🎧 What Is Podcast Listener Retention — And Why Don’t You See It on ZenCast?
You might have come across the term “listener retention” when reading about podcast analytics. It’s an interesting stat that tells you how long people actually stick around while listening to your episodes, ie how many minutes or seconds they actually play your episode for after downloading it.
This statistic isn't included in your ZenCast analytics - but why not? Let’s break it down...
🧠What Is Listener Retention?
Listener retention tells you things like:
- Where people stop listening in your episode.
- If listeners drop off after the intro or stay until the end.
- Which parts of your content keep people engaged (or where you lose them).
It’s great for fine-tuning your podcast content and structure.
BUT it’s also very specific data that only the playback apps (like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc.) have access to.
🚫 Why ZenCast Doesn’t Have Listener Retention
At ZenCast, we help you host and distribute your podcast episodes. That means we provide a central storage location for your podcast files, and send these files to apps like:
- Spotify
- Apple Podcasts
- Overcast
- YouTube
- Pocket Casts
- And many others
After the file is sent to a podcast app, we can't see how many times or for how long the file is played. Here’s what we can often see at ZenCast:
- When someone downloads your episode
- What country they’re in
- Potentially what app they used and what device they were on
- Potentially what browser was and OS was used
But we don’t see if or when they actually press play — or how long they listen for. That part happens inside the playback app, and they don’t share that data with us.
🎯 How Can I See Listener Retention?
If you’re interested in seeing how long your audience listens to your podcast, the best way to check for this data is directly with the playback apps.:
For example, Spotify for Creators offers retention charts and engagement data for Spotify listeners, and Apple Podcasts Connect also shows listener retention if your podcast is available on Apple Podcasts.
You just need to claim your show on those and other platforms (it’s normally free), and they’ll show you the listener behavior for your podcast on their own app.
âś… Summary
So, ZenCast doesn’t show listener retention because we simply don’t have access to play or pause data, only the apps where people listen to your podcast can track that kind of behavior.
You can find your podcast listener retention info and more by logging into platforms like Spotify for Podcasters and Apple Podcasts Connect etc.
If you need any help with this or have other questions, feel free to get in touch with our support channels directly and we'll be happy to help!