In my previous article, Launching a Video Podcast in 2024: My Journey and Lessons Learned, I shared my experience of starting a podcast. Since then, I came across some intriguing research revealing that 43% of podcast listeners prefer audio-only formats. This got me thinking—by offering my podcast solely as a video feed, I might have been missing out on a significant audience. Given that I had already developed my own podcast RSS generator, this presented a perfect chance to nerd out a bit.
Since my podcast RSS generation is already integrated into GitHub Actions, adding an audio-only feed was a straightforward process. Using the ever-reliable ffmpeg, I extracted the audio from the video files and repackaged it as an audio-only podcast RSS feed. Surprisingly, it really was that simple. After tweaking the URLs and adjusting the top-level title, I had a fully functional audio-only podcast feed ready for listeners. Best of all, there’s no extra work needed moving forward.
Once the RSS feed was uploaded, the final step was to add it to Spotify and Apple Podcasts as a new feed—and just like that, it was good to go!
GitHub Actions workflow
Here’s the complete GitHub actions workflow file I’m using for building and generating my podcasts for both video and audio.
---
name: Publish nightly
on:
push:
branches:
- master
pull_request:
branches:
- master
schedule:
- cron: "00 01 * * *"
env:
XQ_VERSION: 1.2.3
YQ_VERSION: 4.44.3
R2_BUCKET: my-r2-bucket
jobs:
build:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Install dependencies
run: |
sudo apt-get -qq update
sudo apt-get -qq install yamllint
- name: Install xq
run: |
wget -q https://github.com/sibprogrammer/xq/releases/download/v${XQ_VERSION}/xq_${XQ_VERSION}_linux_amd64.tar.gz
tar xfz xq_${XQ_VERSION}_linux_amd64.tar.gz
- name: Ensure example file passes yamllint
run: |
yamllint -fgithub -d "{rules: {line-length: false}}" podcast_config.yaml
- name: Run Podcast RSS Generator
uses: vpetersson/podcast-rss-generator@master
with:
input_file: 'podcast_config.yaml'
output_file: 'podcast_feed.xml'
- name: Validate output with xq
run: |
cat podcast_feed.xml | ./xq
- uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
with:
name: podcast_feed.xml
path: podcast_feed.xml
build-audio-feed:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
needs: generate-audio
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Install yq
run: |
wget -q https://github.com/mikefarah/yq/releases/download/v${YQ_VERSION}/yq_linux_amd64
mv yq_linux_amd64 yq
chmod +x yq
- name: Install xq
run: |
wget -q https://github.com/sibprogrammer/xq/releases/download/v${XQ_VERSION}/xq_${XQ_VERSION}_linux_amd64.tar.gz
tar xfz xq_${XQ_VERSION}_linux_amd64.tar.gz
- name: Generate audio-only feed
run: |
cp podcast_config.yaml podcast_config_audio.yaml
./yq eval '.metadata.title = .metadata.title + " (audio only)"' -i podcast_config_audio.yaml
sed -i -E 's|(https://podcast\.nerdingoutwithviktor\.com/S[0-9]{2}E[0-9]{2})\.mp4|\1.mp3|g' podcast_config_audio.yaml
- name: Run Podcast RSS Generator
uses: vpetersson/podcast-rss-generator@master
with:
input_file: 'podcast_config_audio.yaml'
output_file: 'podcast_feed_audio.xml'
- name: Validate output with xq
run: |
cat podcast_feed_audio.xml | ./xq
- uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
with:
name: podcast_feed_audio.xml
path: podcast_feed_audio.xml
generate-audio:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Install yq
run: |
wget -q https://github.com/mikefarah/yq/releases/download/v${YQ_VERSION}/yq_linux_amd64
mv yq_linux_amd64 yq
chmod +x yq
- name: Install dependencies
run: |
sudo apt-get -qq update
sudo apt-get -qq install ffmpeg curl
- name: Generate audio-only files
run: |
for url in $(yq eval '.episodes[].asset_url' "podcast_config.yaml"); do
echo "Processing URL: $url"
audio_url="${url%.mp4}.mp3"
video_url="$url"
if curl --output /dev/null --silent --head --fail "$audio_url"; then
echo "$url already exists."
else
echo "$url does not exist. Converting $video_url to mp3..."
ffmpeg -i "$video_url" $(basename $audio_url)
echo "Conversion complete: $video_url"
fi
done
- name: Install mc
run: |
wget -q https://dl.min.io/client/mc/release/linux-amd64/mc
chmod +x mc
- name: Set up mc
env:
R2_ENDPOINT: $
R2_KEY_ID: $
R2_KEY_SECRET: $
run: ./mc alias set r2-nowv ${R2_ENDPOINT} ${R2_KEY_ID} ${R2_KEY_SECRET}
- name: Copy converted MP3s
run: |
for file in *.mp3; do
if [ -f "$file" ]; then
./mc cp "$file" r2-nowv/${R2_BUCKET}/
fi
done
deploy:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
needs:
- build
- build-audio-feed
if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/master'
steps:
- uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
- name: Install mc
run: |
wget -q https://dl.min.io/client/mc/release/linux-amd64/mc
chmod +x mc
- name: Set up mc
env:
R2_ENDPOINT: $
R2_KEY_ID: $
R2_KEY_SECRET: $
run: ./mc alias set r2-nowv ${R2_ENDPOINT} ${R2_KEY_ID} ${R2_KEY_SECRET}
- name: Copy podcast feed
run: ./mc cp podcast_feed.xml/podcast_feed.xml r2-nowv/${R2_BUCKET}/
- name: Copy audio podcast
run: ./mc cp podcast_feed_audio.xml/podcast_feed_audio.xml r2-nowv/${R2_BUCKET}/