Users of Libsyn, Switchpod and Blastpodcast (the services offered on the Wizzard Media Network) know that dealing with the volume and veracity of statistical data has been a huge, long-term task for all of us. The metrics we provide to the content creators goes far beyond a single number, and are different from the “views” that are typically recorded through social web video sites or aggregator portals for podcasts, and keeping up with the demand for those numbers by thousands of hungry producers is no easy job.

With the work and relationships the Wizzard ad sales team is building, we are constantly refining the stats model to the numbers that are important for everyone looking to provide a viable and compelling advertising story.

The good news is we have made some repairs, brought on even more hardware, and enlisted more very smart folks to join the team. While going through the process and really concentrating on stats and data over the last couple months, we have been compiling data that we have found interesting, and maybe you will, too.

Volume
Just to give you an idea of the scale, in the month of April across the entire network of shows, we fulfilled over 83 million download requests for audio and video files. The system logged and processed well over 100 million downloads in total; however we filter out image downloads and other files that aren’t MP3, MP4, M4V, MOV, WMV, AAC, M4b, FLV and AVI files. Every second of every day, our network delivers more data then my first computer’s entire hard-drive could hold (sweet 250MB in my packardbell 486) and the records of those transactions results in gigabytes of log data every month.

Trends
With over 2 1/2 years of sitting between podcast producers and podcast consumers, we’ve watched the industry grow and change. Audio still dominates, but is quickly losing ground to video. The popularity of the type of media is demonstrated in the evolution of topics: technology shows giving way to music shows giving way to educational shows. It has taught us alot about how podcasting is making its way into the lives of so many different people.

Looking at this chart you can see the market share educational podcasts have taken. We see this follows a demographic shift in audiences from the dominance of early adopter technophiles to a broader, more mainstream market, and is also a sign of a maturing industry.

The other trend we are observing is repeat consumers. As people get into podcasting, they quickly expand their listening and viewing range subscribing to many different shows. These two trends are working together to popularize every genre and type of podcast. People are getting hooked by a podcast that teaches them a foreign language, and then easily discover after class they can: have a laugh; check out the latest technology buzz; listen to some great indie music; exercise their bodies, minds, and spirits; or hear about and view different cultures from around the world.

Finally, we wanted to touch a little bit on the reach of podcasting. In the month of April, we were able track downloads that were performed by people in over 60,000 places, in over 200 countries around the world. The US still maintains the overall highest number of podcasting audiences by country, but the rest of the world is picking up steam.

Of the 12,000 individual cities and towns around the US that downloaded podcasts from us, the top 10 were:

• New York
• Sacramento
• Los Angeles
• Washington DC
• Atlanta
• Chicago
• Minneapolis-St. Paul
• San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose
• Philadelphia
• Louisville
• Salt Lake City

The top 10 countries other then the US posting over a million downloads in April:

Summary
These are only two data points that we have discovered during out analytic research of our data. This post is just the beginning of our publishing on the topic of podcasting metrics and trends. Periodically, we will be posting these kinds of reports, giving everyone an in-depth look at the way the industry is moving and shaping, from our point of view.