podcastids

Podcastids is a proposed standard and registry intended to provide persistent, interoperable identifiers for podcast content. The system assigns unique identifiers to podcasts at multiple levels—series (shows), seasons, and individual episodes—so that each item can be reliably referenced across platforms, apps, and archives.

The primary goal is to reduce fragmentation caused by platform-specific URLs and metadata. A PodcastID is designed to remain stable even if a show's hosting platform changes, changes in RSS feed structures, or rebranding occurs. Identifiers may be published in a public registry and embedded in metadata alongside traditional fields such as title, author, pubDate, duration, and media URL. They can be used by clients to resolve a single episode across listening apps, search engines, and library systems.

Identifier schemes may use UUIDs or hash-derived values, with a canonical form that distinguishes different entity types, such as show, season, and episode. The registry could define a standard serialization and a method for linking related items, like episodes within a season or spin-off programs tied to the same show.

Governance and adoption models vary: a consortium or nonprofit organization could steward the registry, publish open specifications, and provide reference implementations. Widespread adoption would require cooperation from publishers, hosting platforms, and application developers, which may implement mappings from existing identifiers to PodcastIDs to preserve continuity.

Potential challenges include ensuring long-term persistence, handling versioning when metadata changes, privacy considerations, and avoiding fragmentation if adoption remains partial. When broadly adopted, Podcastids could improve searchability, archival accuracy, and cross-platform listening experiences while preserving ownership and attribution metadata.