

Some hosting providers filter these 1 kb pings out of download statistics, but others do not. To give podcasters more standardized, accurate and granular data about their shows, we will be making additional changes to align Stitcher’s downloading definitions with some of the emerging standards put forth by the IAB (learn more about the IAB and their proposed standards here).Īs a historically streaming-focused app, Stitcher has implemented various server pinging behaviors over the years designed to emulate downloading where similar actions would be expected by other apps like the Apple Podcasts app. This change, which we previously made on an ad-hoc basis for podcasters who requested it, gives you better insight into your overall download metrics and better facilitates server-side dynamic ad insertion. We started by moving all podcasters to direct streaming from the source - the Stitcher apps now make a direct file request to your hosting infrastructure whenever a user chooses to play or download an episode of a show. Last year, we began a process of implementing changes to the way Stitcher communicates with podcasters’ hosting providers. We want to bring to your attention a change in the download metrics you will see from Stitcher in the coming weeks. Here’s the email I received from Stitcher on August 28, 2017: In fact, maybe after October 2nd, or show will suddenly rank well as those who were being downloaded by their servers tanks! The good news for those of us who’ve had their shows streamed directly from our media hosts is that perhaps our Stitcher rankings aren’t as low as they appear. The bright side is that after October Stitcher will provide more accurate information it can. What this means for you is that if you have been relying on podcast statistics from Stitcher, you will likely see a significant decrease in downloads after October (unless they started streaming directly from your RSS like they did with mine).

What this means is that I’ve probably been seeing more accurate data than most shows because other shows were still using the inflated “emulated” numbers hence, my show’s abysmal rankings in Stitcher (in iTunes, it’s a top 20 Self-Help show). That mystery has now been solved! It appears that my Stitcher partner portal was reflecting actual statistics, not inflated, or “emulated” statistics. After countless chats with their technical support team, they always avoided my question as to why my rankings dropped. They happily complied and stopped streaming my show from their servers but unfortunately as a side effect of doing this, my rankings in the Stitcher top 100 dropped to the bottom 2000.
#Erase stitcher listen later pocast full
Two years ago, I asked Stitcher to not download my individual episodes so that Stitcher listeners could listen to each show in full quality (Stitcher downloaded then compressed each episode, so the sound quality was terrible). There is no explanation why they felt the need to emulate downloads. They’ve been counting pings in their download statistics making it appear that a podcast was receiving more downloads than it actually was. These pings were used to emulate downloads so that they would supposedly come close to matching what other podcast media hosts were reporting. In October, it appears they are going to stop counting pings and “front page impressions” as downloads which will likely cause the numbers to be more accurate.Īccording to Stitcher, no. Does this mean you will see a decrease in download numbers in your Stitcher partner portal? Stitcher just sent out an email stating that they are going to be changing the way podcast download numbers are tallied.
