Articles on: Podcasts & Episodes

Building Podcast-Powered Applications with the Podscan API

You're building something that needs podcast data — maybe a media monitoring platform, a content discovery app, a trend analysis tool, or a custom alerting system. The problem: podcast data is fragmented, unstructured, and locked in audio files that can't be queried.


Podscan's API solves this. Access 4+ million podcasts, 46+ million episodes with full transcripts, audience demographics, extracted entities, and real-time updates — all through a single API.


What Makes Podscan Different


Most podcast data sources give you RSS feeds and metadata. Podscan gives you:


  • Full-text transcripts: Every episode transcribed and searchable
  • AI-extracted entities: People, brands, topics, and sponsors identified
  • Audience demographics: Age, gender, education, purchasing power, industries
  • Real-time updates: New episodes transcribed within 5 minutes of release
  • Historical depth: Millions of episodes going back years


Your applications can query podcast content, not just metadata.


Two APIs, Different Use Cases



Use the REST API for:

  • Searching historical content
  • Fetching specific podcasts or episodes
  • Building on-demand features
  • Powering user-initiated queries


Availability: All paid plans (100-5000+ requests/day depending on tier)


Example request:

curl -X GET "https://podscan.fm/api/v1/episodes/search?query=artificial+intelligence" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json"


Firehose API: Real-Time Stream


Use the Firehose API for:

  • Real-time monitoring systems
  • Building your own alerting platform
  • Continuous content ingestion
  • Training ML models on podcast content


Availability: Advanced plans (webhook-based push delivery)


How it works:

  1. Configure your webhook endpoint in Team Settings
  2. Select data fields to include (transcripts, entities, topics, etc.)
  3. Optionally filter by podcasts or categories
  4. Receive new episodes as they're processed — typically within 5 minutes of release


Tiered access:

  • Lite: Top 1,000 podcasts by reach
  • Core: Top 25,000 podcasts by reach
  • Full: All 4M+ podcasts


Data Available Through the API


Podcast Data

  • Podcast name, description, publisher
  • RSS feed URL, website, contact info
  • Episode count, frequency, language, location
  • Ratings (Apple, Spotify), review counts
  • Audience demographics
  • GARM brand safety scores
  • Chart rankings


Episode Data

  • Title, description, publication date, duration
  • Full transcript (with or without timestamps)
  • AI-generated summary
  • Extracted topics and themes
  • Identified hosts, guests, and sponsors
  • Brand safety rating


Entity Data

  • People mentioned (with roles: host, guest, sponsor)
  • Brands and organizations mentioned
  • Industry classifications
  • Appearance counts


Audience Demographics

  • Age group distribution
  • Gender composition
  • Education levels
  • Engagement levels
  • Purchasing power
  • Professional industries


Common Implementation Patterns


Media Monitoring Platform


Build a system that tracks mentions across podcasts:


  1. Use REST API to set up initial keyword searches
  2. Use Firehose to receive new matches in real-time
  3. Store matches with audience data for reach calculation
  4. Provide sentiment and context from transcript data


Content Discovery App


Help users find podcasts about specific topics:


  1. Search API for topic-based discovery
  2. Demographics API to show audience fit
  3. Entity extraction to identify key guests and experts
  4. Ratings and reviews for quality signals


Trend Analysis Tool


Track what's being discussed across podcasting:


  1. Firehose to ingest all new content
  2. Topic extraction to categorize discussions
  3. Entity tracking to see which people/brands are trending
  4. Time-series analysis on mention frequency


Custom Alerting System


Build alerts with business logic beyond Podscan's UI:


  1. Firehose for real-time content
  2. Apply your own filtering rules
  3. Match against your own entity database
  4. Route to your notification systems


Getting Started


1. Get Your API Token


  1. Go to Account → API Tokens
  2. Click Create new token
  3. Name it descriptively (e.g., "Production App" or "Dev Testing")
  4. Copy and store securely


2. Explore the Documentation


Full API documentation is available at podscan.fm/api including:

  • Endpoint reference
  • Request/response schemas
  • Code examples
  • Rate limits by plan


3. Test with REST API


Start with simple queries:

# Search episodes
GET /api/v1/episodes/search?query=your+keyword

# Get podcast details
GET /api/v1/podcasts/{podcast_id}

# Search people and brands
GET /api/v1/entities/search?query=elon+musk


4. Configure Firehose (If Applicable)


  1. Go to Team Settings
  2. Enable Firehose webhook
  3. Enter your webhook URL
  4. Select data fields to include
  5. Test with the sample data button
  6. Enable for production


Best Practices


Handle Rate Limits


  • REST API has daily limits by plan
  • Implement exponential backoff on rate limit responses
  • Cache responses where appropriate
  • Use Firehose for high-volume real-time needs


Process Firehose Efficiently


  • The Firehose sends high volumes — ensure your endpoint can handle it
  • Enable GZIP compression to reduce bandwidth
  • Use category/podcast filters to reduce volume if needed
  • Process asynchronously; respond to webhook quickly


Work with Transcripts


  • Transcripts include timestamps by default
  • Parse for specific speakers using diarization data
  • Handle null values gracefully (not all fields available for all episodes)


Real-World Example: Ideas.Podscan.fm


We built ideas.podscan.fm entirely on the Podscan API to demonstrate what's possible:


  • Fetches thousands of podcast transcripts daily
  • Extracts business ideas from conversations using AI
  • Categorizes and tags for discovery
  • Fully monetized product built on API data


The same capabilities are available to you.


Support and Resources


  • API Documentation: podscan.fm/api
  • Sample Code: Available in the docs
  • Integration Support: Enterprise plans include direct support from the Podscan team
  • Custom Needs: Contact us for custom data exports, higher rate limits, or specialized requirements



Podcast content is one of the richest sources of unstructured business intelligence. The Podscan API makes it structured, searchable, and accessible for whatever you're building.

Updated on: 18/12/2025

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