New Rules At Apple Podcasts Connect - The Podcast Report Episode #161

There's new rules over at Apple about using their podcast analytics service. This is really key for podcasters. We're going to chat about this on this quick episode of The Podcast Report episode 161 show notes, links, conversation and more at the podcastreport.com 161. A number of us logged into our Podcast Connect analytics at Apple today and saw a really, you know, it's a standard thing we see in the industry where someone comes through and says, oh, you know, new terms and conditions, make sure you agree. But if you read deep into these, they said something very interesting. They said, for clarity, you must not aggregate or permit any third party to aggregate analytics information provided by you by Apple as part of the content analytics server with other content providers analytics information or contribute such information to a repository for cross content provider analytics. Okay, what in the heck does this mean? Here's the deal. There are services out there that volunteer the opportunity. Volunteer maybe is not the right term. There are services out there that allow you to give them your Apple login and password so they can aggregate your information about your show from Apple. I mean, Podcast Connect has some great data. In a future episode of the Podcast Report this season, we'll go deep into what that is and what that means. Well, some of these third party aggregators have offered the opportunity for you to give them your login and password and then they can take your information from Apple, compare it to, and they ask you for information from your host and they look at information available on the charts and they look at information available public, and they begin to build a bigger picture of your podcasting in the grander scheme of things, which is actually a really cool idea and really awesome. But at this time, it's just not ready for prime time. And there are two issues at play here. One, giving your login and password to an unqualified, unproven, un. Whatever host is probably a really bad idea. Number two, Apple has told you now that it is a really bad idea. So if you take that combination of those two things, I would shy away from it. What about the stats, Paul? Yeah, the stats they give you are fantastic. But, you know, is it worth it? Now, I used one of these systems and I'm not going to call it out by name because I understand their excitement. And you know, really there are official systems and there are unofficial systems and this falls into the unofficial system category. They don't have permission. Apple has made it very clear that they don't want you to use it, so therefore don't do it. Do you want to keep your own spreadsheet that tracks everything? That's great. If you want to do your own comparisons, that's great. But don't make Apple angry. That's a strategic reality. That's also a logistical reality. Because if they do decide that you're hacking the system, they could shut down your account, they could shut down access to your stats, they could shut down your podcast, they could shut down anything they wanted to. And that is a really bad idea. So this morning, Apple says, stop doing it. And if you went further, you agreed to stop doing it. And if you do it after agreeing to stop doing it, you are now in violation of the terms and conditions, and Apple can do whatever it is that they want with you. This is really, really key. So, Paul, how do I track these things? Am I supposed to go in and do all these things by hand? Well, there's a big picture issue at play here, and there's a smaller issue at play here. How do you do it automatically at this point? You don't do it automatically, period. There is no tool out there at the date of this recording. This is early February 2019. There is no tool that will let you collect all this stuff automatically and aggregated, and therefore. And don't pretend that you necessarily can. But, Paul, I want to follow my stats, I want to follow these things. What do I do? Well, I've been chatting about following your stats for a long time. I've been chatting about looking at your numbers for a long time. Right now, it's going to have to be a personal issue, a personal process, your own spreadsheet, that kind of thing. Now, if we go deeper into this, we have to look at a couple of realities that are really important. Number one, Apple has an API that a lot of people have been pulling from. This is where some of your podcast aggregator apps gets their data from. This is where some of your podcast tools gets their information from. And they've been getting this from Apple without any sort of slap on the hand for doing that. And, well, if it starts here, what's going to happen next? For Apple, I'd be really, really careful about those tools and services. But on a larger level, I would be really, really careful about businesses built on getting free data from The Apple API APIs have always been valuable. The data that the large guys collect is huge. It is the data from Facebook that is getting them into all this trouble. It's the data from Google that lets them be who they are. And it's the data from Apple that they've been pretty liberal with and that they've been pretty loose with. It looks like they're tightening the reins a little bit. And I think this is really important for any of us using tools and systems that make use of this. This is going to include review aggregators. This is going to include stats aggregators. This is going to include directories that pull content off of the main Apple site. All of these are suspect. And all of these you're really going to want to be careful about. Is there anything that you need to do differently as a result of this information? Is there anything that you want to change in your daily process? Well, number one, if you have signed up to any system that logs into your itunes account, stop it right now. Stop it right now. If you don't know if you've done this before and this happens, you know, you forget who did I get passwords to just change your Apple password. Not that complicated. The other guys will try to log in. They won't be able to log in, and then you won't get yourself in trouble. So that's an easy fix. Number two, take a look at what you're doing and see if anything right now is causing you problems. See if anything you're doing right now is causing you to be in a situation where, you know, maybe this could be a thing and decide, you know, if it's worth it or not. But part three, I think more important is think strategically. Realize strategically, start to comprehend strategically that we're seeing some real consolidation. This Spotify Gimlet anchor thing. Real consolidation. Apple protecting their data, real consolidation. There's going to be more announcements this week that you're going to be hearing about. I probably won't break them, but you'll be hearing about them if you're paying any attention to the podcasting space. Real consolidation. And they will leave things in their wake. The best thing to do, the best thing always to do is play by the rules of the people. You know, there's a boss at the playground, and Apple's the biggest playground, and you right now are playing in Apple's playground. So don't upset the boss of the playground and you'll be at a pretty simple space. One thing you can do is stay subscribed to the podcast report. Thepodcastreport.com Apple, Google, Spotify, Pandora, wherever you get your podcasts, as things happen, I will do my best to keep you informed. If this is life or death for you, you might really want to consider working with some sort of consultant or some sort of person who manages this and runs this, because if something changes, things are going to happen. Things are going to happen quickly. We didn't chat about this on this show, but there was that time where Apple was shutting down podcasts left and right for domain star name stuffing, keyword stuffing, that type of thing. We're going to see more and more of this this year. 2019 is going to bring us a great deal of new demands, new requirements, new implications, new punishments, and if you're not on top of it. And again, I'll do what I can here, but it's always better if you pay someone, you know what I'm saying? And go from there. Be strategic, be Smart. Change your iTunes password if you need to. And we will catch more on a future episode of the podcast report. Thank you so much for listening. Chat with you soon. Bye.