FR: Metadata source: Podcast Index

[howllor 26]

Hello

I have been stubbornly trying to make Emby work as a client for a downloaded podcast library, and one of the main roadblocks is that there is currently no metadata provider for podcasts in Emby. I am using audiobooks as content type, but I have to rely on embedded tags for all metadata. 

Podcast Index would be a perfect metadata provider in that they are similar to other databases Emby already has plugins for, such as The TVDB. They have very extensive docs, I just lack the skills of developing the plugin myself.

https://podcastindex.org/

https://podcastindex-org.github.io/docs-api/#overview

[ebr 16169]

Given their stated mission, this is an odd thing to have in their terms:

Quote

Prohibitions on Content - Unless expressly permitted by the content owner or by applicable law, you will not, and will not permit your end users or others acting on your behalf to, do the following with content returned from the APIs:

1. Scrape, build databases, or otherwise create permanent copies of such content, or keep cached copies longer than permitted by the cache header;

adhering to that would mean we cannot use them as a metadata source.

They also mention limits on API calls but I don't see what those limits are.

[howllor 26]

Huh, that's weird, I agree that it doesn't like up with what they're claiming to achieve. I'm gonna reach out to them and see what they say about something like an emby plugin.

[howllor 26]

Hi, I have now received following information from the people being Podcast Index:

Quote

Yes, you can use the PI database for pretty much anything you want.  That section is just prohibiting API crawling because it harms our performance.  We rely on donations to pay the bills so cost/performance of the system is always a concern.  If you need the entire database we provide a download on our homepage instead of crawling the entire live database through the API.  

If you expect a large amount of traffic to our API let me know and maybe we can devise a better way for you to get what you need.

DJ

So it sounds like it is indeed something that would work very well for a metadata plugin.

[Luke 42077]

You may want to follow the WebStreams plugin as it will soon get RSS support: 

 

[howllor 26]

I still think a metadata source for downloaded podcasts would be useful

Edited September 30, 2025 by howllor

[howllor 26]

Also, Podcast Index is used elsewhere as a way to search for a podcast by name, and add it to your subscriptions. If WebStreams is what you want to focus on, then a Podcast Index plugin could be used so you can find new podcasts from inside emby, and not having to add RSS feeds manually at all