Training Example: Overcast – Review the Data, Give Your Score & Compare to the Real AI Evaluation

[H1] Overcast®
Free, simple, award-winning podcast player for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch.

[H2] Smart Speed®

Pick up extra speed without distortion with Smart Speed, which dynamically shortens silences in talk shows.
Conversations still sound so natural that you’ll forget it’s on — until you see how much extra time you’ve saved.

[H2] Voice Boost®

Boost and normalize volume so every show is loud, clear, and at the same volume.
Listen in more places, such as noisy cars, and still hear what everyone says without cranking the volume so high for quiet people that the loud ones blow your ears out.

[H2] A Normal Business

Hi, I’m Marco (?). It’s just me here — no big company or investors.
Overcast is a self-funded app that has sustainably succeeded on its merits and
respected your privacy for the last
11 years.

[H2] Free

Most features are free, supported by small visual ads to promote podcasts.
An annual subscription offers bonus features and can optionally hide the ads.
Download now and see if it’s right for you.

[H2] Info for Podcasters

Overcast works with the open, standard world of podcasts with public RSS feeds.

Simply add your podcast to Apple Podcasts and it’ll show up here.
It’s not a separate platform, and all downloads go directly to your servers.
Learn more.

[H1] Info for Podcasters
Overcast works with the open, standard world of podcasts. It’s the kind of podcast app that used to be the only kind.
There’s no terms to agree to, no rights to give up, and no loss of control over your podcast or its distribution. Overcast parses your RSS feed, downloads episodes directly from your servers to each listener, and doesn’t interfere with your stats or content at all.
[H2] Inclusion in Overcast
There’s no separate submission process to be included in Overcast. Simply submit your podcast to Apple Podcasts, and it will typically show up in Overcast’s search within 1–2 days.
If your podcast is already listed in Apple Podcasts, but isn’t showing up in Overcast, you may add it manually here.
Overcast listeners can always subscribe to any public podcast feed by entering its feed URL, but URLs not known to be in Apple Podcasts won’t be included in search or recommendations.
[H2] Prohibited content
Since Overcast is a one-person company that can’t possibly review and monitor all known podcasts for spam, adult content, hate speech, and other problematic, controversial, or illegal material, Overcast uses the human-reviewed Apple Podcasts directory as its filter for what should be included in search results and recommendations.
In rare cases, a show may be included in Apple Podcasts that does not comply with its content requirements. If I’m notified that Apple’s guidelines are being significantly violated by a show that is (but should not be) in their Podcasts directory, I may manually remove it from Overcast’s search results and recommendations.
Regardless of whether a podcast is included in Overcast’s search or recommendations, listeners can always subscribe to any podcast with a public feed URL using the “Add URL” button in the app’s Add Podcast screen.
[H2] Featured podcasts
Overcast does not feature podcasts via human curation or editorial selections.
Overcast lets users “recommend” episodes with a star button. The categories in the Add Podcast screen show the top-recommended podcasts recently for each category.
If you’d like to rank higher in these, feel free to encourage your listeners to recommend your show in Overcast at a reasonable time, such as when asking for ratings or reviews in other apps.
[H2] Advertising your podcast
Overcast offers display ads for podcasts on the Now Playing screen and in the top “Ad” slot in each directory category.
[H2] Linking to your show page
Overcast’s web URLs for known shows in Apple Podcasts always take the form:
https://overcast.fm/itunes123456789
…where “123456789” is the iTunes ID for your podcast. Simply look for the corresponding number in your iTunes/Apple Podcasts URL to construct your Overcast URL.
[H2] Subscribe URL scheme in iOS
On iOS, for customers who already have Overcast installed, you can link directly to a Subscribe prompt to any RSS URL (useful for paid private feeds) using this URL scheme:
overcast://x-callback-url/add?url=...&x-success=...
Parameters:
url (required, URL-encoded): The podcast’s RSS feed URL.
x-success (optional, URL-encoded): A URL that the app should open after successfully subscribing.
[H2] Icons for “subscribe” buttons
You may use or adapt Overcast’s icon and/or logo to create “Subscribe on Overcast” buttons that link to podcasts’ pages on Overcast.
[H2] Chapter support
Overcast displays MP3 and M4A chapter markers with titles, images, and/or link URLs.
You can easily add chapter markers to your podcasts with Forecast.
[H2] Private and password-protected feeds
Overcast specially handles feeds it recognizes as private:
URLs with HTTP Basic Auth credentials, e.g. http://user:password@site.com/…
Feeds containing the <itunes:block> element
Private feeds are given the following restrictions:
They are excluded from search and recommendations.
They do not display Share or Recommend buttons in the app.
Their pages on the Overcast website are only shown to logged-in users who have entered their exact URLs in the “Add URL” screen (and therefore know the username and password, if present).
[H2] User-Agents
Overcast’s iOS app uses the following HTTP User-Agent string for its episode downloads:
Overcast/3.0 (+http://overcast.fm/; iOS podcast app)
The Apple Watch app uses the following User-Agent for its episode downloads:
Overcast (+http://overcast.fm/; Apple Watch podcast app)
Keep in mind that a listener may download an episode from multiple devices.
These User-Agents only apply to audio-file downloads, not requests to your feed (see the next section).
[H2] Crawling your feed
Overcast uses server-side crawling, centrally fetching your RSS feed for all Overcast listeners to deliver new episodes faster and save bandwidth.
Each listener still downloads your audio directly from your servers. Overcast does not cache, re-host, or re-serve audio to listeners, but you may see Overcast’s servers download episodes to collect metadata.
Please ensure that these servers are not blocked:
crawl1.overcast.fm
crawl2.overcast.fm
crawl3.overcast.fm
crawl4.overcast.fm
crawl5.overcast.fm
crawl6.overcast.fm
They update feeds at varying intervals from a few minutes to 24 hours, depending on their popularity. Standard HTTP caching headers are obeyed.
Subscriber counts are reported in the HTTP User-Agent string, e.g.:
Overcast/1.0 Podcast Sync (123 subscribers; feed-id=456789; +http://overcast.fm/)
To protect privacy, no other statistics, analytics, or usage data are provided.
[H2] Ping API for immediate feed crawling
The “ping” API triggers Overcast’s crawlers to update a podcast’s RSS feed immediately, rather than waiting the 5–30 minutes it might typically take before it’s crawled next. This is intended for podcast publishing services and CMSes to trigger an Overcast update immediately after a new episode of a podcast is published.
Make a GET or POST request to https://overcast.fm/ping with these parameters in the query-string or request body:
urlprefix (required, URL-encoded): Update any known feed URLs that begin with this prefix.
urlcontains (optional): Also require URLs to contain this substring anywhere after the prefix.
For instance, a urlprefix value of https://example.com/bestshow/rss could match:
https://example.com/bestshow/rss
https://example.com/bestshow/rss?format=xml
https://example.com/bestshow/rss/member12345
This is especially useful for per-user private feeds. For instance, a premium podcast may generate individual feeds for each paying member:
https://example.com/bestshowpremium/VGX4tvqr
https://example.com/bestshowpremium/BSFE2tWV
https://example.com/bestshowpremium/uKHIwIx2
…
Submitting a ping with urlprefix set to https://example.com/bestshowpremium/ whenever a new episode is published would rapidly update all of the private feeds.
[H3] Important implementation details
Be as specific as possible to avoid crawling more feeds than necessary. When a new episode is published, submit a request that covers only the single podcast that has a new episode, not every podcast on your platform.
When integrating this API into a CMS using caching, please ensure that it’s called after any relevant caches are updated so Overcast’s feed request includes the newly published episode.
This API is heavily rate-limited by design. Ping requests that exceed the rate limit are ignored.
Feeds using HTTP Basic Auth (username and password) are not supported for ping requests.

[H1] Advertise Your Podcast
Overcast ads help you grow your podcast’s audience by reaching passionate podcast listeners
on their terms, natively, right in their podcast app.

Your ads appear below the controls on the Now Playing screen and in the Add Podcast directory,
reaching potential new listeners as they search for new podcasts.
Tapping brings up a native UI
with all of your episodes, inviting listeners to subscribe with a single tap.
Ads run for 30 days from the date of purchase. All prices are in U.S. dollars.
Purchasing an ad signifies your acceptance of the Terms of Sale below.
Targeted Podcast Category
Price
Slots Available
Estimated Performance*

Taps
Subscriptions

All
$1,400

2

2,000–3,500 $0.47 CPT
150–200 $7.00 CPA

Arts
$460

1

700–1,000 $0.51 CPT
55–70 $7.67 CPA

Business
$1,000
Sold outNotify me

1,000–1,500 $0.67 CPT
85–100 $10.00 CPA

Comedy
$270

1

1,500–2,000 $0.14 CPT
100–150 $1.80 CPA

Education
$420

2

850–1,500 $0.42 CPT
65–85 $5.60 CPA

Fiction
$150

1

350–500 $0.38 CPT
25–35 $5.00 CPA

Health & Fitness
$330

1

650–1,000 $0.39 CPT
50–65 $5.50 CPA

History
$420
Sold outNotify me

1,000–2,000 $0.28 CPT
90–100 $4.20 CPA

Kids & Family
$120

1

350–550 $0.27 CPT
25–35 $4.00 CPA

Leisure
$150

2

500–700 $0.25 CPT
35–50 $3.75 CPA

Music
$210

1

550–800 $0.32 CPT
40–55 $4.67 CPA

News
$625
Sold outNotify me

1,500–2,500 $0.31 CPT
100–150 $4.17 CPA

Religion & Spirituality
$280

1

450–700 $0.51 CPT
35–45 $7.00 CPA

Science
$250

2

850–1,000 $0.25 CPT
60–80 $3.57 CPA

Society & Culture
$380

1

2,000–3,000 $0.15 CPT
150–200 $2.53 CPA

Sports
$220

2

900–1,500 $0.22 CPT
65–90 $2.75 CPA

Technology
$825
Sold outNotify me

1,000–2,000 $0.55 CPT
90–100 $8.25 CPA

True Crime
$260
Sold outNotify me

850–1,500 $0.26 CPT
65–85 $3.47 CPA

TV & Film
$330
Sold outNotify me

800–1,000 $0.33 CPT
60–80 $4.71 CPA

[H2] Permitted Content
All titles, images, and descriptions must be appropriate for a general audience of all ages,
and may not contain profane, explicit, suggestive, offensive, or sexual content.
Ads will not be accepted for podcasts primarily or frequently about:
Investment advice, securities or financial instruments (including cryptocurrency and NFTs), debt management, gambling, etc.
Sex, sexual advice, seduction, objectification, etc.
Weapons, hunting, etc.
Alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, or other drug use, recreation, recovery, or treatment
Content or activities that are illegal in the United States or New York
Extreme or highly divisive political topics
Violent, dangerous, racist, sexist, anti-LGBTQ, anti-Semitic, or otherwise offensive or hateful content
False, misleading, anti-scientific, or unsubstantiated claims that may cause harm
Any other content that may be considered harmful, offensive, or in poor taste by Overcast's customers
Since Overcast collects no listener-demographic data, ads will also not be accepted for:
Gender-specific advice or other content intended for one gender (since listener gender identity cannot be targeted)
Specific regions (since listener region cannot be targeted)
Non-English podcasts (since listener language cannot be targeted)
This is not an exhaustive list, and the world is ever-changing.
Tricky judgment calls often must be made. I’m not perfect, but I’ll do my best.
Overcast reserves the right to cancel and refund any ad purchase, for any reason, at its sole discretion.
[H2] Pricing
The price and quantity of ads sold may change at any time.
Prices automatically adjust with demand:
After each ad is sold, the price increases for its category.
If a category's available slots do not sell for at least two days, the price will reduce daily until one sells.

The number of total slots in a category is also periodically adjusted up or down.
If a category is usually sold out, its number of slots will occasionally increase.
Conversely, a category often with many unsold slots may have its total reduced.
Expirations, availability notifications, and most price changes happen shortly after midnight GMT.
[H2] Performance Metrics
Overcast shares three metrics with each ad's purchaser:
Views:
How many times the ad has been displayed to a user in the Overcast app.

Taps:
How many times a user has tapped the ad in the app to bring up your podcast’s description and episode listing.

Subscriptions:
How many users have subscribed to the podcast after tapping the ad.
This counts the total number of people who ever subscribed, not the current number who remain subscribed.
(Some subscriber loss over time is normal.)
You can log into your Overcast account at any time to view ongoing performance metrics of all current and past ads,
as in this example:

[H2] Terms of Sale
*
The estimated performance metrics above are updated daily from current ad performance,
but do not guarantee the performance of your purchased ads.
Ad viewership varies over time, and response rates depend on the quality, content, and relevance of your ad.
All sales are final. No refunds.
Overcast may edit ad content for technical, layout, or style-conformance purposes, such as
resizing images or performing minor copy edits if necessary.
Once you purchase an ad, it must be approved by Overcast before it goes live,
which typically occurs within 24 hours.
Overcast reserves the right to reject an ad for any reason, such as (but not limited to) billing issues,
miscategorization, quality concerns, or content.
If your ad is not accepted, your payment will be refunded if possible,
with the refund pro-rated if the ad has already run for a portion of its purchased duration.
[H2] FAQ and Contact
Q: Can we get on a call?
Sorry, Overcast is a one-person company and cannot offer full-service sales relationships. The ad system is self-serve.
Q: Can we get a custom proposal, invoice, or other payment method?
To keep the system simple, only credit-card payments are accepted, and you will receive a simple email receipt for the payment.
Please ensure that this will be sufficient for your accounting needs before purchasing.
Q: Can we negotiate a discount?
No. Everyone is offered the same pricing and availability.
Q: Can we pre-purchase ads to be scheduled in the future?
Future-dated purchases are not available. All ads are sold on a first-come, first-served basis for runs beginning immediately.
Please contact business@overcast.fm with any other questions.

[H1] Privacy Policy
This policy applies to all information collected or submitted on Overcast’s website and our apps for iPhone and any other devices and platforms.
[H2] Information we collect
New Overcast accounts are created anonymously, without email addresses or passwords.
You may optionally add an email address and a password to your account, or remove the email address and password from your account, at any time in Overcast’s app.
Email addresses are only used for logging in, password resets, responding to emails that you initiate, and sending notifications that you request.
We don’t send promotional emails.
We store information about your podcasts, episodes, and listening activity, and we may sync this information between the website and your devices.
We also collect anonymous statistics regarding overall popularity and activity for each podcast to help inform our recommendations and other features.
[H3] Technical basics
If you enable notifications, we must store a token to send them.
If you upload files to Overcast, we need to store them until you delete them.
If you subscribe to a password-protected podcast, we need to store the credentials you provide in order to keep it updated.
We use cookies on the site and similar tokens in the app to keep you logged in.
Our server software may also store basic technical information, such as your IP address, in temporary memory or logs.
Overcast uses the following hosting and service providers, which also have access to basic technical information passing through their services and data stored using their resources:
Apple (Privacy policy)
Linode (Privacy policy)
Amazon Web Services (Privacy policy)
Cloudflare (Privacy policy)
[H3] iCloud
Overcast stores some of your data in Apple’s iCloud service, such as login tokens for your account(s), to enable some sync features between all devices signed into your Apple ID.
[H3] Ads and analytics
Overcast’s app collects aggregate, anonymous statistics, such as the percentage of users who use particular features, to improve the app.
No personal data is used to target Overcast’s ads except the categories of podcasts that you’re subscribed to, such as “Technology” or “Business”.
Each Overcast ad collects, and shares with its advertiser, only three numbers: total views, total taps, and total subscriptions from the ad.
[H2] Information usage
We use the information we collect to operate and improve our website, apps, and customer support.
We do not share personal information with outside parties except to the extent necessary to accomplish Overcast’s functionality. We may share anonymous, aggregate statistics with outside parties, such as how many people listen to a particular podcast with Overcast.
We may disclose your information in response to subpoenas, court orders, or other legal requirements; to exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims; to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud or abuse, violations of our policies; or to protect our rights and property.
In the future, we may sell to, buy, merge with, or partner with other businesses. In such transactions, user information may be among the transferred assets.
[H2] Security
We implement a variety of security measures to help keep your information secure. For instance, all communication with the app and website requires HTTPS with certificate pinning. Passwords are hashed, not stored, using industry-standard methods (currently bcrypt).
[H2] Accessing, changing, or deleting information
You may access or change your information or delete your account from the Overcast iOS app.
Deleted information may be kept in backups for up to 90 days. Backups are encrypted and are only accessed if needed for disaster recovery.
Overcast may delete your information at any time and for any reason, such as technical needs, legal concerns, abuse prevention, removal of idle accounts, data loss, or any other reason.
[H2] Third-party links and content
Overcast displays links and content from third-party podcast feeds and sites, and downloads podcast files directly from each podcast’s third-party servers. These have their own independent privacy policies, and we have no responsibility or liability for their content or activities.
[H2] California Online Privacy Protection Act Compliance
We comply with the California Online Privacy Protection Act. We therefore will not distribute your personal information to outside parties without your consent.
[H2] Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Compliance
We never collect or maintain information at our website from those we actually know are under 13, and no part of our website is structured to attract anyone under 13.
[H2] Information for European Union Customers
By using Overcast and providing your information, you authorize us to collect, use, and store your information outside of the European Union.
[H2] International Transfers of Information
Information may be processed, stored, and used outside of the country in which you are located. Data privacy laws vary across jurisdictions, and different laws may be applicable to your data depending on where it is processed, stored, or used.
[H2] Your Consent
By using our site or apps, you consent to our privacy policy.
[H2] Contacting Us
If you have questions regarding this privacy policy, you may email privacy@overcast.fm. Please note that account deletion should be done within the Overcast app, not via email requests, for security reasons.
[H2] Changes to this policy
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page. Summary of changes so far:
July 16, 2014: First published.
February 26, 2016: Added Fabric crash reporting and analytics.
September 6, 2016: Added premium subscriptions and ads; reorganized analytics.
February 20, 2017: Removed third-party analytics and ads; other minor edits.
February 28, 2017: Added EU and international-transfer sections.
March 13, 2018: Added password-protected podcast support.
March 16, 2018: Edited various sections for clarity and brevity.
December 28, 2018: Added Cloudflare information.
June 18, 2019: Added provision for Overcast to delete information.
July 24, 2019: Added iCloud; revised email; removed Twitter integration.
August 29, 2020: Removed Cloudflare usage.
July 8, 2022: Updated information about Overcast’s hosting providers, and deleted marketing claim for notification tokens.
December 14, 2022: Updated language about the collection of listening statistics.