Would You Prefer Accurate Or Actionable Podcast Metrics?

Evo Terra: [00:00:00] The listener privacy versus data intelligence battle rages on with podcasters caught in the crossfire, reminding us of how little ownership we actually have of the relationship with our listeners.

Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra. 

Today's episode was brought to you by the podcast app developers who'd like to remind you that we, the podcasters, are not their client. Instead we, and the shows we make, are their product.

Bryan Barletta: [00:00:42] Breaking news, Evo. It appears the changes you're about to speak of have already been rolled back by the developer. But you still raise good points in this episode, so carry on! 

Evo Terra: [00:00:54] Thanks, Bryan.

,We're going to have a discussion about statistics today, podcast metrics, if you will. You have to make a decision right now, podcaster. Do you want accurate stats? And by accurate, I mean, precision accuracy that tells you every single access of your file and that is tracked down to the minutia, accurate? Or do you want actionable data on how your podcast and your outreach efforts are actually performing? 

Choose one. Accuracy, which just gives you accurate counting, or actionable, that tells you how everything is working together. Not quite the same thing. Today, Overcast, a privacy-focused and very popular iOS app, which I use, at least when my wife and I are traveling, to listen to the shared podcast together.

Overcast is now blocking the second choice. Overcast is blocking your ability to get actionable data on how your podcast and your outreach efforts are actually performing. Let me explain what I mean by that. 

Well, actually, before I explain what I mean by that, let me say this. Now luckily, in the words of the developer, Marco Arment, in his own words, he says, "Overcast is too small for anyone to notice," because, "Overcast represents something like 2 to 4% of their audience."

Let's get into this. Specifically, starting now, if you are looking at your stats from Overcast in your podcast hosting company, you will be fine. You'll be fine because that's a-okay. Still going to be accessing the content. However, if you're using services like Chartable or Podsights, and at some point in the time, at some point in time in the future, reading the words, reading into the words written there, maybe even Podtrac, those services will no longer show Overcast accesses.

Oh, that's interesting. What's going on here? Well, the issue is the fact that some DNS providers, the geeky internal stuff around the internet, there's ad-blocking happening at the DNS level these days. And that is in some cases causing problems, a legitimate problem that we certainly need to solve. No question about that. 

And the play that Marco is putting in play currently is to skip those blocking problems. Services like Chartable and like Podsights and others do what we call Prefix URLs, where they grab some information at the requested file download, bounce it through some servers, and ultimately get it down to the podcast hosting company.

Marco's found a way to bypass the Chartables and the Podsights of the world so the file, in theory, should still be downloaded. The listeners using Overcast will not be impeded - again, that's the intent - from getting their files, they just won't show up in those other, more actionable data providers' dashboards. Overcast specifically will not show up in those dashboards. They will just not even appear. Like invisible activity.

That's the idea. The reason this is happening is because Marco was wanting to block what he considers to be "creepy" behavior on the parts of the Chartables and the Podsights. Okay. 

So what that means for us is welcome to the arms race. Here we are. What are we going to do about something like this? Can't really do anything about this. Well, what I guess we could do is we can say, fine, we're not going to use those additional services, which we know give us much more actionable insight, much more data that we can get, as opposed to just simply a file download, which is bogus anyhow, as I've said many a time. We could do that.

We're not going to do that. I mean, reality is once you get the rich data, once you get the understanding of how much more information you can get from using services like Chartable and like Podsights and others that might be  bypassed during this service, I don't think you're going to want to go back.

I know I personally get a lot of value out of both of those services. And my plan is to continue to use the services because - not because they're creepy, no. They give information beyond the download. There's just only so much data we can get by looking at downloads and we just have to have more. 

So really what it means to me is now I have to go update all my clients. I've got to tell my clients that, hey, you know, you're using these services because I recommended you use these services because you wanted more actionable, meaningful data about how your podcast and your outreach/marketing efforts are working. You wanted to do that. I recommended that you look at these things, well, now your stats are going to be impacted. In those dashboards we will not see the activity from probably the most popular iOS app that's not named Apple Podcasts. 

That's going to be a fun conversation. But it'll be a conversation about accuracy versus actionable intelligence. But of course we still have the "accurate" data, not really, at the podcast hosting level on just file downloads, which is not really accurate.

So what are you going to do? I mean, there's probably, again, like I said, not much you can do other than disconnect, or probably just bring this conversation up with your podcasting peer group. Send them a link to this episode. See how they feel about it. I suppose there could be an outcry, a, you know, an uprising, if you will, with us podcasters who want this actual data, who can rail against and say no. 

And, you know, maybe that happens and Marco switches back. Maybe, more likely, I guess, that whatever this little trick is that he has to bypass the hops, as he's calling them, that go to these analytics providers, back to the host, maybe that thing stops working because, you know, some things stop working, things change around the internet as these companies try to find ways to get around that. I don't know. Maybe the analytics providers can provide data to him and say, look, we're not being creepy, let us back in. I don't know. 

Welcome to the world of uncertainty in podcasting. But what is certain is this, if you love the content I provide to you, please go to buymeacoffee.com/evoterra, and slide a virtual coffee my way. That's always nice. 

That's it. I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications. 

Cheers!

‍