Listen vs. Downloads – what’s the difference in podcasting?

The Downloads number is the number of times your podcast has been played and/or downloaded from various sources: Podbean podcast site and apps; directories you’ve submitted your podcast to like iTunes, Google, Spotify etc; embedded podcasts to other sites; shared podcasts. This includes streaming or listening to your podcast.  In Podbean, there is the overall number, and then they break it down by venue to give you an idea of how people are downloading your show.

A Listener is the unique combination of IP address + User Agent (podcast venue such as apps, or browsers) for playing a podcast in a calendar day.

A Download is the unique combination of IP address + User Agent for streaming/downloading an episode in a calendar day.

For example, if our faithful pup listener plays 3 different episodes in a podcast — it will be counted as 3 downloads, but it will be counted only 1 listener in this calendar day. This is why both numbers matter. Are people just playing and binge listening, perhaps even letting their players run, volume down in a day to get numbers up, or are they showing up and listening on different days with some regularity?

There are services out there that will subscribe and play your episodes from several devices to get your downloads and listeners up. Be aware of that when you are simply relying on numbers a show or producer is telling you as truth.