Convert iTunes PodCasts To RSS Feeds

Martin Brinkmann
Nov 15, 2009
Updated • Mar 27, 2017
Internet
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The iTunes store offers a good selection of podcasts that iTunes users can subscribe to. Apple uses its own format to serve the podcasts which is problematic for two groups of users.

Those who do not want to use iTunes, and those who cannot use iTunes. The former group likely uses another software program to subscribe, manage and listen to podcasts while the later are Linux users who do not have the option to install iTunes directly.

Feed Flipper has been designed by Adam Schlitt to overcome this problem. It can convert any iTunes podcast to a valid RSS feed that can be integrated into any feed reader or podcast viewer.

Best of all - at least for most users - is the fact that Feed Flipper is an online service which means it will work with all operating systems and web browsers.

Feed Flipper

feed flipper

The basic method is the following: Feed Flipper uses a base url and several parameters to turn an iTunes podcast into a RSS feed link.

Update: The Feed Flipper URL has changed. The information below is outdated therefore. Simply point your browser to the new Feed Flipper address, and paste the iTunes podcast URL into the form on the page. The web service returns the RSS feed link automatically when you hit the Enter-key.

Outdated information below

Here is the developer's description of the options:

Creating your Feed Flipper RSS URL is easy! To start, copy the base URL:

* http://picklemonkey.net/flipper/convert.php?
Next, add your feed and any desired options to the end of it:

* &feed=URL - Your iTunes podcast URL
* &return=count - Sets the number of articles to display. (0 for all). If omitted, 20 is assumed default.
* &sender=text - Sets the sender of each RSS item to the specified text
* &senderprefix=text - Begin the sender of each RSS item with the specified text
* &subject=text - Sets the subject of each RSS items to the specified text
* &subjectprefix=text - Begin the subject of each RSS item with the specified text

The most basic option for users is to use the base url with the &feed=URL parameter like in the following example:

http://picklemonkey.net/flipper/convert.php?feed=http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=109573938

This creates a valid RSS Feed for the Japanese 101 Podcast that is available on the iTunes store. The only problem that some users might have with Feed Flipper is the fact that everything depends on the availability of the script on the developer's website.

It is not possible to update feeds if this is temporarily or even permanently unreachable. It can also happen that Apple changes a core setting in the company's iTunes store which could lead to the program not working anymore. The developer has fixed those problems in the past however.

Closing Words

Feed Flipper is a handy online service for users who want to subscribe to iTunes podcasts but cannot locate a non-Itunes URL of the podcast.

Summary
Convert iTunes PodCasts To RSS Feeds
Article Name
Convert iTunes PodCasts To RSS Feeds
Description
Feed Flipper is a free online service that enables you to convert iTunes podcast URLs to RSS feed links that work in any program, and not just iTunes.
Author
Publisher
Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. ilev said on August 4, 2012 at 7:53 pm
    Reply

    Doesn’t Windows 8 know that www. or http:// are passe ?

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on August 4, 2012 at 7:57 pm
      Reply

      Well it is a bit difficulty to distinguish between name.com domains and files for instance.

    2. Leonidas Burton said on September 4, 2023 at 4:51 am
      Reply

      I know a service made by google that is similar to Google bookmarks.
      http://www.google.com/saved

  2. VioletMoon said on August 16, 2023 at 5:26 pm
    Reply

    @Ashwin–Thankful you delighted my comment; who knows how many “gamers” would have disagreed!

  3. Karl said on August 17, 2023 at 10:36 pm
    Reply

    @Martin

    The comments section under this very article (3 comments) is identical to the comments section found under the following article:
    https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/15/netflix-is-testing-game-streaming-on-tvs-and-computers/

    Not sure what the issue is, but have seen this issue under some other articles recently but did not report it back then.

  4. Anonymous said on August 25, 2023 at 11:44 am
    Reply

    Omg a badge!!!
    Some tangible reward lmao.

    It sucks that redditors are going to love the fuck out of it too.

  5. Scroogled said on August 25, 2023 at 10:57 pm
    Reply

    With the cloud, there is no such thing as unlimited storage or privacy. Stop relying on these tech scums. Purchase your own hardware and develop your own solutions.

    1. lollmaoeven said on August 27, 2023 at 6:24 am
      Reply

      This is a certified reddit cringe moment. Hilarious how the article’s author tries to dress it up like it’s anything more than a png for doing the reddit corporation’s moderation work for free (or for bribes from companies and political groups)

  6. El Duderino said on August 25, 2023 at 11:14 pm
    Reply

    Almost al unlmited services have a real limit.

    And this comment is written on the dropbox article from August 25, 2023.

  7. John G. said on August 26, 2023 at 1:29 am
    Reply

    First comment > @ilev said on August 4, 2012 at 7:53 pm

    For the God’s sake, fix the comments soon please! :[

  8. Kalmly said on August 26, 2023 at 4:42 pm
    Reply

    Yes. Please. Fix the comments.

  9. Kim Schmidt said on September 3, 2023 at 3:42 pm
    Reply

    With Google Chrome, it’s only been 1,500 for some time now.

    Anyone who wants to force me in such a way into buying something that I can get elsewhere for free will certainly never see a single dime from my side. I don’t even know how stupid their marketing department is to impose these limits on users instead of offering a valuable product to the paying faction. But they don’t. Even if you pay, you get something that is also available for free elsewhere.

    The algorithm has also become less and less savvy in terms of e.g. English/German translations. It used to be that the bot could sort of sense what you were trying to say and put it into different colloquialisms, which was even fun because it was like, “I know what you’re trying to say here, how about…” Now it’s in parts too stupid to translate the simplest sentences correctly, and the suggestions it makes are at times as moronic as those made by Google Translations.

    If this is a deep-learning AI that learns from users’ translations and the phrases they choose most often – which, by the way, is a valuable, moneys worthwhile contribution of every free user to this project: They invest their time and texts, thereby providing the necessary data for the AI to do the thing as nicely as they brag about it in the first place – alas, the more unprofessional users discovered the translator, the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, the greater the aggregate of linguistically illiterate users has become, and the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, as it now learns the drivel of every Tom, Dick and Harry out there, which is why I now get their Mickey Mouse language as suggestions: the inane language of people who can barely spell the alphabet, it seems.

    And as a thank you for our time and effort in helping them and their AI learn, they’ve lowered the limit from what was once 5,000 to now 1,500…? A big “fuck off” from here for that! Not a brass farthing from me for this attitude and behaviour, not in a hundred years.

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