Getting Older Stats for Your Libsyn.com Hosted Podcast

Gathering first quarter statistics for our Libsyn.com hosted podcast was a little more complicated than expected. Everything I needed was available under the admin panel except the number of downloads per episode for January 2011. After trying quite a few things, it turns out the data is available; I just needed to work for it.

Background

For those hosting through Libsyn.com, you can find out some basic information about your podcast by logging into the Libsyn3 admin panel and clicking the Statistics option near the top (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Statistics Option

Scrolling past the graph, you'll see a breakdown of the podcast episodes and the number of times each was listened to in the most recent three months. So April, March, and February for example.

Data for Earlier Months

If you need data from the earlier months, click the magnifying glass icon next to the episode title (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. Magnifying Glass Icon

You should now see the statistics for the selected podcast episode. From this point, the data shown can be adjusted using the "Custom period" fields below the graph (see Figure 3). To get information for January, change the start date to "2011-01-01" and end date to "2011-01-31".

Note: you can't use dates where there is no data. For example, if the episode was released on Dec. 1, 2010; you won't be able to type "2010-11-01".

Figure 3. Custom Period Fields to Adjust the Stats Shown

When you have everything needed for the selected podcast episode, click the close button near the top of the page (see Figure 4).

Note: if you need information for multiple time frames, you could download the entire dataset for the selected episode by clicking the "Export" button below the graph.

Figure 4. Close Button

Conclusion

As you would guess, getting stats this way can be time consuming. Especially if you have a lot of episodes, but at least there is an option for retrieving older data.