Apple Launches New Podcast Analytics Beta for Podcasters

Thursday December 14, 2017 12:36 PM PST by Juli Clover
Apple in June promised to introduce new analytics features for podcasters, providing in-episode analytics options for tracking people listening, where in a podcast listeners stop and skip content, whether ads are skipped, and how long people generally listen for.

Starting today, Apple's podcast analytics feature is rolling out in a beta capacity, reports TechCrunch.


In recent years, podcasts have been growing in popularity, which is what led Apple to finally introduce dedicated analytics tools. Apple also redesigned the Podcasts app entirely in iOS 11, implementing a much improved end user experience with better linearity for podcast episodes.

Apple's new podcasts analytics feature uses anonymized data to make sure user privacy is preserved while also allowing developers access to data that will improve their podcast performance. Data is available from iOS 11 and iTunes 12.7 users.

Podcasters can access the new analytics options for free starting today in iTunes Connect.

Tag: Podcasts
21 comments


Top Rated Comments

(View all)
Avatar
richard4339
21 months ago

Apple also redesigned the Podcasts app entirely in iOS 11, implementing a much improved end user experience


Personally I’ve found the user experience to be frustrating to the point that I stopped using the supplied podcasts app, while it was usable in iOS 10. And I haven’t seen many comments anywhere that feel like the interface was “improved”.
Rating: 3 Votes
Avatar
scottcampbell
21 months ago

This is HUGE for podcast creators. Until now there's only been very vague indications of listener engagement.

Having better data will allow them to charge advertisers more accurately and likely make much more money, which will in turn make them invest in the shows we love to listen to.

This is only going to make podcsasters less money.

Everyone will see that ads are simply skipped.

We'll get our Forward 15 button removed first. Then somehow ads will become unskippable.
Rating: 3 Votes
Avatar
kurisub
21 months ago
I imagine this will be a big wake up call for some podcasts when advertisers start asking for this data instead of usual garbage analytics. "Oh, I see most of your listeners are just skipping through your ad-reads…no thanks!"
Rating: 2 Votes
Avatar
NeuralControl
21 months ago
The Podcast app can be quite frustrating to use. The UI is confusing and many more taps are needed to play an episode than before. While just anecdotal evidence, my friends and coworkers share the same feeling about the update.
Rating: 2 Votes
Avatar
DiegoEGonzalez
21 months ago
I don’t see how giving more data to podcasters will get rid of more high quality podcast. It’ll allow them to make it more engaging. I do see the 15 second forward button disappearing or if possibly Apple taking the next step and administrating ads themselves to force listeners to listen to ads. I’m too lazy to skip them so i don’t really care. It’s free content.
Rating: 1 Votes
Avatar
CrzyP
21 months ago

The Podcast app can be quite frustrating to use. The UI is confusing and many more taps are needed to play an episode than before. While just anecdotal evidence, my friends and coworkers share the same feeling about the update.


Agreed. It bothers me that I can't mark podcasts as played or unplayed on iOS. I have to use Apple TV or iTunes to do that. The iOS 11 podcast app is pure garbage.
Rating: 1 Votes
[ Read All Comments ]