Apple has updated its podcast categories, and every podcaster is recommended to update the podcast feed as soon as possible. Apple will support the use of the old category names for the next few months though, and will send another message before discontinuing support for the old categories.

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.

If you change the categories in your podcast, it may take 1-2 weeks before the changes will be applied and listed appropriately. Note that the format stays the same, only the category data have changed.

Link: iTunes Podcast Technical Specification.
Worth reading: Podcast Promotion.

To easily receive updates on podcast and podcasting articles, subscribe to Podcasting Scout today.