iTunes Mysterious Ranking
We keep a close eye on Storynory’s ranking in iTunes podcast directory, but the way the chart works remains a bit mysterious.
After a good Christmas topping the Kids and Family chart, Storynory dropped down to about number 5, and yet our downloads and subscribers seem to be stronger than ever. We are scratching our heads and puzzling over this one.
Just before Christmas, none other than Adam Curry himself told me he had it on good word from Apple, that iTunes goes by the number of new subscribers. So you get a kind of accelerated growth. New people join your podcast, you go up the charts, and more pile in as it becomes more visible. It seems an odd way of doing it, but I can see that it is designed to make the chart as dynamic as possible.
This is my best theory about what’s happening now. Lots of people, especially kids, have got iPods for Christmas. They are exploring iTunes and finding new podcasts. Naturally they go for the names they know - like Disney and Cartoon Network. So these are the ones getting the most new subscribers. What’s happened in the past, is that they soon get bored with those, and move on to the what we see as the higher quality offering at Storynory… well that’s what I hope will happen this time, anyway.
If I’m right, the good news is that there are more podcast subscribers out there. All I can say to Apple is “good luck” because the more iPods they push, the more podcast listeners there are.
