# Podcast Directory & New-Episode Monitor (`praise-most-high/podcast-directory-monitor`) Actor

Search Apple's podcast directory, resolve canonical RSS feeds, and emit new episodes as they publish.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/praise-most-high/podcast-directory-monitor.md
- **Developed by:** [angel nguyen](https://apify.com/praise-most-high) (community)
- **Categories:** News, E-commerce
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $17.00 / 1,000 podcast shows

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Podcast Directory & New-Episode Monitor

> **Unofficial.** This Actor is **not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Apple Inc.**
> "Apple", "Apple Podcasts" and "iTunes" are trademarks of Apple Inc., used here only to describe
> the public data source this Actor reads. It is an independent tool that calls Apple's own
> public iTunes Search/Lookup API and each show's own public RSS feed.

Search the Apple Podcasts directory by term, genre or author and get back a clean show record —
title, publisher, artwork, genre, episode count, and crucially the **canonical RSS feed URL**.
Then, optionally, follow those feeds and emit new episodes.

### What it is good for

- **New-episode monitoring** — schedule it daily against a watchlist and get one row per genuinely
  new episode. This is the recurring product; everything else is discovery.
- **Podcast discovery / market mapping** — who publishes in a genre, how many shows, how often.
- **Feed resolution** — turn a show name into an RSS URL you can consume anywhere.
- **Guest and sponsor research** — episode titles and descriptions across a set of shows.

**Verified sample record, verbatim:**

```json
{"trackId":1200361736,"title":"The Daily","artist":"The New York Times",
 "feedUrl":"https://feeds.simplecast.com/Sl5CSM3S",
 "websiteUrl":"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-daily/id1200361736?uo=4"}
```

### Input

| Field | Type | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| `searchTerms` | string\[] | `[]` | Show names, topics or publishers. |
| `podcastIds` | string\[] | `[]` | Apple podcast collection IDs — the robots-allowed lookup path. Preferred for monitoring a fixed watchlist. |
| `country` | string | `us` | ISO-2 storefront. |
| `limit` | integer | `25` | Max shows per search term (1–200). |
| `fetchEpisodes` | boolean | `false` | Follow each show's RSS feed and emit episodes. |
| `maxEpisodes` | integer | `10` | Most recent N episodes per show when `fetchEpisodes` is on. |
| `newEpisodesOnly` | boolean | `false` | Emit only episodes not seen in a previous run. Requires `fetchEpisodes`. |
| `maxConcurrency` | integer | `5` | Concurrency against Apple and RSS hosts. |

`newEpisodesOnly` keeps last-seen episode GUIDs per show in the Actor's own key-value store.
The first run has no baseline, emits everything, and logs that it did.

### Output

**Show rows:** `podcastId, title, artist, description, feedUrl, websiteUrl, artworkUrl, genres[],
episodeCount, country, contentRating, releaseDate, scrapedAt`

**Episode rows** (when `fetchEpisodes`): `podcastId, podcastTitle, episodeGuid, episodeTitle,
description, pubDate, duration, audioUrl, episodeUrl, isNew, scrapedAt`

### Responsible use

**Public data only.** Apple's public iTunes Search/Lookup endpoints plus each show's own public
RSS feed — feeds that publishers deliberately publish for syndication. No account, no API key,
no session cookie, no CAPTCHA solving, no headless browser, no proxy rotation.

**No personal data.** Show and episode metadata only — no listener data, no reviews, no accounts.

**robots.txt, stated plainly.** Checked live against `itunes.apple.com/robots.txt`: `/lookup?id=`
is **allowed**; `/search*` is **disallowed**. `podcastIds` (the `/lookup` path) is therefore the
preferred and robots-clean input for monitoring a fixed watchlist; `searchTerms` uses the search
path and is rate-limited accordingly. RSS feeds are not covered by Apple's robots.txt at all —
they sit on the publishers' own hosts, and the Actor honours **each feed host's own** robots.txt
and any `Retry-After` it sends.

**Feed etiquette.** Polling other people's feeds carelessly is how a monitoring product becomes a
nuisance. The Actor backs off on 429/403, respects `Retry-After`, and audio is never downloaded —
only the `audioUrl` is emitted.

**Your obligations as a user.** This is a discovery and monitoring tool, not a redistribution
pipeline. Do not mass-mirror feeds or audio.

# Actor input Schema

## `searchTerms` (type: `array`):

Show names, topics or publishers. Discovery path. Note: itunes.apple.com/robots.txt disallows /search\*, so this path is rate-limited to 1 request/second and logs a notice. For a fixed watchlist, prefer Podcast IDs.

## `podcastIds` (type: `array`):

Apple podcast collection IDs, e.g. 1200361736 (The Daily). Uses the robots-allowed /lookup path. This is the recommended input for scheduled monitoring — it is both cheaper and cleaner.

## `country` (type: `string`):

ISO-2 storefront code.

## `limit` (type: `integer`):

Max shows returned per search term. Ignored for Podcast ID lookups.

## `fetchEpisodes` (type: `boolean`):

Follow each show's public RSS feed and emit episode rows. Uses conditional requests, so unchanged feeds transfer almost nothing.

## `maxEpisodes` (type: `integer`):

Most recent N episodes per show. Bounded on purpose — there is no crawl-the-whole-archive mode.

## `newEpisodesOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Emit only episodes whose GUID was not seen in a previous run. Requires 'Fetch episodes'. The first run has no baseline, so it emits everything and logs that it did.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

Concurrent requests to Apple and to RSS hosts. The search path is separately capped at 1 request/second regardless of this value.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchTerms": [
    "true crime"
  ],
  "podcastIds": [],
  "country": "us",
  "limit": 25,
  "fetchEpisodes": false,
  "maxEpisodes": 10,
  "newEpisodesOnly": false,
  "maxConcurrency": 5
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `records` (type: `string`):

No description

## `csv` (type: `string`):

No description

## `datasetView` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "searchTerms": [
        "true crime"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("praise-most-high/podcast-directory-monitor").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "searchTerms": ["true crime"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("praise-most-high/podcast-directory-monitor").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "searchTerms": [
    "true crime"
  ]
}' |
apify call praise-most-high/podcast-directory-monitor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,praise-most-high/podcast-directory-monitor"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/jZETx2TvGO0PIGIJg/builds/v0ILY2nCfu0HBxqZm/openapi.json