Listening to podcasts has become increasingly popular with a large range of audiences since the huge media platform, Spotify, started including podcasts.
Spotify also made multiple changes to their app to highlight podcasts and due to this it is likely they will continue to increase in popularity.
Most podcast hosting companies have developed partnerships with spotify, meaning you can submit your podcast directly through your hosting company.
Podbean
If you submitted your podcast via podcast hosting company, you will be able to view some of your spotify stats in your hosting dashboard.
For example, a company called Podbean was selected to be part of spotify’s passthrough program.
This means that your content is passed through to them via your RSS feed.
This offers a number of benefits to podcasters , one of the main ones being your spotify statistics being measured and displayed in the same fashion as other downloads.
In podbean stats, you can view sources of downloads including spotify under “ user agents”. This feature can be very useful for a number of reasons, which we will explore during this article.
Accessing Your Podcast Stats On Spotify
To access your statistics you will need to follow a few simple steps. Firstly log into your spotify account, and then click on your podcast cover art to access the Spotify analytics for your podcast.
This gives you deeper insights into your Episodes and Audience, as well as some simple marketing tools.
Next we will outline what types data you are able to access and how viewing these can help you to make your podcasts the best they can be and how you can use this information to tailor your content to your audiences.
Spotify Download Statistics
Spotify offers some key metrics that can help you understand how well your podcast reaches listeners.
They also offer more detailed stats which can determine how well you are holding their attention.
Many podcasters seem to think that total consumption time is the most important factor to determine success.
However, if you look past that number and take a deeper look into other equally important metrics that show the growth and engagement of your listeners.
Number Of Stats And Streams
For podcasts and episodes you’ll be able to see the number of starts. This means how many people actually press play, you will also be able to see the number of streams. A stream is calculated after a listener has played a full 60 seconds.
Looking at this from a podcast level allows you to get a sense of the growth of your podcast, from episode to episode.
In addition to this, it highlights major spikes and dips in streams. This will help you to understand what type of content has been the most popular with your audience.
This can help you to plan what content to make in the future and know what your listeners are enjoying the most.
You will be able to view which podcast is doing better than others and this creates room to learn and grow and make the best possible podcasts.
Individual Podcast Performance
On spotify you can view your individual episode performance data. This data offers an insight into exactly how your listeners are engaging with your podcast, second by second.
You can look at a graph on your spotify that shows your audience’s retention. This graph includes the average time your listeners spent listening to the podcast.
In addition to this, it will demonstrate the percentage of listers that made it to the first, second , third and third quartile and those who listened until the end.
This breakdown enables you to determine at exactly what point the listener dropped out meaning you can work out why this happened.
For example , did you include an ad which could have affected the retention rate?
If you notice any steep drops in your audience’s retention you should take note of this and try to overcome this. If you haven’t placed an ad maybe it was just a section that the listeners did not find enjoyable.
This can also be useful to compare each episode and look for patterns in your audience’s listening habits.
For example, does the retention always seem to drop in the same place or when you are speaking about a particular topic? Then you can figure out why this may be happening.
Spotify Wrapped
Spotify Wrapped is an annual feature by Spotify that provides users a personalized review of their year’s listening habits. This includes top songs, artists, genres, and total minutes listened. It also allows users to share these insights on social media, making it a popular year-end event among Spotify listeners.
Gender, Age And Geographical Breakdowns
Spotify allows you to access information about the type of audience who are engaging with you the most.
This allows you to get to know your listeners better.and means you can tailor your content to them and what they like.
The data that details the gender, age and locations of each registered listener. This information is very helpful to figure out which content is most appropriate for your podcast.
Also, if you plan to set up appearances or tours, accessing this information could be useful when choosing which country to carry out by seeing where your content is the most popular.
See the Spotify Podcast Charts to give you some ideas of what the best in the podcast business are doing.
Final Thoughts
Being able to access these statistics are extremely effective in gauging the growth and success of your podcast. By studying these, you can see how your audience is truly engaging with your podcast
