AMP Task Force Emerges to Confront Podcasting’s Measurement Dilemma A group of podcasting’s top leaders unite to a develop the industry’s first cross-platform measurement guidelines to address gaps created by the rise of video podcasting.
AMP
It’s not a question of IF but WHEN, because almost all industries reassess their measurement tools. Take for example, major league baseball. For over a century, the primary indices of hitting included batting average, runs batted in, and runs scored. Data nerds upended those indices and implemented such measurement devices as OPS, used to measure a hitter’s overall offensive production by adding their On-Base Percentage (OBP) and Slugging Percentage (SLG) together. In fielding, Outs Above Average (OAA), which replaces errors as the key stat, uses Statcast radar technology to track exactly where the ball is hit, how fast it’s traveling, and how much time the fielder has to make the play. It assigns a catch probability to every play and gives players positive credit for making difficult grabs and negative credit for missing routine ones.
Podcasting is about 130 years younger than major league baseball, but it is sorely in need of a measurement overhaul.
According to Podsy, the most-cited metric in podcasting tells you almost nothing about a podcast. Downloads measure the moment a file was requested. They do not measure whether anyone listened, whether anyone stayed, whether anyone acted, or whether anyone became something to the podcaster other than an anonymous number in a dashboard. For media-scale shows, downloads have a use. They can be sold to advertisers. They prove a thing existed and was distributed. They are a currency in a system built around ad rates.
According to Kevin Redmond of Podsy, "For the vast majority of podcasters, that system does not apply. The show is not the product. It is part of how the podcaster earns a living, builds authority, finds clients, or sells something specific. And the question that actually matters to them is not how many people downloaded the file. It is what those people did next.
According to a Podsy White Paper, downloads tell you who listened. Most of them did nothing visible. The host has no way to see it. They publish, they get a download count, they get the occasional kind word in a reply or a DM, and they have to make peace with the gap between the effort they put in and the evidence that anything came back.
podsy
Kevin Redmond continues: "Most of the listening industry pretends that the act of listening is the end of the relationship. It is not. It is the start of one. After a listener hears an episode that resonates with them, they go quiet."
Redmond says that the podcast consumer takes an action the host cannot see. The relationship is broadcast in one direction only. The metrics confirm reach. They cannot confirm resonance.
Right now, The Alliance for Measurement in Podcasting (AMP), a task force comprising major industry leaders across platforms, advertisers, publishers and creators, all dedicated to future-proofing podcasting amid growing measurement challenges, has developed solutions for these measurement issues.
Oxford Road CEO Dan Granger observes: “Podcasting is at a crossroads. The rapid rise of video podcasting has created industrywide confusion, driven by both a lack of standardized metrics and disagreement about where podcasts end and social videos (as well as other forms of video) begin. Research also suggests that, despite video podcasts’ popularity, their ads perform unevenly when compared to their audio-only counterparts, fueling even greater uncertainty. The result is a loss of brand advertiser confidence, costing the market a reported $1 billion in advertising spend.”
The objective of the Alliance for Measurement in Podcasting (AMP), a task force
dedicated to future-proofing podcasting amid a growing measurement crisis, is to give advertisers and publishers a single consumption-based currency that lets them compare audio and video podcast inventory on common terms for the first time, while preserving the download as a delivery signal where it remains useful.
According to AMP, “the download is the currency podcasting was built on. From the medium’s beginning, it has been the unit by which shows are ranked, ad inventory is sold, and value is assigned. But as new podcasting platforms arose and the medium expanded to video, the gap between how each major platform measured impressions grew. Apple counts downloads. Spotify counts streams. YouTube counts views. None of those definitions describes the same human behavior, and none allows a chief marketing officer to compare audio and video podcast inventory on the same line of a media plan. That structural mismatch has eroded advertiser trust and spending, holding the medium back from its next phase of brand investment.”
To address this, the AMP Task Force ratified a new framework with four exposure definitions, with no dissenting votes, bringing cross-platform consumption-based standards to podcasting for the first time:
● Podcast Play: 30 seconds of content played, audio or video, once per user per session.
● Podcast Audience: The number of unique users who had a Podcast Play.
● Ad Impression: A commercial begins playing for the user.
● Ad Audience: The number of users exposed to an Ad Impression.
The AMP points out that, “Not only is this new standard consumption-based rather than delivery-based, it works the same way across audio and video, is applicable to listening or viewing on all platforms, and is enhanced by growing adoption of HLS standards. It also functions as a supplementary layer of measurement rather than a sudden currency replacement, allowing cross-platform comparison without forcing any single platform to abandon their existing systems.”
Beyond these exposure definitions, AMP seeks to develop a universal definition of a podcast, which impacts industry sizing, buying and selling processes, and measurement, as well as a comprehensive cross-platform attribution proposal. The task force will reveal its full guidance along with an implementation guide at Oxford Road and CAO Summit on July 23, 2026, at the Terranea Resort in Rancho
Palos Verdes, California.
AMP comprises major industry leaders across platforms, advertisers, publishers and creators. This includes individuals from leading platforms where the vast majority of audio and video podcast content is consumed, hosting and monetization companies, top advertisers, leading talent, and independent
measurement providers.
Select AMP members include:
● Oxford Road, CEO, Dan Granger and EVP of Strategy, Giles Martin
● Spotify, Head of Podcast Agency & Show Specialist Sales, Anna Hartman and Head of Content
Partnerships, Jordan Newman
● BetterHelp, Senior Director of Growth Marketing, Brittany Clevenger
● DraftKings, Senior Manager, Growth Marketing, Mike Janigian
● United Talent Agency, Creators Agent, Rebecca Steinberg and Partner; Co-Head, UTA
Creators, Oren Rosenbaum
● Libsyn, Executive Vice President of Sales, Anthony Savelli
● Podscribe, CEO & Founder, Pete Birsinger
“For years, the buy side and the sell side have argued about whether a ‘download’ equals a ‘listen,’ and how YouTube ‘views’ should be counted alongside podcast downloads. The AMP exposure framework finally gives the industry the answer it has needed: a single, consumption-based metric that can work across Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and everywhere else,” says Pete Birsinger, CEO and Founder of Podscribe.
“The time has come to harmonize the way we calculate and price audience exposure, no matter where someone played a podcast. This removes a major bottleneck that has undermined trust and clarity, and held back the growth of audiences and advertising dollars. Moving beyond the download as a measure of listening has been a long time coming, and gives the industry fresh momentum it's needed for the better part of a decade,” says Dan Granger, CEO of Oxford Road.
according to Science Direct, Industrywide measurement is critical because it establishes a universal language for quality, compliance, and performance. By setting shared benchmarks, entire sectors can minimize waste, ensure consumer safety, and eliminate ambiguity.
AMP accords
Cameron Stack, Podcast Awards Analyst at Recognized.fm, concurs with the task force about measurement: “Downloads are a useful distribution metric, but a poor standalone measure of podcast success because they don’t tell you whether anyone actually listened, how long they stayed, or whether the episode changed anything for the audience. A download is a file transfer, not a signal of attention, retention, or impact. If you want to measure performance, look at listener retention, average consumption, and completion rate, available on platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts, which show where people drop off and whether the content holds attention. A smaller, highly engaged audience can be far more valuable than a larger passive one. So the issue isn't that downloads are meaningless; it's that they're incomplete. They're the starting point, not the scorecard.”
For more information, visit: ampaccords.com
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