FAQ: Podcastics statistics

What exactly is a play ?

First of all, Podcastics statistics follow the IAB standard, details of which can be found at this address. To summarize how they work, they are based on the principle of "plays", which represent access to a given audio file. A "play" is triggered when a listener accesses one of your audio files.

However, in order to generate reliable and consistent statistics, numerous processing operations are then applied to counted plays, including, among others:

• robots 🤖 and search engines are eliminated,
• plays from the same device in the same location for the same episode are counted only once per 24-hour period,
• plays are not counted when the audio player is loaded; the listener must click on the play button for the statistics to be counted,
• plays are only counted from the first minute downloaded - although, in practice, this last point is not really relevant, as the vast majority of audio players automatically download more than one minute in order to store the audio file.

On Podcastics, direct file downloads and listening on web audio players are also taken into account.
This IAB standard is followed by the majority of podcast hosts worldwide, as well as by advertising agencies. It enables the various market players to provide statistics that are homogeneous, coherent and, above all, comparable.

I read everywhere that statistics are one of Podcastics' strong points. What do they have that other providers don't?

The name Podcastics (Podcast + Analytics) illustrates it perfectly: right from the start of the project, we made our statistics module a priority. Why did we do this? Because listening figures aren't just there to flatter the egos of those who consult them. They need to be sufficiently comprehensive to enable podcasters to get to know their listeners better, and if necessary adapt their strategy to their habits (such as the timing of episode uploads, or the choice of themes). On a different note, they also need to be perfectly precise in the event of a dialogue with a sponsor.

Accuracy of figures, which in our case is based on strict adherence to IAB certification guidelines, isn't everything, however. Their presentation and readability are at least as important if you want to draw real conclusions from them. As you'll see, Podcastics gives you great flexibility 🤸‍♀️ in highlighting the statistics that intrigue you most.

Not all podcasters are interested in the same data. Sometimes, the expectations of the same individual also change over the course of his or her podcasting life. For all these reasons, you have the freedom to consult your podcast's overall data as well as that of a specific episode, but also to examine more specifically any period: day, week, month... Depending on your choices, Podcastics will then offer you the most relevant display, thanks to :

• a “context-sensitive” date selector: depending on the episode (or season or series) selected, the date range will vary so as to always offer you a date interval consistent with your selection.

• an “intelligent” presentation of plays: depending on the duration selected in the date selector, stats will be displayed according to an hourly, daily or monthly period.

Now to the most important question. What questions can Podcastics statistics answer? Well, all of them, if that's technically possible. How many people listen to my podcast? How many people were seduced by my latest episode? What devices do my listeners use? Which players and platforms do they use? Where on the planet are they?

As the icing on the cake, Podcastics offers you two services that are the crème de la crème 🍨 in its €4 Premium package (without hosting) and €8 Pro package (with hosting):

• episode startup comparison

Why wait several weeks to find out whether your latest episode is performing better than its predecessors? Wouldn't it be nice, in the very first hour after launch, to be able to compare the data you have with that of previous shows? Podcastics lets you do just that, with a tool that's as comprehensive as it is easy to use.

• the heat map: your podcast's activity map

Podcastics provides you with an activity map that lets you identify at a glance the most active times of the week, month or year for your podcast. It's an excellent way to better understand your listeners' habits, and ultimately to adapt your episode launch strategy.

You'll find even more information 🤓 in our article dedicated to Podcastics statistics.

Why are the statistics presented by Podcastics sometimes different from those of Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Deezer?

Because these platforms are also able to provide you with statistics, which correspond solely to the usage of the users of the platform in question. However, these statistics call for a few important observations:

• These platforms do not follow the IAB standard mentioned in the previous answer. This can lead to significant discrepancies in the figures, both between the platforms themselves and with Podcastics. So, for example, platforms count plays without taking into account the 24-hour window; this can inflate the statistics, since any multiple listening, even within a short timeframe, is counted.
• Platforms can count unique users (like Spotify) or unique devices (like Apple Podcasts). These are different concepts: they therefore give different figures. For example, Apple and Spotify's statistics are not comparable, since their basis of calculation is different. What's more, these notions are not part of the IAB standard: they therefore give statistics that are also different from those of Podcastics. These unique users or devices tend, this time, to give more conservative figures than IAB-standard listening, since they are restricted to single user accounts or devices.

Please note that Podcastics cannot know your number of unique listeners (or devices). To do so, we would need to be able to uniquely identify listeners (or devices); however, this is not possible, as podcast applications do not provide us with a unique identifier for each listener, for reasons of confidentiality.

In conclusion, and to answer the initial question: when you want to obtain statistics that are comparable between them, you need to base them on a common accounting methodology. However, each platform provides its own tools, and ultimately produces results that are not comparable with each other, let alone with Podcastics measurements. Our commitment, therefore, is to provide you with a homogeneous method that enables you to compare your different audiences on the multiple platforms.

I'm noticing strange peaks in listening to Apple Podcasts. Any bugs on Podcastics? 🧐

We'd like to reassure you right away: even if a bug can always occur, we try to provide you with the most reliable tool possible; your plays go through several systems of analysis and deduplication before being recorded and displayed to you.

In this case, peak listening on Apple Podcasts typically occurs when one of your listeners subscribes to your podcast. Apple Podcasts will then download all your latest episodes and store them on your listener's device, if he or she has configured the application to offer offline listening.
You can see this phenomenon by consulting your Podcastics statistics: the plays are broken down across your episodes, as their download has triggered a play for each one.

This phenomenon is therefore normal, and may even recur in the future 🙂

Since the statistics provided by Podcastics are extremely numerous and detailed, I'm not going to ask you to list them. I imagine it will be quicker to list the stats you can't provide.

It's true that there is some data that, for technical reasons, we simply can't provide you with (nor can any other podcast host, for that matter). Indeed, a host can't collect personal data on your listeners, nor on the way they interact with their audio player. We have to think of podcast applications (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc.) as black boxes ⬛ from which we can't harvest any information. Confidentiality is sometimes important.

Among the data that podcast hosts like Podcastics can't provide you with are:

• The average listening time of your episodes. For this, we would need to know exactly when the listener presses the “play” or “pause” button, or when they change episode or close their application... But we don't have access to this data.
• The number of unique listeners. Podcast applications do not provide us with a unique identifier for each listener, precisely for reasons of confidentiality.
• Socio-demographic data (age, gender, professional category...): we do not have access to user account information (Apple, Spotify, Google, Deezer...).
• The number of subscribers you have on each platform (Apple, Spotify...): this is data that the platforms don't share.

To obtain this kind of data, you need to turn to the tools provided by the listening platforms themselves. These offer information specific to each platform. Apple Podcasts, for example, provides you with the number of unique listeners, your completion rates and your number of subscribers. Spotify, for its part, gives you information on the age and gender of your listeners... To access this information, Podcastics provides direct links to these platforms from your statistics interface, in the “Extras” tab. Deezer provides a mobile application, Creators, which also enables you to retrieve certain information.

Please note: the figures provided by each of these platforms relate only to the listeners of that particular platform. What's more, each has its own accounting methodologies, unlike Podcastics, which unifies all your listening data and presents it to you in a homogeneous way, from all sources.

What are the tops displayed on my statistics page?

These “tops” 🥇🥈🥉 that you can discover in your Podcastics interface show you how well your podcast is performing (in terms of plays) compared to other podcasts in the Podcastics catalog. They give you a better idea of just how successful your podcast is.

Podcastics thus provides you with four tops: 5%, 10%, 20% and 50%, each according to a defined time period (today, yesterday, the past week, the past month, of all times). If Podcastics tells you, for example, that your podcast is in the top 20%, this means that your podcast is in the top 20% of most listened-to podcasts, and is therefore performing better than 80% of the other podcasts in the catalog.

However, we can't give you more precise figures (e.g. a ranking, or a more precise top). This is because podcast statistics must remain private. We can't give out too much information, especially that which would enable us to deduce the audience of other podcasts.

Is it possible to know how many subscribers I have?

The number of subscribers is data that the platforms don't share, so unfortunately we can't tell you. However, some platforms do provide you with this figure in their management interface:

• For Apple Podcasts, you can consult it in their Podcasts Connect interface. To access it, go to your Podcastics interface, to the “Statistics” section, then to the “Extras” tab, and click on the “Apple Podcasts” button.
• Spotify also gives you your number of subscribers in Spotify for Podcasters. To access this, go to your Podcastics interface, to the “Statistics” section, then to the “Extras” tab, and click on the “Spotify” button.
• Google Podcasts also provides you with your number of subscribers in Google Podcasts Manager. To access this, go to your Podcastics interface, to the “Statistics” section, then to the “Extras” tab, and click on the “Google Podcasts” button.
• Other platforms, such as Deezer, Amazon Music and TuneIn, do not report your subscriber numbers.
• On Podcastics, you can find your number of Podcastics subscribers on your podcast's web page: under your cover, in the middle of the screen, you'll see the “X subscribers” button. By clicking on this button, you'll see the names of Podcastics members who have subscribed from your website.

The heat map looks great! How does it work?

Podcastics provides you with an activity map that lets you identify at a glance the most active times of the week, month or year for your podcast. It's an excellent way to better understand your listeners' habits, and ultimately to adapt your episode launch strategy.

To maximize the usefulness of this map, we also show the dates and times of publication of your various episodes. And that's not all, with two additional graphical presentations of your podcast's hottest days and times. And all this at no extra charge, in all our offers with statistics!

I'm fond of statistics, but I can't stand waiting several days, even weeks, to find out whether my latest episode is doing well or not.

You're right. Why wait several weeks before being able to determine whether your latest episode is performing better than its predecessors? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to compare the data you have with that from previous shows within the first hour of launch? Podcastics lets you do just that, with a tool that's as comprehensive as it is easy to use: the launch comparator.

In a single, easy-to-read graph, you can compare the performance of your latest episode with that of previous episodes. And if the latter were not based on the same theme or format, our search engine gives you the freedom to select earlier episodes for a more relevant comparison.

Finally, in the same spirit, Podcastics lets you compare the cumulative listening of your episodes since the day they were launched. Another graph even compares all your launch weeks. The aim here is to see at a glance the performance of all your episodes in their first week of release.