Playback
Playback is a Bumper-defined metric that measures how often people listened to or watched your show, as measured by unique playback sessions.
To provide the best estimate of this metric, the Bumper Dashboard aggregates:
You'll see this data when "Remove play inflation" is toggled on, which is the default.
How do the different platforms define playback, and how is that similar or different from what I'm seeing on the Bumper Dashboard?
Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Youtube all have different ways of defining playback. The Bumper Dashboard includes the metrics you can find on each of their respective dashboards--including, in the case of Apple, derived metrics that align with what's available from other platforms--organized so as to give you the most accurate picture of your show's performance.
Spotify "Plays"
Spotify "plays" are a Spotify-specific metric that counts qualified episode playback initiations. According to Spotify, plays represent:
The number of times that someone actively watched or listened to your show on Spotify.
A play is counted once per user per session. If someone plays an episode, pauses it, then resumes playing, Spotify counts that as one play.
Spotify plays have no minimum listening threshold. This makes Spotify plays susceptible to play inflation when, for example, a Spotify editorial or algorithmic boost puts an episode in front of a large number of users who listen or watch for less than 60 seconds.
Spotify play counts are visible in the Bumper Dashboard when "Remove play inflation" is toggled off, and should match what users see in the Spotify for Creators dashboard.
Spotify "Streams"
Spotify "streams" are a Spotify-specific metric that counts qualified episode playback initiations. Unlike Spotify "plays," they have a minimum listening threshold. According to Spotify, streams represent:
The number of times someone watched or listened to your show on Spotify for at least 60 seconds.
A stream is counted once per user per session. If someone plays an episode for 60 seconds or more, pauses it, then resumes playing for another 60 seconds or more, Spotify counts that as one stream.
Spotify stream counts are visible in the Bumper Dashboard when "Remove play inflation" is toggled on, and should match what users see in the Spotify for Creators dashboard.
Apple Podcasts "Plays"
Apple Podcasts "plays" represent:
The total number of times people pressed play on your episode
This figure includes all presses of the play button, including presses of the play button to resume playback of a paused episode. So, if you:
- Press play once to initiate playback of an episode
- Pause the episode partway through
- Press play again to resume playback of the same episode
- Pause the episode again
- Press play again to resume playback of the same episode
That makes you a single listener, responsible for multiple play actions. As such, Apple Podcasts "play" actions count a very different thing than YouTube "views" or Spotify "plays". This is one of the key reasons Bumper discourages our clients from simply summing Apple Podcasts "plays" alongside Spotify "plays" and YouTube "views".
When "Remove play inflation" is toggled off, Apple play counts should match what users see in the Apple Podcasts Connect dashboard.
Apple Podcasts Estimated Playback
The Bumper Dashboard estimates Playback for Apple Podcasts.
This is because there is no true Apple Podcasts equivalent of YouTube views or Spotify streams. Bumper's estimates include a few ingredients, all sourced from Apple Podcasts Connect:
- Episode-level Apple Podcasts all-time total listeners
- Episode-level Apple Podcasts listeners by day/week/month
- Episode-level Apple Podcasts all-time episode retention (AKA dropoff curves)
We use episode-level retention data to estimate the percentage of listeners who spent at least 60 seconds with an episode (to match Spotify's "stream" threshold). Then we use this scaling factor to calculate all-time estimated plays per episode. The sum of estimated episode-level plays yields all-time show-level estimated plays.
For timeseries data at daily/weekly/monthly resolution, we compare the sum of daily/weekly/monthly episode listeners to the episode's all-time listener number, then we scale daily/weekly/monthly listeners by this factor, then again by the percentage of listeners who spent at least 60 seconds with an episode. The resulting estimate lets Bumper display estimated plays at both the episode level and show level by day, week, or month.
Though not ideal, the Bumper Dashboard will use this estimate until Apple Podcasts offers a playback metric that corresponds with other major podcast consumption platforms.
When "Remove play inflation" is toggled on, Apple play counts display as this estimate of daily episode-level listeners who've spent at least 60 seconds with an episode.
YouTube "Views"
YouTube does not provide detailed documentation about how video view counts are calculated. YouTube's documentation says:
A view occurs when a person watches your video. In order to preserve accuracy in view counts, irregular playbacks (like spam) are removed from the public view count metrics. In incrementing view count, YouTube algorithmically determines user intent.
Many industry estimates suggest:
- A YouTube user must watch a video for a minimum of 30 seconds to increment a video's view count
- A single user can generate multiple views per day, capped at a maximum of 4-5 views per day
The Bumper Dashboard ingests YouTube view counts directly from the YouTube Analytics API. YouTube view counts in the Bumper Dashboard should match publicly-visible view counts, and what creators see in YouTube Studio.
Remove Play Inflation
"Remove Play Inflation" represents Bumper's approach to harmonizing playback counts between Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. It is enabled by default.
Apple Podcasts "plays" and Spotify "plays" measure very different things. Both are susceptible to inflation that can give an inaccurate measure of people listen to your show:
- Apple Podcasts counts a "play" every time someone presses the play button, including when resuming a paused episode. A single playback session can generate many plays per user, and there's no minimum listening threshold.
- Spotify counts a "play" every time someone watches or listens to an episode, regardless of how long they watch or listen.
The "Remove play inflation" toggle adjusts these numbers so that the Bumper Dashboard only counts:
- Playback sessions on Apple Podcasts that last at least 60 seconds, with user "play" actions only counted once per episode per day
- Playback sessions on Spotify that last at least 60 seconds (what Spotify calls "streams")
YouTube views do not change.
The following table describes how Playback is calculated:
| Platform | "Remove Play Inflation" disabled | "Remove Play Inflation" enabled |
|---|---|---|
| Spotify | Plays (no minimum) | Streams (60 second minimum) |
| Apple Podcasts | Plays (uncapped per playback session) | Apple Podcasts estimated playback (capped per playback session, 60 second minimum) |
| YouTube | Views | Views |