AMP Task Force To Confront Podcasting’s Measurement Dilemma

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.

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, is searching for 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.”

In response, Oxford Road – the world’s largest podcast advertising agency – quietly convened AMP in July 2025, assembling a brain trust of 12 voting member parties to address an urgent need for radical change. This included individuals from leading platforms where the vast majority of audio and video 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
● FlightStory, CRO & Co-Founder, Christiana Brenton in collaboration with Director of Business Intelligence, Austin Goh
● Libsyn, Executive Vice President of Sales, Anthony Savelli
● SiriusXM Media, Director, Performance Partnerships, Joe Macarak
● Podscribe, CEO & Founder, Pete Birsinger

Since then, the task force has been diligently working behind the scenes toward the ambitious goal of defining and implementing cross-platform measurement guidance to assist the continued growth of the podcasting market.
AMP key focus areas:

● Standardizing impression metrics – defining units that all major platforms can map to Developing cross-platform performance measurement – creating a consistent attribution method acceptable to both open RSS and closed platforms

● Agreeing on a universal classification that informs industry sizing,
buying/selling processes, and measurement

AMP is also developing a comprehensive measurement and attribution proposal as well as an implementation guide, with plans to introduce the framework at Oxford Road’s upcoming CAO Summit on July 22nd-23rd at the Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA.

“The podcast marketplace trades on artificial CPMs because exposure metrics change between platforms. Advertisers run multiple attribution systems because media players align on how to measure ad response. We can’t even agree on a shared definition of a podcast. A billion dollars of demand is sitting on the sidelines because of it, and every month we wait is a month the medium loses ground that it doesn’t have to lose. AMP exists because twelve operators agreed to stop waiting,” says Dan Granger, CEO of Oxford Road.

Oxford Road is the world’s largest podcast advertising agency, specializing in audio advertising across podcasting, streaming audio, terrestrial radio, and creator-based video. Following its 2024 merger with Veritone One, the agency serves Fortune 500 companies, global publicly held enterprises, B2B brands, and direct-to-consumer businesses. Oxford Road has processed more podcast advertising performance data than any other firm and developed ORBIT, the industry’s leading creator performance benchmarking tool.

The Alliance for Measurement in Podcasting (AMP) is an independent industry coalition convened in July 2025 to develop voluntary, cross-platform measurement standards for podcasting. Twelve voting members representing platforms, advertisers, publishers, creators, and measurement providers advance recommendations on three questions: the definition of a podcast, the measurement of exposure across audio and video, and the attribution of advertising effectiveness.

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