Do you want accurate stats that count every single access made to your audio files? Or do you want actionable data that inform you how your audience is responding to your podcast and your podcasting outreach efforts?

You can only choose one, it seems.

Overcast, a privacy-focused and quite popular iOS app that even I use on occasion, recently announced and implemented—and then quickly retracted, but the day is young— a change that would have blocked data intelligence services like Chartable and Podsights from seeing any activity from Overcast users. 

That move effectively shut out the visibility of that download to the intelligence providers employed by the podcast publisher. 

Yes, most podcast hosts are IAB-certified and provide accurate (?) download statistics. And if that’s all you need, then that’s all you need.

But I’ve seen the insights provided by data intelligence providers. My clients have come to depend on having deeper insights around the interplay between episodes, the knowledge of which social media tactics provide the best results, and how their paid media efforts are paying off with real results. Neither I nor they want to go back to the one-trick-pony that is counting downloads.

For now, the change has been rolled back. But for how long? And if something like this is again enacted, how long will the trick to skip the hops work when the data intelligence providers change how they handle redirects, potentially causing download requests to completely fail? 

Do we lobby the analytics providers to work directly with privacy advocates like this to demonstrate their not-creepiness and get back in good graces? I quite like that notion, but also recognize it’s hard to change the minds of fundamentalists of any stripe. Still… one can dream.

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A written-to-be-read article and a full transcript of the audio of this episode can be found at https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/would-you-prefer-accurate-or-actionable-podcast-metrics

Follow @EvoTerra on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come.

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Evo Terra produces Podcast Pontifications four times a week to provide ideas and ask questions every working podcaster should be thinking about.

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Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.