While the RSS 2.0 tag may be populated with any text, Apple has a specific list of requirements for the tag. Currently iTunes supports 19 categories, with a smaller subset of them supporting a specific list of subcategories. You may designate more than one subcategory where appropriate. These categorizations are used to determine the hierarchy within the iTunes Music Store Podcast Section, so it’s important to pay attention to what is allowed. iTunes allows multiple top-level category definitions for the same podcast, but will default to the first one listed when cataloging the Podcast in the iTunes Music Store.

Within your RSS 2.0 feed, an iTunes category with two subcategories looks like this:

<itunes:category text=”Technology”>

<itunes:category text=”Computers” />

<itunes:category text=”News” />

</itunes:category>

Top level categories are listed in bold below with subcategories immediately following. If a category has no subcategories, the next top level category is listed.

Arts & Entertainment Architecture Books Design Entertainment Games Performing Arts Photography Poetry Science Fiction Audio Blogs Business Careers Finance Investing Management Marketing Comedy Education K-12 Higher Education Food Health Diet & Nutrition Fitness Relationships Self-Help Sexuality International Australian Belgian Brazilian Canadian Chinese Dutch French German Hebrew Italian Japanese Norwegian Polish Portuguese Spanish Swedish

Movies & Television Music News Politics Public Radio Religion & Spirituality Buddhism Christianity Islam Judaism New Age Philosophy Spirituality Science Sports Talk Radio Technology Computers Developers Gadgets Information Technology News Operating Systems Podcasting Smart Phones Text/Speech Travel