Changing name of original podcast and adding another

[Dens Milne]

I'm using Blubrry hosting and Powerpress as part of a larger news WordPress site. We've currently got one podcast with 60+ episodes that is using the default podcast channel (Podcast) and feed (.../feed/podcast/). I want to change the name of the original podcast and add a second podcast. I'd like to confirm the best way to do these things. Should I change the feed for the original podcast when I change the name? Will I then need a redirect for the original URL? I was planning to add the second podcast using the Custom Podcast Channel functionality; any tips for what the URL structure should be? Would it be best to get another Blubrry account for the hosting of the second podcast to separate the stats or would there be another way to do that?

Thanks.

[Shawn Thorpe]

You'll change the title of the first podcast in the PowerPress settings for that show. You won't need to change any URLs or set up a redirect. The podcast title has no impact on your site URLs.

Yes, using a Custom Channel for the second show would be the best solution in your case. The second show's feed will be completely separate for the first, so changes made to the first show's settings won't have any impact on the second show's feed.

Yes, each show should have its own media hosting subscription in order to keep stats from commingling. If you decide to sign up for stats for the second show, you can use promo code SHAWN to get your first month's service free.

Note: if you've linked your WordPress site to your Blubrry account, you'll need to unlink it before setting up the second show, and if you were uploading media files directly from the WordPress site to your Blubrry hosting account, you'll need to instead upload files directly to your dashboard at blubrry.com and then copy/paste those media file URLs into your Podcast Episode entries on your website.

[Dens Milne]

Thanks, Shawn. A couple of follow-up questions, sorry. Will changing the name of the first show have any impact on subscribers? Will they need to resubscribe? How will the change appear on iTunes? We are using the WordPress interface to upload media to the Blubrry hosting, so it's a shame we can't link one site to two accounts. I guess we can link the more frequent show (the new weekly one) and then use a manual upload to Blubrry for the other one. Thanks, too, for the voucher code!

[Shawn Thorpe]

Keep in mind that keeping the WordPress site linked to your Blubrry account *may* cause you to get commingled stats between your show. If you don't care about that, then the plan you've described above will work fine.

When you change the title of a podcast feed within PowerPress settings, the change will eventually be picked up by syndication points like Apple Podcasts. You shouldn't need to do anything extra to make that happen. Current subscribers will get the new podcast title the next time they refresh their subscriptions. There's no reason they should have to resubscribe to the feed.

[Dens Milne]

Thanks so much for your help.

[Shawn Thorpe]

You're welcome!

If you've found the support we've provided here to be of value, please consider leaving a review for PowerPress:
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These reviews help us with future development of the plugin, and we'd really appreciate it!

[Dens Milne]

We're up and running now with two podcast channels. However, the two channels are using the same audio player and it's displaying the name of the original podcast even when it's the new podcast channel being used. Any way around this?

[Shawn Thorpe]

Each channel has its own Podcast Episode box. Make sure you're entering the podcasts into the correct boxes.

[Dens Milne]

Definitely using the correct episode box as the episodes are appearing in the correct feed. I can't see a way to set up different players for the two channels; is this possible?

I also tried adding an additional attribute to the powerpress shortcode (the slug for the channel is podcast-weekly): [powerpress channel="podcast-weekly"]
That doesn't work either, it defaults to the original channel (slug = podcast) and the default coverart.

[Shawn Thorpe]

Please post a link to a page using the correct player and another link to a page using the incorrect player.

[Dens Milne]

This article is for a podcast in the original series (now called Physics World Stories)
https://physicsworld.com/a/learning-from-the-ozone-solution/

This article is for a podcast in the new series (called Physisc World Weekly)
https://physicsworld.com/a/space-politics-cosmological-models-and-a-proton-mystery/

As you can see, the player is picking up Physics World Stories as the default for both, even thought the player was added via the correct channel.

[Shawn Thorpe]

The behavior you're seeing with the media player is happening because you're hosting the media files for both shows under the same hosting subscription. The Blubrry Audio Player takes its settings from the information included in your show's listing at blubrry.com. Thus, it can only display information based on one listing.

Your options are to either switch to the default MediaElement player, in which case the subscribe links that appear underneath the player can be varied by Podcast Channel. Or, you can get a dedicated media hosting subscription for the second show so that channel can have its own player. If you decide to go the second route, keep in mind that you can only have your WordPress site linked to one subscription, so doing this may alter your workflow if you're currently uploading media files to your Blubrry hosting account via your WordPress dashboard.

[Dens Milne]

Hi, Shawn. We followed your pervious advice when we launched the second show and we've got two Blubrry accounts. I thought this would get round all these problems.

[Shawn Thorpe]

Please go here:
https://www.blubrry.com/contact/
Click the Select link underneath All Other Inquiries and choose Technical Support. Fill out the form with your questions and someone will get back to you with assistance. We may need account information that wouldn't be good to post on a public forum.