ABOUT THE PODCAST INDUSTRY AUDIENCE RANKINGS
WHAT METRIC ARE THE RANKINGS BASED ON?
Podtrac’s monthly rankings are based on U.S. Unique Monthly Audience (UMA). UMA is a count of individual audience members for a given month.
For the monthly Top Publishers Ranking, UMA is the number of audience members who listen to any shows published by a given publisher in that month. Individuals may listen to multiple shows or multiple episodes of shows from a publisher in a month, but they are only counted once in the UMA metric.
For the monthly Top Podcasts Ranking, UMA is the number of audience members who listened to the show in the given month. Individuals may listen to multiple episodes of a podcast in a month but are only counted once in the UMA metric.
Our year-end rankings are based on average unique U.S. downloads per episode.
Which PUblishers and podcasts are INCLUDED IN THE RANKINGs?
The Podcast Industry Audience Ranking of the Top Publishers includes producers and publishers who create, own and distribute podcasts. Groups that do not produce content, such as ad and content networks, are not included in our ranking. In order for a publisher to be considered for inclusion in the ranking, they must use the Podtrac measurement system for their shows, and Podtrac must have at least 30 days of data for the publisher.
The Podcast Industry Audience Ranking of the Top 20 Podcasts is a ranking of all top podcasts which measure with Podtrac.
How Does Podtrac Define "Podcast?"
Podtrac adheres to the Wikipedia technical definition endorsed by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB):
“A podcast is an episodic series of digital audio files which a user can download and listen to. It is often available for subscription, so that new episodes are automatically downloaded via web syndication to the user’s own local computer, mobile application, or portable media player.”
Podtrac makes no judgements based on non-technical factors such as type of content or episode length.
IS THERE A FEE FOR PUBLISHERS TO PARTICIPATE?
Use of the Podtrac measurement system and inclusion in the Industry Audience Ranking reports is free to all publishers. Use of Podtrac measurement ensures consideration for the Top Publisher Ranking and assures the most accurate representation of a show’s ranking for the Top Podcasts Ranking.
HOW DOES THE PODTRAC PODCAST RANKING COMPARE TO THE ITUNES PODCAST RANKING?
Podtrac's ranking of top podcasts is based on the unique U.S. monthly audience of each show. This ranking by audience size is useful to advertisers and those in the podcast industry who want to know which shows achieved the largest US audience during the previous month. iTunes ranks podcasts based on inputs such as the volume of recent subscriptions. The iTunes rankings are useful to podcast listeners who want to discover new and trending podcasts.
HOW DOES MY SHOW RANK?
Our first publisher ranking is of the Top 10 Publishers and our first podcast ranking is of the Top 20 Podcasts. We’ll be expanding those rankings in the coming months. To be considered for the Top Publishers Ranking and to be assured of the most accurate representation of your show on the Top Podcasts Ranking, register with Podtrac and start using the free Podtrac Measurement Service.
WHAT'S THE UNIQUE MONTHLY AUDIENCE COUNT FOR MY PODCAST?
The unique monthly audience count per show is now available on the Podtrac Publisher Dashboard for all registered publishers with at least one podcast with more than 1,000 unique global audience members. By registering for the free Podtrac Measurement System, you'll have access to your show's unique monthly audience as soon as your show reaches this audience size.
I thought Serial or other podcasts would be ranked higher in the top podcast ranking
Some podcasts like Serial publish on a seasonal schedule which results in their unique monthly audience being larger during the "season" (months when they post new episodes). Each Top Podcast Ranking is based on the audience counts achieved during the most recent month only.
Can I get a report of the Unique Monthly Audience numbers for the Podcasts on the ranking?
Podtrac publishes a monthly Top Podcasts by Category which includes audience and download data for the top 30 podcasts in 19 subject categories. Learn more here.
How can I keep up to date on the current Rankings?
Click on the button below to subscribe to the Podtrac Blog to keep up to date on the Podcast Industry Audience rankings as they are published each month.