You don't have a business without listener data

One of the most overlooked issues in podcast publishing

Every business is an ecosystem of moving parts. And if often feels like a battle to manage multiple vendors, employees, partners, changing regulations, suppliers and economic trends; but at the center of every business is the customer and the product. And it’s hard to imagine anyone trying to run their business without the ability to deeply understand these two forces.

And yet, that is exactly what a large number of podcast publishers are doing. They are flying blind with no access to critical data for their business. They have been tricked into believing that dashboards are the only data that their business needs to thrive.

I’ve worked in advertising for my entire career, and I know of no other advertising driven industry where publishers don’t ensure they own the data about their listeners and the paid sponsorship activity of their customers. I would go so far as to say that highly successful publishers in any other medium would be astonished by just how many podcast publishers don’t have access to their data.

There are currently only two DAI-capable podcast hosts I know of that provide publishers with access to their data: Megaphone and Triton/Omny.

And while one can ask a podcast hosting company to change their policies, in my experience, they will be quick to cite privacy or implementation concerns. It is often easier to select or switch to a host that respects your right to your data.

Here is a checklist to review with your podcast host.

[ ] - API access to all areas of their platform, including order status and delivery

[ ] - Download logs for every episode

[ ] - Order delivery logs for all ad placements (direct, VAST, etc.)

If a host doesn’t provide you with all of these, then you need to really think about whose business you are building: yours or theirs?

As a note: I hope that there are other DAI capable hosts out there that also provide publishers with full API access as well as download and order placement logs. If I’m missing anyone, please email me so I can update my notes and this article.