Podcasting Stats Bridge to the Future..LIKE TIVO?? sorta...

[Barefoot Radio.com]

I've often heard podcasting referred to as a "tivo" like service.

If this were entirely true, there would be some way to implement stats for publishers so that we know EXACTLY how many people listened to or

how many people downloaded and actually listened to the file?
how many played it more than once?
when did they pause? IF so, when?
did they listen at all?

I'm throwing this out to programmers and open source guys, IS there a way to implement such functionality with sound files? I know different types of sound files have different functions(bookmarking tagging etc.). Is there a type that could have something built into it to return stats to a database or stand alone program that connects to the internet?

Is anyone aware of any open source forum or something where others might be tossing this idea around?

[Craig]

I'm throwing this out to programmers and open source guys, IS there a way to implement such functionality with sound files? I know different types of sound files have different functions(bookmarking tagging etc.). Is there a type that could have something built into it to return stats to a database or stand alone program that connects to the internet?
The player application would have to handle this. It's unlikely, however, that you're a) going to get every possible podcast player app to implement something like this and b) get every listener to overcome their privacy issues and agree to send your their stats. Hence you'll end up with incomplete data that will be pretty much worthless.

Craig (Programmer)

[spaz]

I seriously doubt you'd get many people to give their stats, I know I wouldn't. You could run a poll to get an idea of how many people who listen to your podcast would be interested in giving you stats.

[thefly]

There is a project out there that's similar. it's audioscrobbler.

http://www.audioscrobbler.com

it can even get stats from an iPod if you set up a smart playlist on the iPod. someone may want to clue them in on Podcasting and see if their software can be altered to get extended stats on the genre "podcasting".

Of course we would all have to agree on the genre tag so they could quantify us as a group. that's one of my main gripes with 'podcasting', rarely anyone uses their tags cleanly or in a standard format.