Why Your Podcast Numbers Make You Feel Like A Failure
episode
Podmastery: podcasting insights and advice for indie creators
11 min
2 speakers
7 chapters
transcribed 22 days ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Why does seeing a 2.3 million‑view video make podcasters feel like failures?
So there I was on YouTube the other night, not for any good reason really. I'd gone to check one specific thing on my channel, and then I did what everybody does when they're on YouTube, which is not bad. Twenty minutes later, I'm looking at one of the big ones. One of the proper ones, you know, the two lads sat in a studio worth more than the average house, four cameras on each of them, and somebody just had a shot. His entire job that day was deciding where to place the lamps. And underneath all that, A number. A massive one. Two point three million 2.3 million, and this video had been up about a day and a half. And there I am, sat on the edge of my bed with my shoes still on, thinking, right. How the hell am I supposed to compete with that?
I think that every few weeks to be honest. I'd love to tell you that I don't. But here's what we do with that.
Cassio
Hello, this is Podmastery Podcasting Insights. I'm Neil Velio, and I've spent about 25 years in radio and audio. And some of that, helping independent podcasters like you work out why the thing they've built isn't reaching the people it was built for. And this episode is about the thing I just described, that half eleven at night thing. Because I've come to the conclusion. That it isn't what we all think it is. Alright, let's address it. You've done it. I know you've done it because everyone's done it. You're there on your phone, you've gone on to do something legit. I don't know, check a thumbnail, answer a comment, some small bit of YouTube admin that you've been putting off. And then somehow, you're on somebody else's channel.
Some show that started after yours did, and you look at their number. You put the phone face down on your duvet and you don't say anything for a bit.
What’s the real difference between a download, a YouTube view, and a chart position?
W how do you? Now, everyone will tell you comparison is the thief of joy, and that's a lovely thing to put on a tile in a nice font. And it's about as much use to you as a chocolate mixing desk. So let's do something more useful with that. Let's actually look at what you were doing when you did that. Because I don't think it is what we all think it is. First off, let's do the units. You've got downloads. A download is a file moving from one computer onto another computer, one device onto another device. That's it. That's the whole event. Doesn't mean that anybody listened. It doesn't mean anybody opened any app. Somewhere in the country, there's a phone in a kitchen drawer in Warrington that has been faithfully downloading my show.
Every single Monday since twenty twenty one, and its owner probably moved to Spain in January. That phone is one of my most loyal listeners, and the phone has never heard a word I've said. Then you got YouTube views, which are a completely different beast. That's a video starting to play. Not a file physically moving, just a play starting. And YouTube changed what counts as one of those last week. Which is kind of its own thing. But park that, because honestly, it's not even the biggest problem I've got here. Let's talk about chart positions, which aren't a measure of size. At all. They're a measure of speed. A show with 400 absolutely devoted listeners who all hit play on the morning it drops are definitely going to outrank a show with 40,000 who get around to it eventually.
And then Spotify counts things one way and Apple counts them another way. And neither of them will tell you exactly how they count them. So when you're sat there at half eleven, putting in numbers. Next to their number.
Why aren’t chart rankings a true measure of a podcast’s size or success?
What you're actually doing, and I want to be quite precise about this, what you're actually doing is standing next to a complete stranger and thinking, right, I'm five foot ten. You're eleven stone. You're so much better than me. Here's the thing, if it were really about the numbers, you'd have spotted the units. You're not an idiot. You'd have gone, hang on, these aren't the same thing at all, and you'd have put the phone down and gone to sleep. You didn't. I didn't, because that's not what the exercise is. Nobody has ever done competitive analysis at half eleven at night with their shoes still on.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
Why does seeing a 2.3 million‑view video make podcasters feel like failures?
0:01–2:05
2
What’s the real difference between a download, a YouTube view, and a chart position?
2:05–4:02
3
Why aren’t chart rankings a true measure of a podcast’s size or success?
4:02–5:57
4
How do Spotify and Apple count listens differently, and why does it matter?
5:57–8:20
5
What personal ‘target number’ did the host set at the start of his podcast?
8:20–9:49
6
How can you tell if you’ve already passed your original success metric?
9:49–10:57
7
What does real listener feedback look like compared to raw numbers?
10:57–11:38
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Podmastery: podcasting insights and advice for indie creators
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