Top Podcast Tracking Services by Episode Share (September 2022)

This is an archived version, the current version is here.

Now that we have a good idea of which podcast hosts are producing new podcast episodes, let’s turn our attention to third-party podcast analytics services.

These services are typically provided by a company that is not the podcast host, but can provide tracking and analytics by being specified as the underlying media file url, which then redirects back to the host. Sometimes, these services are implemented as custom prefixes (taking the original media url and adding a prefix to it), but not always.

By intercepting every episode media file request, these analytics services can provide a view that is potentially larger than what the underlying podcast host analytics can provide.

Podtrac, one of the most popular services, released some interesting data about their US download figures for September 2021.

But how representative of the entire podcast world is this data? How many podcasters use services like these?

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We already did the work of analyzing every single new podcast episode published (about 1.7 million in September 2022), identifying which podcast hosting company it belongs to.

We used the actual media file url (past any tracking redirects) to identify the host instead of the feed url domain, which can often undercount hosts that offer custom domains.

Let’s now take a look at the tracking services themselves. Of the new episodes that were published in September, how many of them included one or more of these tracking services? Some episodes had as many as six of these redirecting trackers!

Note we can only observe “client-side” trackers. There are other podcast analytics services such as Triton Digital that receive private request logs directly from partner hosts. Like first-party podcast host analytics, the reach of these services is not measurable in a public way, and thus not included in this analysis.

First, a quick chart of the top podcast tracking services over time, based on share of new episodes every month.

As previewed a few weeks ago in our story Podtrac’s share of new podcast episodes started taking off in September, there is a new number one, thanks to Podtrac’s recent integration with many shows hosted by Spreaker.

Overall

At least one tracker was found on 16.89% of new episodes in September, growing 20.51% from last month.

For episodes that used at least one tracker, here are the top underlying podcast hosts:

  1. Spreaker 20.73%
  2. Megaphone 10.41%
  3. Omny Studio 8.57%
  4. Buzzsprout 8.55%
  5. Blubrry 6.78%
  6. Simplecast 5.35%
  7. Libsyn 3.92%
  8. RSS.com 3.15%
  9. Soundcloud 2.75%
  10. Futuri Media 2.21%

Individual Service Rankings

And now, the full list of individual podcast analytics services ordered by new episodes published during the month of September 2022.

1. Podtrac

Podtrac was found on 7.53% of new episodes in September, growing 55.04% from last month.

Of these, 22.66% had one other tracker, 12.09% had 2 other trackers, 2.37% had 3 other trackers, 0.16% had 4 other trackers, and 0.01% had 5 other trackers.

29.38% also included Chartable, 14.66% also included Podsights, 6.50% also included Adswizz, 1.65% also included Podcorn, 0.89% also included ArtsAI, 0.65% also included Blubrry, 0.23% also included Podscribe, 0.19% also included Feedpress, 0.10% also included Magellan AI, 0.10% also included Backtracks, 0.06% also included Médiamétrie, 0.06% also included Veritonic, 0.05% also included Gumball, 0.04% also included Zippycast, 0.04% also included AdBarker, 0.02% also included OP3, 0.01% also included Podder, <0.01% also included Claritas, <0.01% also included Firstory, and <0.01% also included Podkite.

For episodes that used Podtrac, here are the top underlying podcast hosts:

  1. Spreaker 44.72%
  2. Megaphone 14.48%
  3. Omny Studio 11.68%
  4. Soundcloud 3.49%
  5. Futuri Media 2.74%
  6. ART19 2.18%
  7. Libsyn 2.17%
  8. Nox Solutions 1.87%
  9. NPR 1.60%
  10. Simplecast 1.35%

Spotify (Chartable & Podsights)

At least one Spotify tracker was found on 5.80% of new episodes in September, growing 1.85% from last month.

Of these, 40.25% also included Podtrac, 5.44% also included Adswizz, 4.75% also included Podcorn, 1.58% also included ArtsAI, 1.08% also included Firstory, 0.46% also included Blubrry, 0.33% also included Podscribe, 0.29% also included Magellan AI, 0.24% also included Gumball, 0.14% also included Claritas, 0.08% also included AdBarker, 0.08% also included Veritonic, 0.04% also included Feedpress, 0.03% also included Zippycast, 0.03% also included Podder, 0.02% also included OP3, 0.02% also included Podkite, and 0.02% also included Backtracks.

For episodes that used at least one Spotify tracker, here are the top underlying podcast hosts:

  1. Megaphone 25.86%
  2. Omny Studio 19.21%
  3. Libsyn 7.27%
  4. Simplecast 5.50%
  5. Spreaker 4.80%
  6. Buzzsprout 4.78%
  7. OnePlace.com 2.58%
  8. ART19 2.54%
  9. Captivate 2.46%
  10. SoundOn 2.43%

2. Chartable by Spotify

Chartable was found on 5.40% of new episodes in September, growing 1.86% from last month.

Of these, 33.96% had one other tracker, 17.59% had 2 other trackers, 3.40% had 3 other trackers, 0.20% had 4 other trackers, and 0.02% had 5 other trackers.

41.00% also included Podtrac, 24.73% also included Podsights, 5.55% also included Adswizz, 4.54% also included Podcorn, 1.55% also included ArtsAI, 1.16% also included Firstory, 0.40% also included Blubrry, 0.30% also included Magellan AI, 0.30% also included Podscribe, 0.23% also included Gumball, 0.15% also included Claritas, 0.09% also included AdBarker, 0.08% also included Veritonic, 0.04% also included Feedpress, 0.03% also included Podder, 0.02% also included Podkite, 0.02% also included Backtracks, 0.01% also included OP3, and <0.01% also included Zippycast.

For episodes that used Chartable, here are the top underlying podcast hosts:

  1. Megaphone 24.92%
  2. Omny Studio 19.45%
  3. Libsyn 7.59%
  4. Simplecast 5.21%
  5. Spreaker 5.03%
  6. Buzzsprout 5.00%
  7. OnePlace.com 2.77%
  8. ART19 2.69%
  9. SoundOn 2.61%
  10. Captivate 2.61%

3. Podcorn by Audacy/Entercom

Podcorn was found on 2.45% of new episodes in September, shrinking 0.79% from last month.

Of these, 10.54% had one other tracker, 2.29% had 2 other trackers, 0.77% had 3 other trackers, 0.06% had 4 other trackers, and 0.03% had 5 other trackers.

10.02% also included Chartable, 5.07% also included Podtrac, 2.00% also included Podsights, 0.22% also included Blubrry, 0.21% also included Magellan AI, 0.10% also included AdBarker, 0.06% also included Gumball, 0.04% also included OP3, 0.03% also included Podkite, 0.03% also included Backtracks, 0.02% also included Adswizz, and 0.01% also included Podder.

For episodes that used Podcorn, here are the top underlying podcast hosts:

  1. Buzzsprout 52.22%
  2. RSS.com 21.72%
  3. Libsyn 5.86%
  4. Podomatic 4.50%
  5. Podbean 3.90%
  6. Captivate 2.62%
  7. Spreaker 2.30%
  8. Transistor 1.93%
  9. Soundcloud 1.37%
  10. Simplecast 0.75%

4. Adswizz by Pandora

Adswizz was found on 2.26% of new episodes in September, growing 8.24% from last month.

Of these, 22.58% had one other tracker, 5.08% had 3 other trackers, 2.55% had 2 other trackers, 0.13% had 4 other trackers, and 0.01% had 5 other trackers.

21.61% also included Podtrac, 13.24% also included Chartable, 7.33% also included Podsights, 0.85% also included Blubrry, 0.39% also included ArtsAI, 0.03% also included Podcorn, 0.01% also included Claritas, 0.01% also included Veritonic, 0.01% also included Gumball, and <0.01% also included Podkite.

For episodes that used Adswizz, here are the top underlying podcast hosts:

  1. Simplecast 30.64%
  2. Futuri Media 16.46%
  3. Omny Studio 11.81%
  4. NRJ-Group 9.84%
  5. StreamGuys 9.39%
  6. Europe 1 5.45%
  7. NPR 5.12%
  8. Nox Solutions 4.06%
  9. Il Sole 24 Ore 1.51%
  10. BBC 1.28%

5. Podsights by Spotify

Podsights was found on 1.74% of new episodes in September, growing 0.07% from last month.

Of these, 51.30% had 2 other trackers, 23.45% had one other tracker, 10.30% had 3 other trackers, 0.67% had 4 other trackers, and 0.05% had 5 other trackers.

76.80% also included Chartable, 63.55% also included Podtrac, 9.56% also included Adswizz, 4.36% also included ArtsAI, 2.81% also included Podcorn, 0.69% also included Podscribe, 0.63% also included Gumball, 0.41% also included Blubrry, 0.39% also included Magellan AI, 0.33% also included Claritas, 0.12% also included Zippycast, 0.09% also included Veritonic, 0.06% also included OP3, 0.02% also included AdBarker, 0.02% also included Backtracks, 0.01% also included Podkite, and 0.01% also included Podder.

For episodes that used Podsights, here are the top underlying podcast hosts:

  1. Megaphone 42.90%
  2. Omny Studio 28.06%
  3. Nox Solutions 6.77%
  4. Simplecast 5.19%
  5. ART19 4.35%
  6. Audioboom 2.51%
  7. Transistor 1.95%
  8. Libsyn 1.49%
  9. WNYC 1.25%
  10. Spreaker 0.92%

6. Blubrry

Blubrry was found on 1.49% of new episodes in September, shrinking 1.55% from last month.

Of these, 5.56% had one other tracker, 0.76% had 2 other trackers, 0.16% had 3 other trackers, 0.03% had 4 other trackers, and 0.02% had 5 other trackers.

3.30% also included Podtrac, 1.46% also included Chartable, 1.29% also included Adswizz, 0.89% also included Feedpress, 0.48% also included Podsights, 0.37% also included Podcorn, 0.02% also included AdBarker, and 0.01% also included OP3.

For episodes that used Blubrry, here are the top underlying podcast hosts:

  1. Blubrry 76.66%
  2. Amazon S3 4.62%
  3. Libsyn 2.52%
  4. Soundcloud 2.08%
  5. Internet Archive 1.37%
  6. Squarespace 1.12%
  7. Amazon CloudFront 1.08%
  8. Empire Streaming 1.01%
  9. Muslim Central 0.99%
  10. Megaphone 0.85%

7. Médiamétrie

Médiamétrie was found on 0.52% of new episodes in September, growing 24.86% from last month.

Of these, 0.92% had one other tracker.

0.92% also included Podtrac.

For episodes that used Médiamétrie, here are the top underlying podcast hosts:

  1. Audiomeans 37.26%
  2. Radio France Internationale 35.79%
  3. RCF 12.00%
  4. Ausha 8.59%
  5. Monte Carlo Doualiya 5.47%
  6. Akamai CDN 0.51%

8. Feedpress

Feedpress was found on 0.21% of new episodes in September, growing 4.70% from last month.

Of these, 12.60% had one other tracker, and 0.78% had 2 other trackers.

6.73% also included Podtrac, 6.33% also included Blubrry, and 1.09% also included Chartable.

For episodes that used Feedpress, here are the top underlying podcast hosts:

  1. Feedpress 69.12%
  2. Spreaker 10.53%
  3. NPR 4.35%
  4. Libsyn 3.74%
  5. Blubrry 2.82%
  6. Podbean 1.64%
  7. iVoox 1.27%
  8. Fireside 0.83%
  9. Anchor 0.83%
  10. Subsplash 0.78%

9. Firstory

Firstory was found on 0.10% of new episodes in September, shrinking 4.12% from last month.

Of these, 62.32% had one other tracker, and 0.24% had 2 other trackers.

62.56% also included Chartable, and 0.24% also included Podtrac.

For episodes that used Firstory, here are the top underlying podcast hosts:

  1. SoundOn 99.64%
  2. Soundcloud 0.36%

10. ArtsAI

ArtsAI was found on 0.09% of new episodes in September, shrinking 3.18% from last month.

Of these, 52.88% had 3 other trackers, 24.94% had 2 other trackers, 10.23% had 4 other trackers, 8.76% had one other tracker, and 0.13% had 5 other trackers.

88.55% also included Chartable, 79.99% also included Podsights, 70.46% also included Podtrac, 9.34% also included Adswizz, 6.71% also included Podscribe, 2.88% also included Claritas, and 0.90% also included Veritonic.

For episodes that used ArtsAI, here are the top underlying podcast hosts:

  1. Omny Studio 38.81%
  2. Megaphone 35.68%
  3. Audioboom 14.39%
  4. Simplecast 6.65%
  5. Nox Solutions 3.96%
  6. Fireside 0.51%

11. Zippycast

Zippycast was found on 0.02% of new episodes in September, growing 62.97% from last month.

Of these, 9.38% had 2 other trackers, and 5.97% had one other tracker.

14.20% also included Podtrac, 9.38% also included Podsights, and 1.14% also included Chartable.

For episodes that used Zippycast, here are the top underlying podcast hosts:

  1. Podigee 34.66%
  2. Ausha 21.59%
  3. ART19 18.18%
  4. Megaphone 17.33%
  5. Podcastics 6.53%
  6. podCloud 1.70%

12. Magellan AI

Magellan AI was found on 0.02% of new episodes in September, growing 14.58% from last month.

Of these, 52.01% had 2 other trackers, 22.29% had one other tracker, and 18.89% had 3 other trackers.

83.28% also included Chartable, 39.32% also included Podtrac, 34.67% also included Podsights, and 25.70% also included Podcorn.

For episodes that used Magellan AI, here are the top underlying podcast hosts:

  1. Spreaker 44.58%
  2. Megaphone 30.34%
  3. ART19 18.58%
  4. Buzzsprout 4.33%
  5. Omny Studio 2.17%

13. Podscribe

Podscribe was found on 0.02% of new episodes in September, growing 262.71% from last month.

Of these, 35.31% had 2 other trackers, 32.81% had 4 other trackers, 19.69% had 3 other trackers, and 12.19% had one other tracker.

87.81% also included Podtrac, 83.44% also included Chartable, 62.19% also included Podsights, 32.81% also included ArtsAI, and 6.88% also included Veritonic.

For episodes that used Podscribe, here are the top underlying podcast hosts:

  1. Omny Studio 80.63%
  2. Megaphone 19.38%

14. Gumball

Gumball was found on 0.02% of new episodes in September, growing 44.57% from last month.

Of these, 58.28% had 2 other trackers, 16.89% had one other tracker, 3.97% had 4 other trackers, 2.32% had 3 other trackers, and 1.32% had 5 other trackers.

68.54% also included Chartable, 60.26% also included Podsights, 19.87% also included Podtrac, 7.62% also included Podcorn, 5.96% also included OP3, and 0.66% also included Adswizz.

For episodes that used Gumball, here are the top underlying podcast hosts:

  1. Omny Studio 49.67%
  2. ART19 23.84%
  3. Megaphone 10.26%
  4. Spreaker 8.28%
  5. Transistor 7.62%
  6. Simplecast 0.33%

15. Backtracks

Backtracks was found on 0.01% of new episodes in September, shrinking 12.11% from last month.

Of these, 61.95% had one other tracker, 2.93% had 2 other trackers, and 2.44% had 4 other trackers.

61.46% also included Podtrac, 8.29% also included Chartable, 5.37% also included Podcorn, and 2.44% also included Podsights.

For episodes that used Backtracks, here are the top underlying podcast hosts:

  1. StreamGuys 54.15%
  2. Anchor 15.12%
  3. Transistor 6.34%
  4. Spreaker 4.39%
  5. Captivate 3.90%
  6. Subsplash 1.46%
  7. Megaphone 0.98%
  8. Buzzsprout 0.49%

16. Claritas

Claritas was found on 0.01% of new episodes in September, growing 669.18% from last month.

Of these, 80.77% had 2 other trackers, 2.56% had one other tracker, 2.56% had 4 other trackers, and 1.28% had 5 other trackers.

84.62% also included Chartable, 60.26% also included Podsights, 28.85% also included ArtsAI, 3.85% also included Podtrac, and 3.21% also included Adswizz.

For episodes that used Claritas, here are the top underlying podcast hosts:

  1. Omny Studio 92.31%
  2. Nox Solutions 3.85%
  3. ART19 3.85%

17. AdBarker

AdBarker was found on 0.01% of new episodes in September, shrinking 6.12% from last month.

Of these, 58.82% had 2 other trackers, 5.88% had one other tracker, and 5.04% had 5 other trackers.

67.23% also included Chartable, 37.82% also included Podtrac, 33.61% also included Podcorn, 5.04% also included Blubrry, and 5.04% also included Podsights.

For episodes that used AdBarker, here are the top underlying podcast hosts:

  1. Buzzsprout 35.29%
  2. Libsyn 31.93%
  3. Captivate 15.13%
  4. AdBarker 8.40%
  5. Castos 4.20%
  6. Megaphone 2.52%
  7. Simplecast 2.52%

18. Podkite

Podkite was found on 0.01% of new episodes in September, growing 29.75% from last month.

Of these, 20.00% had one other tracker, 2.00% had 2 other trackers, 2.00% had 5 other trackers, 1.00% had 3 other trackers, and 1.00% had 4 other trackers.

17.00% also included Chartable, 13.00% also included Podcorn, 4.00% also included Podtrac, 4.00% also included Podsights, 2.00% also included Podder, and 1.00% also included Adswizz.

For episodes that used Podkite, here are the top underlying podcast hosts:

  1. Megaphone 29.00%
  2. Buzzsprout 23.00%
  3. Transistor 11.00%
  4. Omny Studio 9.00%
  5. Spreaker 8.00%
  6. Podbean 6.00%
  7. Audioboom 4.00%
  8. PodServe.fm 3.00%
  9. RSS.com 2.00%
  10. Pinecast 1.00%

19. Veritonic

Veritonic was found on <0.01% of new episodes in September, growing 10.57% from last month.

Of these, 40.54% had 3 other trackers, 35.14% had 2 other trackers, and 24.32% had 4 other trackers.

100.00% also included Podtrac, 100.00% also included Chartable, 35.14% also included Podsights, 29.73% also included Podscribe, 18.92% also included ArtsAI, and 5.41% also included Adswizz.

For episodes that used Veritonic, here are the top underlying podcast hosts:

  1. Omny Studio 74.32%
  2. Nox Solutions 25.68%

20. OP3 (the Open Podcast Prefix Project)

OP3 was found on <0.01% of new episodes in September, from last month.

Of these, 22.64% had 4 other trackers, 7.55% had 3 other trackers, 7.55% had 5 other trackers, and 1.89% had one other tracker.

35.85% also included Podtrac, 33.96% also included Podcorn, 33.96% also included Podsights, 33.96% also included Gumball, 11.32% also included Chartable, and 3.77% also included Blubrry.

For episodes that used OP3, here are the top underlying podcast hosts:

  1. Podnews 37.74%
  2. Transistor 35.85%
  3. Buzzsprout 3.77%
  4. Simplecast 3.77%
  5. DigitalOcean Spaces 1.89%

21. Podder

Podder was found on <0.01% of new episodes in September, growing 38.06% from last month.

Of these, 42.86% had one other tracker, 10.20% had 2 other trackers, and 4.08% had 5 other trackers.

51.02% also included Chartable, 14.29% also included Podtrac, 10.20% also included Podcorn, 4.08% also included Podkite, and 4.08% also included Podsights.

For episodes that used Podder, here are the top underlying podcast hosts:

  1. Transistor 34.69%
  2. Sounder 24.49%
  3. Megaphone 20.41%
  4. ART19 8.16%
  5. Omny Studio 8.16%
  6. Simplecast 4.08%

Analysis by John Spurlock

Thanks to the Podcast Index for crawling every podcast, and giving us a signal of when to check for new episodes.

And thanks to the Open Podcast Analytics Working Group for maintaining a list of media url patterns and analytics services patterns. We’ve incorporated these patterns along with some of our own to come up with the host and analytics service identification and metadata for this ranking.

Updated 2022-10-03, with data for the month of September 2022.

Updated 2022-09-01, with data for the month of August 2022.

Updated 2022-08-01, with data for the month of July 2022.

Updated 2022-07-01, with data for the month of June 2022.

Updated 2022-06-01, with data for the month of May 2022.

Updated 2022-05-01, with data for the month of April 2022.

Updated 2022-04-05, RSS Podcasting is now known as RSS.com.

Updated 2022-04-03, with data for the month of March 2022 and a new graph.

Updated 2022-03-03, with data for the month of February 2022, added AdBarker.

Updated 2022-02-19, added new overall breakdowns of how many new episodes use at least one tracker, and how many use at least one Spotify-owned tracker.

Updated 2022-02-08, with data for the month of January 2022.

Updated 2022-01-10, was missing data for December 31, now fixed.

Updated 2022-01-07, with data for the month of December 2021.

Updated 2021-12-04, with data for the month of November 2021.

Updated 2021-11-18, added Backtracks.

Updated 2021-11-14, with data for the month of October 2021.

Updated 2021-10-21: Added Adswizz and tweaked the host identification to choose the last known host in the redirect chain instead of the first, in an attempt to better capture customer-driven host migrations.

Updated 2021-10-14: Added a section about how direct server-to-server analytics integrations are not publically visible, and thus out of scope.

Updated 2021-10-13: Removed Podtrac as a host under itself, even when it is the last media file url in the redirect chain.

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