Podcasts audience sizes

January 25, 2008 10:47 AM

Is there an easy way to find out the average estimated audience size of a specific podcast?

We are considering approaching some podcasters with a view to finding out if they would be interested in interviewing the CEO of our company. The podcasts would be aimed at a fairly narrow audience (the aviation industry, airline pilots, private pilots, etc.) but obviously we want to reach the maximum audience possible.

So is there a way to find out what kind of subscription numbers a podcast might have, either through iTunes or one of the podcasting hosting services? We don’t want to just contact the podcaster and say “Hey, how many people do you think actually listen to your stuff?” as we might not get a totally honest reply.

posted by worker_bee to computers & internet (2 comments total)

It's true, you might not get an honest reply, but as a podcaster I know of no service that will let you peek at someone else's numbers.

You may have to look at other things, like:

• how's the quality of the recording?
• do they get a lot of comments per episode? that might give you some idea of how many people listen
• if the site attached to the show has a forum/BBS set up, look at the activity in that area
• do they have real sponsors? it's unlikely they'd get sponsorship unless they were able to prove some level of popularity

posted by bryanjbusch at 11:01 AM on January 25, 2008

Maybe you could see if the podcast has any plays on last.fm? This will be a smallish subset of the people who listen to it, but might get you in the ballpark and help to rank them.
posted by scodger at 2:43 PM on January 25, 2008