If a listener enjoys a podcast, chances are they’ll want to be the first to know when a new episode from that podcast is released. It used to be a surprisingly arduous task, but new episode notifications now make it one-tap-easy for listeners: When following a podcast for the first time, they can toggle on notifications for new episodes; existing users can just tap on ‘FOLLOWING’ from a show’s page to open up settings and turn on notifications. Long-term, this can help creators build loyalty, improve engagement, and increase the number of listens for new episodes–while for listeners, episode notifications are seen as a staple of the audio-consumption experience. It’s a great way for your biggest fans to stay up-to-date and not worry about missing anything.
How to add them to your show: Simply ask your listeners to follow your podcast and turn on notifications for new episodes so they never miss one!
Make listeners a mix with podcast playlists
A big part of the fun and autonomy of discovering music on Spotify is the listener’s ability to create playlists. Did you know you can also create podcast episode playlists featuring your show(s)? Especially handy for podcasters with a long back catalog, or podcast networks with multiple shows, creating podcast playlists can be the perfect way to help new listeners get started with your content. You could highlight your best-performing episodes that give listeners the best taste of what your show’s all about in an “Intro to” or “Starter pack” playlist–or group episodes together that fit under one category. You can even customize the cover of the playlist with your own branding and edit the description (on Web or mobile), and you can easily share your playlists on social media or link to them from show notes. Another option: Add fellow creators’ episodes in with yours to collaborate on a playlist and cross-promote it–which can introduce your show to even more audiences.
How to add them to your show: Create a podcast playlist by tapping the ‘...’ next to any episode and selecting ‘Add to playlist’–or tap ‘Create playlist’ in the Music tab of Your Library.
Your Episodes: an easy way for listeners to bookmark
Podcast episodes should be as listener-friendly as songs from an album: Easy to save for later, in case there’s no “in the moment” time–a frequent occurrence! Until Spotify launched the Your Episodes feature in November, it wasn’t so simple for listeners on the platform to recall that “aha” moment of podcast-episode discovery. And for creators, that moment might’ve been the product of hard-fought promotional efforts. Now, a listener can tap ‘+’ on any episode so they can bookmark it for future listening, just like the familiar “hearting” of a song in Spotify. After bookmarking the episode, listeners will see a ‘Your Episodes’ playlist pinned to the top of their Podcast Episodes tab–making it feasible for the listener to actually try out a new episode and explore more.
How to add them to your show: Next time you have a new episode, ask listeners to tap the ‘plus’ to add it to their episodes if they can’t listen right away.
Spotify offers podcasting tools that make it easier for you to reach listeners, and for listeners to find you. Take advantage of them to amplify your podcast–and don’t forget these additional Spotify podcasting features that can help your show thrive.
Still thinking about 2020? Understandable! Check out our Anchor year in review and your Wrapped for Podcasters.
I get this question a lot: “Can podcast owners see who listens to their actual podcast?”
I’m going to answer that question and I’m also going to show you the exact podcast data that’s available. In this industry, podcast data and podcast analytics are what owners, producers, and hosts should be looking at to know more about their listeners.
Now, maybe you’re getting ready to start a podcast. Maybe you just started a podcast, or you have a podcast and you want to know what kind of data is available to you as a podcast host. In this post, you’ll learn which data you can look at to see how people are tuning into your podcast. If you’re getting ready to start a podcast, you can check out this complete A-to-Z guide to help you out.
But to quickly answer our topic question, “Can Podcast Owners See Who Listens?”, the answer is no! You cannot see exactly who is listening to your podcast. This is actually one of the things I wish the podcast industry would improve upon. This would provide two benefits to podcast hosts:
- Better podcast engagement through podcast data science – where people could actually like and comment on your podcasts
- Better podcast analytics – a better understanding of your podcast listeners, especially because we have the technology to do it
Now, I’m going to show you the exact data that is provided, and how it’s starting to get better. So let’s dive into that.
Available Podcast Data
Depending on what hosting service provider that you use for your podcasts, the data is going to be different.
*image retrieved from libsyn.com
Libsyn Podcast Data
The first data source is Libsyn. So what does Libsyn data looks like? Inside of Libsyn, for the Underdog Empowerment podcast, when you first log in, they give you a little snapshot of your downloads.
But if you click on “View All Sets,” you can get a little bit more detailed like:
- Total number of podcast downloads for each month
- Your highest-ranking episodes that keep you top-rated
- A daily breakdown of podcast data
- You can change the date range for the date you first started your podcast or whichever date you want to see, and it breaks the numbers down
- A weekly or monthly total of your growth in downloads
- You can see downloads per destination where it’s going to show the exact podcast episode and where it’s being downloaded from (As far as platforms, Apple, Spotify and Libsyn are where I get the bulk of my downloads)
- How many downloads per country in “Downloads Per Destination”
- “Users per Agent” shows you which different platforms listeners are coming in on, such as iTunes, Spotify, or Castbox
- You can also look at downloads from people who listen to 30 seconds or more
So that’s pretty cool. Those are the sets that you get to see when using Libsyn as your hosting service provider. If you want to use Libsyn as your hosting service provider, follow this link, then use promo code “underdog”. You’ll get the next month for free. Yes, that’s an affiliate commission that helps me out if you use my promo code, and you get the following month free, so it’s a win-win. Go check that out.
Spotify Podcast Data
For some additional analytics you can check out, your Spotify dashboard can show you the start streams, listeners, and publish date of each episode.
If you click on “Audience” it measures when Spotify listens to zero seconds or more of any episode, so that’s kind of like the download you’re shown inside of Libsyn.
“Streams” is measured when someone on Spotify listens to 60 seconds or more to any episode. This podcast data is better able to tell you if people are actually checking you out.
“Listeners” is measured by the number of unique Spotify users who started an episode in your catalog. This means the total number of different people that have listened to any of your episodes, period.
Next are the “Followers”. They are the people that actually follow you on Spotify. The data shows you the gender of the people that are listening, the age group, and the country. Which is really awesome.
Lastly, you can also click on “Details” and it gives you some cool stuff to promote with.
This is cool, and a little bit more detailed, so you can see the growth as time goes on.
I know that’s a ton of information – so I’ve got a helpful guide, that’s going to show you exactly how to start a podcast. This is going to show you a complete A-to-Z guide with everything you need to know on how to start and launch a podcast. Go check that out if you haven’t launched your podcast yet!
Are you looking to start a podcast and you might not know all the answers? Whether you have absolutely no clue at all about podcasting, Underdog Empowerment will give you a complete A to Z guide that’s called, the Podcast Penthouse Roadmap. Go check that out and feel free also to share this article with your network who’s aiming to grow and become a better podcaster.