Your RSS Feeds

Benecaster generates private RSS feeds for your subscribers. Each subscriber gets a unique feed URL that their podcast app polls to receive episodes. The feed is standard RSS — it works in every major podcast app without any special configuration on the subscriber’s end.

One Feed per Tier

Benecaster generates a separate RSS feed for each membership tier on each show. If you have two tiers — Gold and Silver — your show has two feeds. A Gold subscriber’s feed might contain 50 episodes; a Silver subscriber’s feed might contain 30, depending on how you’ve set availability dates.

Every subscriber at the same tier receives the same feed content. The feed is cached per tier, not per subscriber — this keeps performance fast regardless of how many subscribers you have.

How Authentication Works

Each subscriber’s feed URL contains a unique token — a long random string tied to their subscription. When their podcast app polls the URL, Benecaster:

1. Extracts the token from the URL
2. Looks up which subscriber and membership tier that token belongs to
3. Compiles the feed for that tier
4. Returns the RSS XML

If the token is missing, invalid, or the subscription has lapsed, Benecaster returns an empty feed. Subscribers don’t receive an error — their podcast app simply stops updating. They won’t lose episodes already downloaded.

The token is the only form of authentication. There is no username or password. Subscribers share their feed URL with their podcast app — and only their podcast app. If a URL is shared with someone else, that person gets the same feed access. Token reset is available if a subscriber believes their URL has been compromised. See How Feed Tokens Work.

What’s in the Feed

Benecaster generates fully iTunes-spec compliant RSS. Each feed includes:

• All episodes whose availability date for the subscriber’s tier is in the past (or has no availability date set), up to 300 per page
• Episode title, description, publish date, duration, and file size
• Audio enclosure URL pointing directly to your hosted file
• Episode artwork (falls back to show artwork if no episode-specific artwork is set)
• Episode type (full, trailer, bonus)
• Season and episode numbers (when enabled on the show)
• Show-level metadata: title, author, description, category, language, artwork

Feeds are paginated at 300 episodes per page using the RFC 5005 standard. Podcast apps that support feed pagination will automatically follow pagination links to retrieve older episodes.

Availability and Timing

Each episode has a per-tier availability date. Benecaster only includes episodes in a feed where that date has passed — episodes with a future availability date are invisible to that tier until the date arrives. Episodes with no availability date set for a tier are also excluded from that tier’s feed.

Benecaster checks for newly-available episodes every 15 minutes via a scheduled task. When an episode becomes available to a tier, the feed cache for that tier is cleared and rebuilt on the next request.

For time-sensitive releases — for example, early access that unlocks at midnight — availability checks depend on WordPress’s scheduled task system. On low-traffic sites, a 15-minute window of delay is possible. For tighter timing, configure a real server cron to run WordPress’s scheduled tasks every few minutes. See System Requirements.

Spotify Compatibility

Private token feeds are not compatible with Spotify’s subscription system. Spotify requires their Open Access API for subscriber-authenticated podcasts, which Benecaster does not implement.

Your public podcast episodes (if you have any) work normally on Spotify. Only the private subscriber-authenticated feeds are incompatible. Most podcasters using Benecaster distribute private content exclusively through apps that support custom RSS URLs — Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Podcast Addict, and others.

If Spotify distribution is a requirement for your private podcast, Benecaster is not the right tool for that specific use case.

Feed Caching

Feeds are cached to avoid recompiling the same XML on every request. The cache is per tier per show — one cached copy for all Gold subscribers, one for all Silver subscribers. The cache is automatically cleared when:

• An episode is published, updated, or deleted
• An episode’s availability date passes
• Show settings are changed
• You manually flush the cache from Benecaster → Tools

Feed responses include ETag headers. Podcast apps that support conditional requests will receive a 304 Not Modified response when nothing has changed, further reducing server load.

Episode Pages

In addition to the private RSS feed, Benecaster generates a public-facing web page for each episode. These pages are accessible at your WordPress site URL and render the episode’s title, player, description, and any custom fields you’ve configured.

Episode pages and the private feed are separate but related:

• The feed is what podcast apps use. It’s authenticated by token and delivers audio to the subscriber’s app.
• Episode pages are for web browsers. They’re useful for sharing links, SEO, and show notes that reference material.

Tier access applies to episode pages as well — locked episodes show teaser content and an upgrade prompt to visitors who aren’t subscribed at the required tier. Subscribers see the full episode content.

Episode pages are enabled by default. To disable them, go to Show Settings → Advanced and turn off Episode single pages. You can also disable the episode archive page independently if you don’t want a listing of all episodes.