Apple Podcasts watchlists

Refresh Apple Podcasts watchlists

A watchlist refresh re-resolves shows you already know. Apple Podcasts Scraper looks up Apple Podcasts collection IDs through the official iTunes Lookup API. No proxy is required. Use this after iTunes Search or charts have produced collection IDs, or when you already store IDs from Apple Podcasts URLs (id1535144780 → 1535144780).

Open Apple Podcasts Scraper on Apify

Watchlist versus reviews and rank movement

Use this guide when the job is refreshing known collection IDs. Use Apple Podcasts Reviews Scraper for public ratings on those IDs. Use Apple Podcasts Chart Scraper for Top Podcasts movement, not a show watchlist. See one-time export vs watchlist.

Watchlist (lookupIds) Reviews Scraper Chart Scraper monitor
Input IDs Apple collection IDs podcastIds (same IDs) Storefront countries, not a show list
Output Show metadata, optional episodeTitle Review rows or one rating report Chart rows or one movement report
Unchanged polls Described as avoiding payable dataset writes when nothing is saved Zero rows / zero charge when emitUnchanged is false Zero rows / zero charges when ranks are unchanged

What a watchlist refresh returns

Lookup rows are source-linked dataset items with stable identifiers for recurring checks. Documented fields include:

Set includeEpisodes true to fetch recent episodes for each resolved podcast. That is slower. This Actor’s published input controls episode inclusion with that boolean only.

Watchlist input

Pass lookupIds. At least one of searchTerm, chartRequests, or lookupIds is required. country applies to lookup requests (default us).

{
  "lookupIds": ["1535144780"],
  "country": "us",
  "includeEpisodes": true
}

Empty or no-change watchlist polls are described as avoiding payable default-dataset writes when nothing is saved. Use dryRun to validate a setup without saving results or sending webhooks.

Run a watchlist refresh on Apify

How do I get Apple Podcasts collection IDs for a watchlist?

Use this after search or charts have produced collection IDs, or when you already store IDs from Apple Podcasts URLs (id1535144780 → 1535144780). Pass those values as lookupIds. Lookup uses the official iTunes Lookup API.

Do unchanged watchlist polls write payable rows?

Empty or no-change watchlist polls are described as avoiding payable default-dataset writes when nothing is saved. Use dryRun to validate a setup without saving results or sending webhooks. Billing is pay-per-event: Actor start plus one result event per default-dataset item.

Can I look up more than one country per run?

Search and lookup use a single default country per run (default us). There is no country array on lookupIds. Charts can request several storefronts in one run because chartRequests is an array.

How is a watchlist different from Reviews Scraper?

A lookupIds watchlist re-resolves show metadata (name, publisher, source URL, optional recent episode titles). Apple Podcasts Reviews Scraper reads public Customer Reviews RSS for podcastIds you already have and can emit review rows or one rating report. Pass the same collection IDs to Reviews Scraper when reputation context is required.

Does a watchlist compute rank movement?

No. lookupIds refresh known shows. For storefront Top Podcasts movement (new, changed, or dropped positions), use Apple Podcasts Chart Scraper. For joining chart snapshots yourself, use chartRequests on a schedule.

Can I pass Apple show URLs as lookupIds?

No. lookupIds are numeric Apple Podcasts collection IDs. Take an ID from an Apple Podcasts URL (id1535144780 → 1535144780) and pass that number. The published input does not document a show-URL field.

Is a watchlist a substitute for public RSS?

No. A watchlist re-resolves show metadata and optional recent episode titles. For a known show’s complete published catalog, read that show’s public RSS feed. Neither lookupIds nor includeEpisodes is a full RSS archive.

Should I use lookupIds to infer chart rank?

No. lookupIds refresh known shows. Rank belongs to chartRequests snapshots or Apple Podcasts Chart Scraper. Do not infer presence or movement from a missing watchlist rank.

How is a watchlist refresh priced?

Billing is pay-per-event. The live Store card is from $2.50 / 1,000 results. Published events are Actor Start at $0.005 and result at $0.0025 per default-dataset item ($2.50 per 1,000). Empty no-change polls are described as avoiding payable default-dataset writes when nothing is saved.

When should I switch from a one-time export to lookupIds?

After a search or chart export has produced collection IDs you want to keep. Recurring refreshes re-check show metadata without a new keyword search or chart request. See One-time export vs iTunes watchlist lookup.

How to run it

  1. Open Apple Podcasts Scraper, then the Actor on the Apify Store.
  2. Paste Apple Podcasts collection IDs into lookupIds.
  3. Set country to the storefront you track. Turn on includeEpisodes only if recent episodes are needed.
  4. Start with delivery: "dataset". After the payload is approved, you can set delivery to webhook and provide webhookUrl (Slack, Discord, Zapier, or any HTTP endpoint).

Billing is pay-per-event: Actor start plus one result event per default-dataset item. The published Store price is $0.005 per Actor start and $2.50 per 1,000 dataset results ($0.0025 per row).

From $2.50 per 1,000 results

Open Apple Podcasts Scraper on Apify

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