For the last few years, Apple’s iTunes Store has taken a moratorium on new podcast submissions during the holidays. This year is no different. Earlier this week, podcasters who already have shows listed on iTunes received this e-mail:

Dear Podcast Provider,

From Monday, December 22, through Monday, January 5, 2015, new podcast submissions will require additional time for review and processing.

During this period, you will be able to submit new podcasts. You also will be able to publish new episodes to existing podcasts. New episodes may require additional time to appear on iTunes Store.

If you have any questions, contact us.

Regards,

The iTunes Podcast team

It’s nice that the iTunes team is proactive in reaching out to the community to let us know that new podcast submissions will take an extra long period of time to be approved for its directory.  But I’m sure there will still be some who’ll submit new shows during this time and then, after receiving no approval e-mail right away, will head to their favorite podcast-centric forum and ask the inevitable question,“Is it taking longer than normal for shows to appear in iTunes?”

This is actually a pretty standard topic of discussion in podcasting groups, regardless of whether or not it’s the holiday season. The best advice in most matters that involve iTunes is usually to just wait a few days and if the problem persists, send an e-mail to Apple’s podcasts(at)apple(dot)com support address. But during this holiday break, that waiting period could be almost two weeks as opposed to the typical several days.

Podcasts that are already listed in the iTunes Store should update and behave normally during the moratorium. Regardless, if you are having an issue with your iTunes podcast listing BESIDES “it’s taking a long time for a new show to get approved,” you can still send an e-mail to the iTunes support address. Just realize it may take longer than normal to get a response.