Blubrry’s statistics are IAB Certified. That means that the largest organization that offers a meaningful definition of a podcast download has examined how Blubrry counts your podcast statistics and certified that Blubrry is doing it the right way. IAB’s Podcast Measurement Technical Guidelines ensure that your podcast statistics (“download numbers”) reflect the number of times that your podcast is downloaded for actual human consumption. Knowing that number is more valuable to you, the podcaster, than knowing the total number of times that people, and internet bots and spiders, and social media posts and ads access your MP3. Blubrry’s statistics have value.
Oct. 20 is World Statistics Day and the theme this year is “Connecting the world with data we can trust”. Statistics (podcast and otherwise) have been recently given a bad name. One of the best examples of the zeitgeist’s opinion of statistics is a quote from the book number9dream by British author, David Mitchell. He wrote, “Over 85% of statistics are made up on the spot.” World Statistics Day elevates the importance of accurate and reliable statistics and the value that data science and statistics offer in our daily lives.
Many podcast experts say the measure of a podcast’s success is if it achieves the podcast producer’s vision for the show. Arguably, this does not capture a full measure of success since it does not have a measurable outcome. One’s vision for their podcast could be as undefinable as self-expression, or to connect with other like-minded people, or to share a message of hope and encouragement. How can you know you are expressing yourself to others, or connecting, or sharing without reliable podcast statistics that accurately reflect how often your work is being received by other real human beings? Buried in each podcaster’s vision for their show is the desire to share their show with others. Reliable, accurate podcast statistics are the best measure of this. You can trust Blubrry’s statistics for that task.