Downloads Down This Summer (Or Maybe Even All Year)? Here's What to Know! [Ep. 164]

 
 

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Here’s what to expect from this episode:

If you track your podcast stats monthly (which I strongly recommend!), you may have noticed a recent dip in your summer downloads. And you wouldn't be alone! You may have even seen a drop in downloads earlier in the year.

If you don't already know this, I obviously have my own podcast, but I also manage podcasts for several clients, so I can see behind the scenes and see what people's podcast stats are looking like. I also mostly work with people in the education space, and I've shared before how they usually see a boost in their summer downloads.

But regardless of whether you're a podcaster in the education space, I've been noticing some trends this summer (and beyond) across a variety of shows. So, in this episode, I'm sharing some of the trends I've been seeing, my opinion on some reasoning behind them, an industry update that has definitely impacted download reporting, and what to do when you notice a dip in your downloads.

When it comes to your podcast numbers, it can definitely get you down when you don't see your downloads increasing consistently. It can start to cause some doubt in your mind about whether or not you want to continue with your show, regardless of whether you're doing a good job. This happens to all of us! Tune in to next week's episode about what to do if you're feeling unmotivated to podcast.

Topics covered:

  • Download trends I've seen from clients this summer

  • My thoughts on why this could be happening

  • Changes to Apple Podcasts download reporting

  • What to do if your downloads are down this summer (or even all year)

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  • Sara Whittaker 0:01

    Sarah, your podcast is a powerful tool that serves your audience and your business, but how do you manage it all bring in new listeners and convert those listeners into customers. That's what the show is all about. Welcome to podcasting for educators. I'm Sara Whittaker, classroom teacher turned podcast manager, and I'm here to help you get the most out of your show, all while making an impact on other educators.

    Hey, hey, welcome back to another episode of podcasting for educators today. I want to talk about downloads and how our downloads are looking. We are kind of reaching the end of the summer, and if your downloads have not been looking so hot for the last few months, or Honestly, even since December or the beginning of this calendar year, you are not alone. I want to say that first. So let's talk about it. If you don't already know this, I obviously have my own podcast, but then I also manage podcasts for several clients, so I am able to kind of see behind the scenes and see what people's stats are looking like, and I'm also in communication with many other podcast managers, so I can kind of see the trends as they happen when it comes to what we're seeing with our clients shows and our own shows, of course. So I want to kind of get into the trends that I've been seeing this summer and let you know my opinion on some reasoning for some of these trends that we're seeing, and I would guess that you are probably seeing a lot of the same things that I'm going to talk about, but maybe not, but regardless, some of the things that I am going to talk about are kind of industry updates that are going on as well. So either way, it's going to be relevant for you. So first, let's kind of get into what I've been seeing in terms of download trends happening this summer. So I work mostly, mostly, not completely, but mostly with people in the education space, meaning that their audiences are other educators. So this reporting is coming from that perspective. However, I do also have some clients that are a slightly different audience as well, but I'm I've seen the same kind of trends going on this summer, at the beginning of a new month. I always pull stats for some of my clients from the previous month, so I look at numbers like per episode, downloads after one day, seven day, 30 days, 90 days, of each of those episodes being live, I look at total monthly downloads. I look at average downloads per week, average listener consumption rates, the number of followers that people have lost and gained on Apple podcasts, and some other numbers. But those are kind of like the big things that I look at. So definitely very like detailed and a good way to kind of get a big picture of what's going on in terms of download numbers. So overall, what I have seen this summer is that downloads were definitely down from past summers, kind of across the board, especially in May and June, then in July, things really picked up for people. Now, if you've been listening to this show for a while, you've probably heard me talk about how Summertime is usually a time when we really, like during all of those summer months, we really see kind of downloads increase compared to other times of year. So it was a little surprising to see, however, it really hasn't just been summertime, so I kind of started to see, as I was looking at monthly numbers compared to years past, I wasn't really seeing the same steady increase that we had seen in years before, and this kind of started back in like, I want to say, like November, December. December is always like, not a great month, but kind of before the start of the new year, I saw kind of a flat line in terms of growth for a lot of shows, and I'm going to talk about one of the big reasons that I think that is in just a minute. But first, let's focus on on those summer months, on on why you didn't see like, several months of growth this summer. If you are nodding your head and saying yes, this is kind of what I'm seeing with my numbers, too. So on one hand, it was definitely a little surprising to see downloads not up in June, especially because by June, you know, most people are out of school. Have a little bit more attention to give because they're not in the classroom all day. But on the other hand, it's not totally surprising that. Downloads didn't look great at the beginning of the summer. Yes, like I said, in years past, I've seen downloads higher during these months in the education space, specifically a lot of other niches. Summer's always kind of like a womp, womp kind of time. But I have to say, I felt a very like different vibe this year all around both in business and in the world of teaching and parenting, people just really seemed extra ready for a break this year, and that's coming from like things I saw people posting on social media and just conversations that I had with people. And obviously this is like, there's zero data to support me in saying this, other than my own observations and my own experiences, but that's just kind of what I was feeling like people were really ready for a complete break, to unplug, to just kind of disassociate from the online space, from their career, and just like, really have a true Break this summer. And so if I had to predict, I would say that teachers and other, you know, people in the education space who got out in May or June, they really needed that full break. So podcast listening was down. I was actually like this myself. I barely listened to any podcast at the beginning of this summer, but by the time July rolled around, I was really kind of ready to get back into it again, again. I'm only one person, and this is pure speculation, but I would be curious to know what some of your numbers were like in the months of May and June, compared to July and compared with August. Okay, so that's kind of like one one thought process there. Now another big one that is based more on facts is you may or may not know this. In fact, you probably, a lot of you probably don't know this, because I don't feel like it's really been talked about. And I only came about this because I was seeing such like fluctuation and changes in people's download numbers, and so I kind of did a little bit of digging, but there have been some pretty big changes with Apple podcasts, download reporting, and I'm going to link a couple articles here for you so you can really dig into this for yourself. And I know sometimes when you're talking about certain things, you know you can listen to it, and that's great, but sometimes you also want to be able to see things written down, and so I will link those for you to take a peek at. But I am actually going to pull one of these articles up here so that I because I feel like it does a really good job of explaining things. And I'm going to kind of like break down these changes for you. Okay, so these changes in Apple podcasts had to do with automatic downloads and and how those automatic downloads are reported to your podcast host, which is where you get your stats from. So by default, Apple podcasts enables automatic downloads of podcasts for all shows that a listener follows, and it is the only major podcast player that does this, at least at this time, that could change in the future. So an automatic download means that when a podcast puts out a new episode, Apple podcast will automatically download it if you are following that show on Apple now, automatic downloads are paused if your device runs out of storage or if you stop listening to that podcast. So in this article, it says specifically, if the listener does not play a show that they follow for more than 15 days and hasn't played the latest five episodes, that's when automatic downloads get paused. This has been the case in the past, and it's still kind of the case. What changed with the iOS 17 update is what happens when you start listening to that podcast again. So maybe you haven't been listening for a while, and then you start to listen again. This is where changes take place. So before the IO 17 update, when automatic downloads would become unpaused. So when you know maybe you haven't been listening to a show for a while, and then you start listening again. So that's signaling to Apple. Oh, this person really does want to listen to this podcast. What would happen in the past is that they would then automatically download all unplayed episodes, okay, even if you're not going to listen to them. And so that, when that would happen, that would get sent to the podcast host and count those as downloads, even if they weren't played. But with the IO 17 update, here's the change that happened. Apple podcast does not download previous episodes and resumes automatic downloading for new episodes. So this article gives. Is like a specific example. They say, you know, let's say that there's a listener named Mary, and she was listening to a podcast, but then she stopped. And when she stopped listening, and her downloads, her automatic downloads, became paused. 35 new episodes came out, and then one day she said, Oh, this looks like a great episode. And she starts listening again. Before the update, Apple would download all 35 unplayed episodes and count those as downloads. With the new update, they would just download the one, the one that Mary listened to the new episode. Okay, so you can imagine, before this update, you know, if somebody stopped listening to a podcast, and the downloads became paused for like, six months to a year, and then they started listening again. Wow, that's like a big wave of downloads that would be counted, that maybe they didn't even listen to. Okay, so definitely, that's going to make an impact on podcast numbers, and it has made a big impact. Now this you might be hearing me say, IO 17, well, like, didn't that happen a long time ago? Yes, it happened last September, but it took a while. It took several months for people to really notice this change and begin to wonder, like, what is happening with my downloads, I don't understand. This article goes on to explain some examples of the impact that this change has made. For example, they talk about ACast. ACast is a hosting company, and they handle like, monetization and sponsorships and things for podcasters. And this article says that by February of 2024 so the iOS 17 update happened September 18, specifically, 2023 by February 2024 these changes had cost ACast 7.2 million because the company had to revalue all of its advertising contracts that it had for these shows after a listening slump of 12% so you know, if you have sponsors for your podcast, they want to know what your download numbers are like, and that's going to kind of dictate a lot of times, not always, but a lot of times, how much they're paying you. Because it's a matter of how many people, how many listeners, their company is getting in front of and so if you have this huge slump, that's going to change the contract that you have with them and how much you're getting paid. It also goes on to say that data from the Triton digital us ranker reported that on average, almost a third of weekly downloads have disappeared. So that's kind of like across the board for podcasts. It even has like a chart of some big podcast networks and the decrease that they saw like wondery, you might you might have heard of that Podcast Network. They were down 28%

    Sirius XM was down, 32% NPR was down. 26 almost 27% so you can see that this really had an effect on podcast listenership and data and downloads and so hopefully this might make you feel a little bit better if your downloads have been down for the last several months, this might be a little bit of an explanation for you as to why that might be, and it's not just like, oh my gosh, people just stopped listening to my show, or I'm not getting any new listeners. No, this could have a significant impact on your numbers. Now I will say, I mean, hopefully you got the gist of how I explained it, and so now, I mean, it is more accurate reporting, which is ultimately what we want. We don't want fake numbers. We don't want to be told that people are listening to our episodes if they're not. So this, I think ultimately, is a good thing, but it requires us to have a shift in mindset and kind of see where our downloads are now, and maybe even look at, hopefully you're tracking your numbers month to month, but look at like the first of of 2024, as your new benchmark, for your numbers, for your downloads. And also, I just want to address like this is just for Apple podcasts. So of course, your listeners of your shows are listening on all kinds of different platforms. However, on average, Apple is responsible for about 40% of all podcast downloads. And you can go into your host and you should be able to see, depending on who you host, with a breakdown of the percentage of people who are listening on what platform, and you can see how many of your listeners are actually on Apple, and I would bet that the majority of them are probably either Apple or Spotify, but I would think that a good chunk of your listenership is coming from Apple, so this affected you. So hopefully this, if you've seen your downloads, not be. Hot lately. Hopefully this gives you a little bit of an explanation. This makes you feel a little bit better. And hey, if you've had your podcast for a year or more, and your downloads have been steadily increasing, all the more power to you and all the more reason to celebrate. Because that means, even with these drastic changes, you are bringing in new listeners and probably retaining your listeners. So couple things to think about for you there. I definitely wish that this had been communicated in a larger way, like I said at the top of the episode. I don't think that a lot of people know about this, and so if you've got podcasting friends, pass this episode along, so everybody can kind of be in the know now. When it comes to our numbers, when you don't see your downloads increasing consistently, it can definitely get you down, and it can start to cause some doubt in your mind about whether or not you want to continue with your show, whether or not you're doing a good job. This happens to all of us. All of us have this doubt from time to time. So whether it's your downloads getting you down or you're feeling burnt out, next week's episode is going to talk to you about what to do if you are feeling a bit unmotivated to podcast. Okay, we're going to end the show by sharing what I'm loving and what I'm listening to lately. One thing that I am loving is grow with Joe workouts. I don't know if you guys have ever seen grow with Joe. She's all over Instagram, she's all over YouTube, but she does these really fun, simple workouts that you can do literally anywhere you need, like, zero space to do this, and it's really helped me get back into moving my body after having my baby. And it's helping me feel good, helping me get my steps in, my movement in each day. Right now, I'm just using her free workouts on YouTube. There's so many of them that you can go through. There's a bunch of, like, indoor walks, and they're just really fun and they're quick. She has a lot of 20 minute workouts, but I'm just loving them. She also has an app that you can, I think you can pay for to get, like, additional workouts and features and stuff that I might do eventually. But right now, I am on that free YouTube game. So if you need a way to kind of get your body moving and in a really fun and simple and quick way. If you're limited on time like me, definitely check out grow with Joe. I'll link her YouTube channel in the show notes. And then something that I have listened to recently is episode 704 of online marketing made easy. Now this is definitely a podcast that I kind of pick and choose through episodes. But this one was recommended by somebody in a Facebook group that I'm in, and so I decided to check it out, and I'm so glad that I did. It's called How to have emails everyone opens, which means more money with founder of subjectline.com Jay schwendelsen, hopefully I said his last name right. Anyway, this was an amazing episode. What I loved about this episode is that the title was true to what the content was. The title told you exactly what you were going to get from this episode, and it held true to that. It got straight to the point it was an interview, but it was a fairly quick listen. I want to say it was like around 30 minutes. 30 minutes, and it had some really juicy takeaways that I'm excited to try right away that are simple and free, things that you can do to help improve your email open rate. And I actually, like, learned new things from this episode. It wasn't stuff that I've heard a million times before. The way that he explained, it was really great. He was very well spoken, so if you are working on getting your open rates up, and he also talks a bit about like, how to also get people to click through stuff that you're putting in your emails. He gave some really cool tips there too. Definitely check this episode out. I will link it in the show notes. All right. One last thing before you go, if you are enjoying this podcast, head to Apple podcasts and leave me a quick rating and review. I would really appreciate it, and I promise it will only take like, two minutes, tops, of your time. Thanks so much for being here today, and I'll catch you here next week. Thanks so much for listening to today's episode to keep this conversation going, connect with me on Instagram. At podcasting for educators. I'm always looking for an excuse to talk about podcasting. If you're looking for support in launching, managing or growing your podcast, check out my online course, the podcasting for educators prep school. At podcasting for educators.com/prep, school. I'll see you here next time you.

More about Podcasting for Educators:

Podcasting for Educators is the podcast for TpT authors and other online educators. It's a show that will help you get your podcast in front of those who need it most - teachers, counselors, literacy specialists, SLPs, parents, and more! Each week, Sara Whittaker and her guests will share top tips and actionable strategies that you will need in order to launch, manage, and grow your podcast. You’ll learn how to leverage your show to build long-lasting relationships with your audience and promote your TpT resources, courses, and memberships, all while providing valuable and accessible content!

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Sara Whittaker