Cracking the podcasting metrics vault could unlock billions
A new player in the podcast sphere is offering access to audience measurement via the Apple Podcasts app, which might be the game-changer the industry needs, says Brooke McAlary.
For too long Apple has been a major force in stifling the growth of podcasting.
Don’t get me wrong, Apple basically put podcasting on the map. Podcasting will be intrinsically linked to Apple as it was the June 2005 iTunes update that added podcasts to the iTunes Music Store, meaning that iTunes users could subscribe to, download and organise podcasts.
Even the word podcast, first coined by tech author Ben Hammersley, is a derivative of Apple’s ‘ipod’ and the term ‘broadcast.’
Brooke,
I wish you had taken some time to dig into things you are reporting as facts. Omny’s announcement about their “new” find is technology that has been available for years. Do you get the metrics on how far a person reads into a magazine? A Newspaper? A Book? You have an old system of phone interviews and surveys for radio. The fact is podcast hosting companies can give you great stats on how many downloads, where they came from, what type of device and more. Why would someone download a show if they didn’t plan on listening to it.
Sure people might downloads and and later delete the file later. In the same way that I have a magazine subscription and the last three issues are still in the plastic. Why are we holding podcasting to a standard that we are not holding our current media up to?