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Firstory Downloads Data Standards

Rooney Chu avatar
Written by Rooney Chu
Updated over a month ago

In Firstory Studio, we provide a variety of analytics to help creators better understand listener behavior and optimize their content. To ensure accuracy and credibility, Firstory follows the standards set by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and filters out noise to present listening activity as close to reality as possible.

Why filter out noise?

Podcast listening behavior is highly diverse:

  • A listener may bookmark a show first and play it later.

  • During commuting, network switches may result in segmented downloads across multiple IP addresses.

  • Long episodes may be listened to in parts across different days.

Without a unified measurement standard, it would be difficult to reflect true listening behavior. This is why Firstory applies IAB standards to provide consistent and reliable data, especially when creators work with advertisers.

Key Metrics at Firstory

Downloads:

  • Definition: Calculated according to IAB standards, filtering out duplicates and invalid downloads.

  • Calculation: The same IP and device listening to the same episode within 24 hours counts as one download. Plays shorter than 30 seconds are excluded.

  • Update frequency: Every 3 hours.

  • Special handling for Spotify: Spotify data is updated once a day between GMT 0–3 (Taiwan 8–11 AM) with data from two days prior, so it is listed separately.

Filtering rules include:

  • Ignoring non-playback test files

  • Excluding bots or crawlers

  • Excluding cloud server IPs

  • Ignoring sessions shorter than 30 seconds

Why does Spotify data appear separately?

Firstory’s downloads follow IAB standards, but Spotify uses a completely different methodology. Mixing the two would distort the accuracy of download numbers. Therefore, Spotify statistics are shown separately for creators to compare across two dimensions.

Reasons include:

  • To maintain credibility of IAB-compliant data for advertisers

  • Spotify does not use IAB standards and has its own algorithm

  • Spotify updates its data once a day with a 2-day delay

  • Spotify only reflects its own platform and may cache episodes, preventing full reporting to hosting platforms

Spotify’s metrics (per Podnews)

For more detailed insights, creators can log in to Spotify for Creators.

  • Streams: Counted when an episode is listened to for at least 60 seconds. Multiple listening sessions by the same user are counted separately.

  • Plays: Introduced in May 2025. Calculation method not disclosed, intended to capture user intent.

  • Listeners: Based on logged-in accounts. One user remains one listener regardless of repeated plays, unlike IAB’s IP + device + 24-hour method.

Summary

  • Downloads: Firstory calculates using IAB standards as the core metric.

  • Spotify plays: Shown separately to give creators insight into listener behavior specifically on Spotify.

This design balances credibility for advertisers with platform-specific insights, helping creators in both commercial cooperation and content optimization.

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