Month: April 2014

Unique listeners more important than you think!

~ admin ~ 1 Comment

This article originally appeared in issue #2 of Podertainment Magazine
Author:  Todd Cochrane CEO RawVoice Parent company of Blubrry.com

Hey folks! We’re going to get into the nitty-gritty of podcast statistics data. We know how confusing some stats can be, this is where I break it down for you.

I want to share a little history with you before I get into the topic at hand. I started my own podcast in October 2004 and as near as I have been able to figure it, my show was one of the first 50 or so podcasts to launch. In the early days, we were not worried about stats — our biggest challenge was bandwidth. There were no so-called unlimited bandwidth services.

Those hurdles were quickly overcome, and within a year we started focusing on who was listening, where and how. Today we have vibrant data that can tell us exactly how many people listened on the Web, used an app, or kicked back and watched on a set-top-box. Tracking the all of that now is an afterthought.

Two questions remain: Did they really listen and For how long?  I will share with you insights no one has to date revealed, data that is now 100 percent capable of being measured and will benefit you as you grow your show and your audience.

In a related article I provided some statistics that raised a lot of questions. We figured that might happen. This time, I have refined and broken down the data into chunks that are comprehensive.

With the RawVoice/ Blubrry podcast statistics reporting that we do for our clients, on every download / stream request, or “hit,” we analyze in great detail whether the hit should be counted as a download. With this precision analysis we can see out of range trends and account for that, as percentages fluctuate daily, show to show, episode to episode. With our proprietary algorithms we provide consistent podcast download totals regardless of what these percentages are on any given day.

Given a random snapshot in November 2013, of 5,606,161 hits for media files ranging in size, we determined:

p3

Looking at the 55.9 percent of hits that were not countable, 22.4 percent ip duplicate requests, mostly caused by iTunes (iTunes may send one request to get the file size, then a separate to download the file). The remaining 33.6 percent stem from a variety of issues, such as invalid HTTP status code, empty byte range request size, non-existing files, invalid file name (non-podcast media), etc.

When we see partial download requests, we take the time to assemble the bytes requested to determine how much of the file was downloaded. In some cases, we will only see one or two requests from the same unique visitor, and in other cases we see hundreds of small byte range requests from a unique visitor. Factoring in the byte-request data we know exactly what portion of each file is requested, allowing us to calculate how much of the file was downloaded. Of the 19.2 percent partial file downloads they make up small segments aka repeats of portion of a file already counted we do not count those partials as they have been accounted for in the other confirmed downloads.

We reported 24.2 percent as counted downloads (underlined totals), with 22.5 percent being from unique IP addresses, leaving only 1.7 percent of the hits accounting for two or more downloads. The end result shows us that two or more downloads coming from the same IP address is very low.

Any given day, the percentage breakdown of countable and not-countable downloads fluctuates based on many factors. If you rely solely on download hits, you will find that your numbers will not be consistent and will not reflect your true download total or audience size.

It is important to note that unique IP address data is critical validation data for podcast media downloads. Based on the results above, we know that the final download / stream total will always be higher than and relatively close to the unique IP address total. We (Blubrry/RawVoice) knew this back in 2005 when we started measuring podcast downloads, and as you see from our small snapshot from November, it still holds true today.

If you are concerned about being audited or need accountable details to meet the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, make sure your podcast measurement is taking the necessary steps to calculate the true download total.

Here is where I am going to get up on my soap box for just a moment. If you are counting your downloads with anything other than a trusted podcast statistics platform, you are likely over-reporting your total audience size. It’s complicated stuff. Get the unique IP count correct by throwing out the garbage and you will find that Unique IP is a large indicator of true audience size. This is evident, as we’ve noted above, because we do not see Unique IPs coming back very often for the same file.

In a future article, I will translate the percentages into describing what we are seeing in an actual listening rate. With Byte Range being used nearly exclusively in the space, we can tell you based on server data just how long they are listening to your show.

If you desire your podcast network to get on track and have media statistics that keep you honest, feel free to reach out to me at ceo@rawvoice.com. We host and measure the biggest podcast networks in the space

Be Ready For The New Windows Phone 8.1 Podcasts App

~ shawn ~ 3 Comments

Windows Phone LogoThe upcoming release of Windows Phone 8.1 looks to be a major rework of the OS that runs Windows-enabled mobile phones. While the release date for Windows Phone 8.1 has not yet been announced, developer previews of the operating system have been available for a couple months. Those with access to this preview version of Windows Phone 8.1 have noted that the OS comes with a podcast aggregator app as a standard feature. This is good news for podcast listeners and producers, as it’ll create an easy way for Windows Phone users to subscribe to podcasts. If you want to ensure that your podcast will be easy to add to this new aggregator, you’ll need to follow one simple guideline: Be sure your podcast’s RSS feed is discoverable by Microsoft’s search engine, Bing.

The new Windows Phone 8.1 Podcasts app won’t be powered by a built-in directory like most other podcast aggregators. Instead, when a user wants to add a new show, they’ll enter either a show title or a subject of interest into the Windows Phone Podcasts app’s search box. From there, the app will do a Bing search for the show title or subject. And from those results, it’ll help the user get subscribed to new shows. For this reason, the search engine must be able to easily locate your podcast’s RSS feed. And while it may seem like an obvious requirement to have your show’s RSS feed linked from your main podcast website, there are still a lot of podcasters who (for whatever reason) don’t do this.

Continue reading →

Gaming Podcasters Go Epic To Support Children’s Charity

~ shawn ~ 4 Comments

Epic Podcast LogoEpic Podcast, a show that describes itself as “A Podcast For the WoW (World of Warcraft) Community” will be hosting its 2nd Annual Child’s Play Marathon on Saturday, May 17th, 2014. The marathon will begin at 11AM EST and continue for 24 hours. Epic Podcast will live stream gameplay of different games made by Blizzard Entertainment. The purpose of the marathon is to raise money for Child’s Play, a charity that provides games and toys to hospitals worldwide.

This is Epic Podcast’s second charity streaming event. In 2013, the Epic Podcast crew had hoped to raise $1,000.00 during their first charity marathon and they exceeded that goal. This year, they’ve moved the goal up to $2,500.00. Epic Podcast explains its plans for this year’s marathon broadcast as:

“We will be playing Diablo 3, Hearthstone, World of Warcraft, Starcraft II Arcade and have a couple of flex runs for both Alliance and Horde. Viewers are encouraged to join in on the fun during the marathon and there will be random giveaways including pets, mounts, Ask Mr Robot premium accounts, and more!”

“If you would like to sign up for the Alliance or Horde flex run, please go to the blog section of our website for links to the OpenRaid signups. Deadline for Flex Signups will be May 10th.”

Continue reading →

Podcasting Will Never Die

~ admin ~ 5 Comments

Podcasting will never die. That’s a bold statement to open with, but in it’s true to say the soul of podcasting is a hardier beast than many give it credit for. There’s been an awful lot of talk lately about the patent trolls threatening the future of podcasting, but before that all the podcast chatter centered around the three words “podcasting is back”. The die-hard podcast fans, myself included, will tell you it never left, but it’s fair to say that podcasting is bigger now than ever before.

So why are we threatened by patent litigation? If it came to pass that syndication of audio through a single URL, i.e. an RSS feed, was a violation of a patent and infringements should either be ceased or be prepared to pay the price, would this spell the death of podcasting? Take a moment to imagine all the podcasters out there right now. Imagine the passion it takes to record a regular podcast for little-to-no gain and more often than not, at a personal loss. Imagine the industries that are seeing a whole new market for their microphones, headphones, software and apps. Imagine the audience that has seen a whole new content stream from their favourite creators mouths to their ears spring up with rich, regular content. Now turn all of that off.

Just take a moment to think of those passionate podcasters, who tomorrow are unable to distribute their podcast to their fans. Imagine those microphone manufacturers who saw that potential industry disappear overnight. Think of the world where lovers of on-demand audio, are suddenly left without their beloved voices and their preferred medium. Now the real test, imagine a world when one of those people, cut off from podcasting as we know it, doesn’t find a way around it.

The problem of the patents is a uniquely American phenomenon. Although I will admit that I would be inconvenienced a little by the worst case scenario, the patent would not affect podcasters operating outside of the US. Theoretically, based on past events, anyone podcasting from inside the US, using a non-US host could still fall afoul of the troll, but the most obvious workaround for the rest of the world is to switch to a hosting provider based internationally (which would be a boom for whoever is first at bat).

There’s way more to it than that though. Although I love to sing the praises of Australian podcasts, I won’t pretend that the biggest producers and consumers do not reside somewhere between the Pacific and the North Atlantic. So, what do all the American podcasters do? Well, find a way around it. I’m not going to pretend to understand on what basis the podcast patent is supposed to restrict usage, but let’s look back a decade or so and you tell me what podcasting was then. Go back a couple more and tell me your experience of the internet. Look how much it’s changed in such a short time. Do you think podcasting will be unchanged ten years in the future? Try 20 years, will you even recognise podcasting to be anything like the delivery method we use today?

Not to say that we shouldn’t fight the patent troll, obviously many people and their business would be hurt by an unwelcome decision, preventing that is a worthy cause. It should be considered, however, that should we end up with victory, how long will we continue to use the disputed medium?

A conversation I had with some Australian podcasters recently was discussing the dilemma of breaking your podcast’s release schedule. In theory, with the syndication format, this won’t be an issue, as your listeners don’t need to tune in at a certain time, they’ll automatically receive your content when it’s published, but in practice that’s not how it works. Any podcasting coach will tell you to be regular and be consistent, you will create a habit in your listeners and you will grow your audience. So then, the syndication is not the factor that we desire. It’s the ease of access for our audience.

Take, for example, YouTube. Which bears little resemblance to podcasting in it’s delivery method, but it’s far-and-away more popular. Why? Because your average podcast listener could care less about RSS feeds and the details of the patent that is being fought for so strongly, they just want to hear your voice. As long as you are producing quality content then you will be heard. That is why podcasting will never die. You can take away our RSS feeds, but you can never take our content. Podcasting will find a way. As long as there’s a microphone and someone who wants to listen to your opinions, there will always be podcasting.

Joshua Liston, a serious name in Australian podcasting has recently launched his sixth concurrent podcast, Social Audio Think Tank, exploring why content is king and the tech stuff should come second. Full disclosure, I’m a co-host, but he’s the driving force behind it, so check out his other podcasts as well.

By Jackson Rogers of OzPodcasts.

EFF Challenge Of Podcast Patent Approved By Patent Office

~ shawn ~ 3 Comments

EFF LogoThe Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has won a small (but significant) victory in its challenge to the so-called “podcast patent” claims of technology company Personal Audio. The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) has found that the EFF has provided sufficient prior art evidence in its case against the podcast patent.

In October of 2013, the EFF filed a petition of inter partes review (IPR) with the PTAB. The EFF explains:

“The IPR process provides an expedited means for the patent office to take a second look at a patent it has already issued. This kind of challenge proceeds in two steps. First, we file our petition. Then, before the IPR actually goes forward, the PTAB must decide whether our petition establishes a ‘reasonable likelihood’ that we would prevail. If we did not satisfy that standard, our petition would simply be rejected.”

“In our petition, we argued that Personal Audio did not invent podcasting and that parts of its patent should be declared invalid. We presented evidence relating to Internet Pioneer Carl Malamud’s ‘Geek of the Week’ online radio show and online broadcasts by CNN and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Back in February, Personal Audio filed a response arguing that we were unlikely to prevail and urging the PTAB to reject our petition. The PTAB has now found otherwise, ruling that EFF has established a reasonable likelihood of success.”

Continue reading →

Tim Ferriss Launches Tim Ferris Show

~ dave

Tim Ferris ShowNew York Times Best Selling Author Tim “Four Hour Workweek” Ferriss has launched his own podcast. After appearing on many podcasts over time, he got to see how easy it was and decided to launch his own.

He is also working on television show, and figured this would be a fun way to keep in touch with his audience. Here is the description of his podcast:

Tim Ferriss is a self-experimenter and bestselling author, best known for The 4-Hour Workweek, which has been translated into 40+ languages. Newsweek calls him “the world’s best human guinea pig,” and The New York Times calls him “a cross between Jack Welch and a Buddhist monk.” In this show, he deconstructs world-class performers from eclectic areas (investing, chess, pro sports, etc.), digging deep to find the tools, tactics, and tricks that listeners can use. Listen to over 15,000 radio shows, podcasts and live radio stations for free on your iPhone, iPad, Android and PC. Discover the best of news, entertainment, comedy, sports and talk radio on demand with Stitcher Radio.

His first episode he interviewed Kevin Rose (Kevin is a tech entrepreneur who co-founded Digg, Revision3 (sold to Discovery Channel), Pownce, and Milk (sold to Google). Since 2012, he is a venture partner at Google Ventures.).

Find it in iTunes

Find it in Stitcher

 

Posted by Dave Jackson from the School of Podcasting

Issue 2 Of Podertainment Magazine Now Available

~ shawn ~ 1 Comment

Podertainment LogoPodertainment Magazine, an e-periodical focused on podcasters and podcasting, has released its second issue. The magazine is now available for download thru the iTunes Store. Issues can be purchased individually or as part of a subscription.

The latest issue covers a wide range of topics:

  • * How to create a podcast recording studio with iOS.
  • * Patreon crowdrunding for podcasters.
  • * Improving your podcast’s episode tittles.
  • * How to use a Feedburner redirect without using the Feedburner website.
  • * Rethinking conventional wisdom about podcasting.
  • * The importance of “unique listeners.”
  • * Several articles about techniques to help monetize your podcast.

Continue reading →

Bossjock Demonstrates “Frankenskype” For Mobile Podcasting

~ shawn ~ 3 Comments

Bossjock LogoBossjock Studio, developers of the popular Bossjock podcast-production app for iOS have released a demo of a mobile podcast production setup they call “Frankenskype.”

There are two topics of discussion that come up frequently on podcasting-centric forums: 1.) How to record Skype calls. 2.) How to produce mobile recordings. It looks like Bossjock  tried to solve both of these problems by bringing Frankenskype to life. To elaborate, Frankenskype isn’t a product so much as it’s a technique for using battery-powered mobile gear to record both ends of a Skype call into the Bossjock app.

The demo uses an iPhone, an iPad  and the 9-volt powered ART USB Dual Pre along with an Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit. Frankenskype breaks down like this:

  • * Camera Connection Kit plugged into iPad.
  • * USB Dual Pre plugged into Camera Connect Kit.
  • * Analog microphone (the demo uses an ATR2100, but almost any mic will work) using an XLR cable plugged into one input of the Dual Pre.
  • * Audio cable from the iPhone’s headphone jack connected to the other input of the USB Dual Pre.
  • * USB cable from the Dual Pre connected to the Camera Connection Kit on the iPad.

Continue reading →

Fanscribed Is A Free Podcast Transcription Service

~ shawn ~ 5 Comments

Fanscribed artworkFanscribed is a newly revamped service that provides free podcast transcriptions. Fanscribed describes itself as a “crowdsourcing ‘transcription engine’ designed to help your fans work together to create professional-level transcripts for your podcast.” So, if you’re a podcaster looking for transcriptions of your show, you ca use Fanscribed to gather a pool of your fans together, and those fans can collaborate over the Fanscribed website to make those transcriptions.

The service is currently in beta. And it really is free. Fanscribed states in the blog entry linked above, “We understand that many podcasts cannot afford transcriptions, even those that are funded by producers or advertisers. For this reason, we will always offer free use of our transcription engine to create public transcripts of podcasts!” Fanscribed is leveraging the power of crowdsourced labor to make the service free to podcasters. (It’s implied that the people actually doing the transcriptions are doing so as a token of appreciation for the podcasts they love.)

Continue reading →

ESPN Is Expanding Its Podcast Catalog

~ shawn ~ 2 Comments

ESPN LogoSports media juggernaut ESPN is launching some new podcasts. And while the Disney-owned network isn’t veering too far away from its roots, these new offerings will be a little different than the typical coverage and commentary ESPN usually offers.

Three shows will be launched under the moniker “ESPN Perspectives:”

  • * Capital Games Podcast: This show will focus on the meeting point between sports and politics.
  • * Inside Out Podcast: This show will cover how sports affects athletes socially and psychologically.
  • * SportsBiz Podcast: The name says it all as this show will discuss the business of sports.

Continue reading →