Apple Podcasts catalog · genres, ratings, RSS feeds, episode counts, Top Charts mode

The iTunes Podcast Search Scraper searches the Apple Podcasts catalog and returns structured records for any podcast: title, host, artwork, RSS feed URL, primary genre, episode count, content advisory, country, and last release date.

Apple's stock search caps any single query at ~100 results. This Actor bypasses that limit with a keyword-expansion strategy that returns up to 5,000 unique podcasts per keyword while keeping every result relevant. A separate Top Charts mode pulls up to 200 of Apple's officially ranked podcasts per genre.

🎯 Target Audience	💡 Primary Use Cases
Podcast networks, ad platforms, content marketers, journalists, audio researchers, recommendation engines	Podcast discovery, ad-target prospecting, niche-genre mapping, content trend research, RSS feed enrichment

---

📋 What the iTunes Podcast Search Scraper does

Five filtering workflows in a single run:

• 🔍 Search by keyword. Match across title, host, description, and genres.
• 🚀 Bypass the 100-cap. Auto-expansion with a-z and 0-9 suffixes; relevance filtered, deduped.
• 📊 Top Charts mode. Skip query, pick a genre, pull up to 200 ranked podcasts.
• 🏷️ Genre filter. 17 Apple genres including News, Business, Technology, True Crime, Comedy.
• 🌍 Country filter. Switch iTunes store country (US, GB, DE, JP, BR, ES).

💡 Why it matters: clean, server-side filtering removes the parser-and-pagination work from your team and keeps your dataset fresh on every run.

---

🎬 Full Demo

🚧 Coming soon: a 3-minute walkthrough showing how to go from sign-up to a downloaded dataset.

---

⚙️ Input

Input	Type	Default	Behavior
maxItems	integer	10	Records to return. Free plan caps at 10, paid plan up to 1,000,000.
query	string	"daily news"	Free-text keyword. Empty + genre = Top Charts.
country	string	"US"	ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 iTunes store country.
genre	string	""	Apple podcast genre ID. Empty = all.

Example: top 200 news podcasts (Top Charts mode).

{
    "maxItems": 200,
    "genre": "1311",
    "country": "US"
}

Example: 500 podcasts about Bitcoin.

{
    "maxItems": 500,
    "query": "bitcoin",
    "country": "US"
}

---

📊 Output

Each record contains 24 fields. Download the dataset as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML.

🧾 Schema

Field	Type	Example
🎨 artworkUrl	string	"https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/.../600x600.jpg"
🆔 collectionId	string	"1200361736"
📛 title	string	"The Daily"
🎤 artist	string	"The New York Times"
🌐 podcastUrl	string	"https://podcasts.apple.com/..."
📡 feedUrl	string	"https://feeds.simplecast.com/54nAGcIl"
🏷️ primaryGenre	string	"Daily News"
🏷️ genres	array	["Daily News","News"]
🌍 country	string	"USA"
🔢 trackCount	number	2456
🔞 explicit	boolean	false
📅 releaseDate	ISO 8601	"2026-05-06T10:00:00Z"

📦 Sample records

---

✨ Why choose this Actor

	Capability
🚀	Bypasses the 100-cap. Auto-expansion returns up to 5,000 unique podcasts per keyword while keeping every result relevant.
📊	Top Charts on demand. Skip the query and pull Apple's ranked list of up to 200 per genre.
🌍	Multi-country. Switch iTunes store countries to capture regional podcast catalogs.
📡	RSS feed URLs included. Direct feed links per podcast for downstream ingestion.
⚡	Fast. 100 results in under 30 seconds; 5,000 in a few minutes.

---

📈 How it compares to alternatives

Approach	Cost	Coverage	Refresh	Filters	Setup
⭐ This Actor	$5 free credit	5M+ podcasts	Live per run	query, country, genre, Top Charts	⚡ 2 min
Apple's stock search	Free	Capped at ~100	Live	Limited	🐢 Manual
Podcastindex bulk dumps	Free	Cross-platform	Variable	Bulk only	🐢 ETL
Listen Notes API	$144+/month	Cross-platform	Live	Yes	🐢 Account

Pick this Actor when you want broad coverage, server-side filtering, and no pipeline maintenance.

---

🚀 How to use

1. 📝 Sign up. Create a free account with $5 credit (takes 2 minutes).
2. 🌐 Open the Actor. Go to the iTunes Podcast Search Scraper page on the Apify Store.
3. 🎯 Set input. Pick your filters and maxItems.
4. 🚀 Run it. Click Start and let the Actor collect your data.
5. 📥 Download. Grab your results in the Dataset tab as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML.

⏱️ Total time from signup to downloaded dataset: 3-5 minutes. No coding required.

---

💼 Business use cases

📊 Podcast Networks Discover networks acquiring shows in growing genres Track competitor catalog size Monitor top-charts rotation Map host-driven networks	📣 Ad Targeting Build niche audience segments by genre Identify high-frequency ad opportunities Create podcast-host targeting lists Cross-reference with brand-safety lists
📰 Journalism & Research Track misinformation podcasts by keyword Survey political-podcast ecosystems Compile background research lists Monitor topic-specific shows	🤖 Recommendation Engines Train similar-podcast embeddings Build niche recommendation pipelines Power discovery features Enrich apps with RSS metadata

---

🔌 Automating iTunes Podcast Search Scraper

Control the scraper programmatically for scheduled runs and pipeline integrations:

• 🟢 Node.js. Install the apify-client NPM package.
• 🐍 Python. Use the apify-client PyPI package.
• 📚 See the Apify API documentation for full details.

The Apify Schedules feature lets you trigger this Actor on any cron interval. Hourly, daily, or weekly refreshes keep downstream databases in sync automatically.

---

🌟 Beyond business use cases

Data like this powers more than commercial workflows. The same structured records support research, education, civic projects, and personal initiatives.

🎓 Research and academia Media-studies research on podcast ecosystems Topic-modeling courseware Reproducible podcast snapshots Linguistic analysis of show titles	🎨 Personal and creative Personal podcast discovery tools Niche newsletter content Indie podcast directories Hobby tracking of favorite shows
🤝 Non-profit and civic Civic literacy podcast directories Public-radio cataloging Health-information podcast indexes OSS podcast metadata projects	🧪 Experimentation Train recommender models on metadata Prototype semantic podcast search Test discovery UI concepts Build ranking experiments

---

🤖 Ask an AI assistant about this scraper

Open a ready-to-send prompt about this ParseForge actor in the AI of your choice:

• 💬 ChatGPT
• 🧠 Claude
• 🔍 Perplexity
• 🅒 Copilot

---

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

🧩 How does it work?

Provide a query (and optionally genre/country) and the Actor searches Apple Podcasts. With no query and a genre, it pulls Apple's Top Charts instead.

🚀 How does the 100-cap bypass work?

Apple caps any single search at ~100 results. The Actor expands by appending each letter and digit to your keyword, dedupes by collectionId, and filters every result to ensure your keyword still appears in the title, artist, description, or genre.

📊 How many fields per record?

24, including artwork, title, host, RSS feed URL, primary genre, episode count, country, content advisory, and ratings.

📡 Does it include the RSS feed URL?

Yes. feedUrl returns the canonical podcast feed for downstream ingestion or RSS reader integration.

🌍 Which countries are supported?

All iTunes store countries. Pass any ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code (US, GB, DE, JP, ES, BR, AU).

🔁 Can I schedule recurring runs?

Yes. Use Apify Schedules to track Top Charts rotation, monitor a competitor's catalog, or refresh a discovery dataset.

🎵 Does it return episode-level data?

No. The Actor returns podcast-level metadata. For per-episode data, fetch the feedUrl directly.

💳 Do I need a paid Apify plan?

No. The free plan covers preview runs (10 records). A paid plan unlocks higher item counts and scheduling.

🆘 What if a run fails?

Apify retries transient errors. Inspect logs in the Runs tab; partial datasets are preserved.

⚖️ Is this data public?

Yes. Apple Podcasts metadata is publicly browsable. Only public catalog data is collected.

---

🔌 Integrate with any app

iTunes Podcast Search Scraper connects to any cloud service via Apify integrations:

• Make - Automate multi-step workflows
• Zapier - Connect with 5,000+ apps
• Slack - Get run notifications in your channels
• Airbyte - Pipe data into your warehouse
• GitHub - Trigger runs from commits and releases
• Google Drive - Export datasets straight to Sheets

You can also use webhooks to trigger downstream actions when a run finishes.

---

🔗 Recommended Actors

• 📰 Hacker News Search - Every HN story since 2007
• 📊 Stack Exchange Questions - Search 170+ Stack Exchange sites
• 🎬 TVMaze TV Shows - TV show metadata and episodes
• 🎌 AniList Anime/Manga - Search anime, manga, light novels
• 🎨 Openverse Media - 800M+ openly licensed images and audio

💡 Pro Tip: browse the complete ParseForge collection for more reference-data scrapers.

---

🆘 Need Help? Open our contact form to request a new scraper, propose a custom data project, or report an issue.

---

⚠️ Disclaimer: this Actor is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Apple Inc., Apple Podcasts, or any podcast publisher. All trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. Only publicly available open data is collected.