Self-hosting of RSS feeds
Do you want to have the greatest control over your podcast? Hosting its feed on your own server is the way to go!
He who controls the feed, controls the podcast.
—Someone at some point in time
RSS Blue
- generates feeds for your podcasts, music albums, and audiobooks
- by default, it hosts those feeds at
feeds.rssblue.com
We will always let you redirect the feed and change hosting providers, but you don't have to take our word for it! From the start, you can host the feed on a domain that you own, while still serving the media files from RSS Blue.
1. Uploading the feed for the first time
Download your currently selected RSS feed here. You can now upload this file, named rss-feed.xml, to your own server. The URL path you store it at (e.g., https://example.com/rss-feed.xml) will be the new location of your feed.
2. Configure the server
To serve the feed to the largest number of podcast indices and apps, ensure the following:
- the server has HTTPS enabled
- the server has HEAD requests enabled
- the server is capable of 301 redirects (for this reason, we advise against using most object storage services, like Digital Ocean Spaces)
- the feed is served with the
application/xml,application/rss+xml, ortext/xmlMIME type
Validators like Podbase, Cast Feed Validator, and Livewire can help you ensure that your server is correctly configured. Just paste the URL of your feed (like https://example.com/rss-feed.xml) and most common errors will be reported.
3. Redirect from RSS Blue
If the server is correctly configured, you can now redirect the feed from RSS Blue to your own server. You can set the new feed URL (like https://example.com/rss-feed.xml) here.
4. Updating the feed
After redirecting the feed, two new buttons will appear in your dashboard:
Each time you make changes to your feed (e.g., publish a new song or episode), you will need to upload the updated feed to your server. You can use the “Download” button to download the updated feed from RSS Blue.
We use Podping to instantly notify apps and indices about feed changes. Once the feed is uploaded to your server, you can click the “Notify apps” button to send this notification. Apps and indices will then fetch the updated feed from your server and display the new content.