Podcast discovery by country

The account’s podcast_country discovery setting selects an Apple storefront. Existing accounts default to us, preserving their previous market. The country is independent of interface language, music discovery, autoplay and DJ selection. It does not filter subscriptions, saved episodes, or shows by country of origin.

The setting is available in Settings → Playback and in the Podcasts globe selector. On mobile the selector sits in the Podcasts app bar; on desktop it sits to the right of the search field. A selection becomes active after the engine confirms it. Searches and both charts refresh when it changes. Old chart results are discarded when the selected country or signed-in account changes.

Android’s native podcast directory and playback settings expose the same country selection, show/episode charts and category filter. Country state is isolated by native connection generation. Episode resolution hands the exact episode to the existing native playback controller, retaining RSS provenance and reusing acquired episodes; discovery imports no web audio stores. Existing native personalized show recommendations remain available alongside the country charts.

Apple sources

• Search: https://performance-partners.apple.com/search-api, with country.
• Storefronts: https://rss.marketingtools.apple.com/apple/podcasts/storefronts. The supported code list is a checked-in snapshot of the RSS builder, checked on 2026-10-10. Country names are localized with Intl.DisplayNames.
• Shows: https://rss.marketingtools.apple.com/api/v2/{country}/podcasts/top/{limit}/podcasts.json.
• Episodes: https://rss.marketingtools.apple.com/api/v2/{country}/podcasts/top/{limit}/podcast-episodes.json.

Both charts were exercised against Spain’s public feeds. Their ranking order is preserved, including followed shows. Show feed URLs are resolved through a batched iTunes lookup in the same storefront. Chart data is bounded and cached for 90 seconds by country and limit.

A popular episode is resolved on demand through its parent show’s iTunes lookup, matching both the episode and show identifiers. Audio playback then uses the existing podcast token/stream path and reuses an already downloaded episode when available. Looking at a chart or playing an episode never subscribes to its show. An episode absent from Apple’s returned recent episodes, or available only as video, is reported as unavailable; another chapter is never substituted.

The retired rss.itunes.apple.com chart endpoint returned 503 during the initial investigation. The popular charts use the current Marketing Tools feeds and show an independent error/retry state if Apple fails. They never substitute generic search results for rankings. The separate podcast recommendations API retains its existing personalized logic and search fallback, with its exploration market now taken from the saved country. Public editorial collections and Apple’s personalized recommendations have no confirmed public API in this integration.

The category picker filters the loaded show and episode rankings using Apple’s returned genre identifiers. It preserves their relative order and leaves followed shows visible. It is a filter of the displayed results, not a separate full chart for that genre. Changing country clears the category selection.