# Podcast Episode Scraper (RSS & Apple) (`seemuapps/podcast-rss-scraper`) Actor

Extract every episode from any podcast RSS feed or Apple Podcasts show  title, publish date, duration, audio URL, transcript link, season/episode numbers, and cover art, one row per episode.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/seemuapps/podcast-rss-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Andrew](https://apify.com/seemuapps) (community)
- **Categories:** SEO tools, E-commerce, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 3 total users, 0 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 1 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $3.00 / 1,000 podcast episodes

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

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 Episode Scraper (RSS & Apple)

Extract the full episode list of any podcast - from a direct RSS feed or an Apple Podcasts link - with no API key. Get one clean row per episode with title, publish date, duration, audio URL, transcript link, season/episode numbers, and cover art.

### What you get

- **Podcast title and author** for every episode row
- **Episode title, publish date, and duration** (normalized to seconds)
- **Audio URL and MIME type** - the direct media enclosure
- **Transcript URL** - when the feed publishes a `<podcast:transcript>` tag
- **Season and episode numbers** (where tagged)
- **Explicit flag**, episode web page link, and GUID
- **Cover art image** and a clean plain-text description

### Use cases

- **Podcast analytics & catalog building** - pull an entire show's back catalog into a spreadsheet
- **Content research** - track release cadence, episode lengths, and guest cadence across shows
- **Transcript pipelines** - collect audio + transcript URLs to feed downstream processing
- **Media monitoring** - watch a set of shows and capture new episodes as they publish
- **Dataset creation** - build podcast datasets for search, recommendation, or ML

### How to use

1. Add one or more **feeds**. Each can be:
   - a direct **RSS feed URL** - `https://feeds.megaphone.fm/your-show`
   - an **Apple Podcasts URL** - `https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/name/id1234567890`
   - an **`apple:<id>`** shortcut - `apple:1234567890`
2. Optionally set **Max Episodes Per Feed** and/or a total **Max Items** cap
3. Run the actor - results land in the **Dataset** tab
4. Export to JSON, CSV, Excel, or Google Sheets directly from the Apify console

#### Example input

```json
{
  "feeds": [
    "https://feeds.simplecast.com/54nAGcIl",
    "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-daily/id1200361736"
  ],
  "maxEpisodesPerFeed": 50,
  "maxItems": 0
}
```

### Output format

One dataset record per episode:

```json
{
  "podcastTitle": "The Example Show",
  "podcastAuthor": "Example Media",
  "feedUrl": "https://feeds.simplecast.com/54nAGcIl",
  "episodeTitle": "Episode 42: A Great Conversation",
  "pubDate": "Wed, 28 May 2026 09:00:00 -0000",
  "durationSeconds": 3120,
  "season": 2,
  "episode": 42,
  "explicit": false,
  "audioUrl": "https://cdn.simplecast.com/audio/.../episode.mp3",
  "audioType": "audio/mpeg",
  "episodeUrl": "https://example.com/episodes/42",
  "guid": "abcd-1234",
  "transcriptUrl": "https://example.com/episodes/42/transcript.vtt",
  "imageUrl": "https://image.simplecastcdn.com/.../cover.jpg",
  "description": "In this episode we talk about ..."
}
```

### Notes

- Apple Podcasts links are resolved to the show's underlying RSS feed automatically via the public iTunes lookup - Apple does not host the audio itself, the RSS feed does.
- Episodes are read in feed order (newest first for most shows); **Max Episodes Per Feed** keeps that many from the top.
- `transcriptUrl` is only present when the publisher includes a transcript tag in the feed.

# Actor input Schema

## `feeds` (type: `array`):

One entry per podcast. Accepts a direct RSS feed URL (e.g. 'https://feeds.megaphone.fm/show'), an Apple Podcasts URL (e.g. 'https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/name/id1234567890'), or an 'apple:<id>' shortcut (e.g. 'apple:1234567890').

## `maxEpisodesPerFeed` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of (most recent) episodes to extract from each feed. 0 = all episodes in the feed.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum total number of episodes to push across all feeds. 0 = no limit.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "feeds": [
    "https://feeds.simplecast.com/54nAGcIl"
  ],
  "maxEpisodesPerFeed": 0,
  "maxItems": 0
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Each record: { podcastTitle, podcastAuthor, feedUrl, episodeTitle, pubDate, durationSeconds, season, episode, explicit, audioUrl, audioType, episodeUrl, guid, transcriptUrl, imageUrl, 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 = {
    "feeds": [
        "https://feeds.simplecast.com/54nAGcIl"
    ],
    "maxEpisodesPerFeed": 0,
    "maxItems": 0
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("seemuapps/podcast-rss-scraper").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 = {
    "feeds": ["https://feeds.simplecast.com/54nAGcIl"],
    "maxEpisodesPerFeed": 0,
    "maxItems": 0,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("seemuapps/podcast-rss-scraper").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 '{
  "feeds": [
    "https://feeds.simplecast.com/54nAGcIl"
  ],
  "maxEpisodesPerFeed": 0,
  "maxItems": 0
}' |
apify call seemuapps/podcast-rss-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,seemuapps/podcast-rss-scraper"
        }
    }
}

```

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/uLu3Pv3dGReHDUy6J/builds/1O9eg4UYULVxJzskD/openapi.json