Apple unveils a new feature for podcasters publishing their content on iTunes

This year at WWDC, Apple announced that it will offer its own podcast analytics service so that show creators, who make podcasts, could see how their podcasts are performing and learn about the way people consume podcasts. The beta version of that free service also gives information about the consumers’ behaviors and preferences who listen on Apple’s Podcast app.

The analytics service offers podcasters the ability to track the total hours listened to a specific episode, the average minutes per listener, the abandonment point, and average completion rate. But it will only include data on users running iOS 11 and iTunes 12.7. This service could be an eye-opener to podcast creators. Before this analytics service, much access to open information on listener habits besides basic download metrics and other streaming figures wasn’t available. But now, podcasters can get direct access to this data and make better decisions about content, show length, format and more.

Apple is also now requesting feedback from podcasters to accordingly shape its future developments. The company already has some features under consideration like finding a way to track aggregate users, not just devices, which is something the community has requested. It is already considering additions to the analytics mechanism, particularly strategies for tracking aggregate users. Currently, the tool gathers data from individual devices secretly and translates that information into easier data bits represented on a podcaster’s iTunes Connect dashboard.