Sponsored by SpotsNow. SpotsNow is the AI operating system for podcast advertising. Join the webinar to learn how podcast networks can use AI to maximize their sales output using Claude, agents and ChatGPT. Book the free webinar now Spotify has adopted the Alliance for Podcast Measurement definition of a "play" in their metrics, announced yesterday as part of a wider set of new data and charts within the Creators dashboard. Spotify first introduced a "play" in May 2025, but didn't explain how they were calculated; as of today, a "play" is now defined by Spotify as 30 seconds of content played once per user per session (audio or video). Spotify claim their data "helped inform" AMP's definition; the technical details of that have yet to be published. The IAB, which is not involved in AMP, has no definition of a play in its Podcast Measurement Guidelines, under which many podcast hosting companies certify their data. Its technical document defines a valid download as something where "enough of the podcast content to play for 1 minute should have been downloaded", one per user per 24 hours; that's twice as long as AMP's 30 second figure. (A play is not a download; a download may never be played.) Apple Podcasts, which is not involved in AMP, defines a play in Apple Podcasts Connect as "the number of plays on unique devices where the play duration is greater than 0 seconds" - and isn't limited to one per user. In practice, a "play" appears to measure every touch of the play button (even, one suspects, after pauses for turn-by-turn instructions while driving). As one example, in May, the Podnews Weekly Review podcast saw 2,093 downloads to Apple Podcasts, but 3,200 "plays". However YouTube, which is not involved in AMP (UPDATE: we have since confirmed that they are taking part), highlights "views" across its website, but does not publicly define what a view is. It's generally believed, however, that a "view" means a minimum of 30 seconds played (for videos longer than that). In our view, if both YouTube and Spotify both now agree on a "30 seconds" metric - then, because that's where the majority of podcasts are consumed, that's a de-facto standard anyway. But, for the benefit of the industry, will everyone else agree? When US radio switched from a 5 minute to 3 minute threshold last year, that added another 23% to the numbers. We're doing some data work to discover what it might mean for podcasting, too. Stampede Social has unveiled a set of new tools for podcasters who use Instagram. You can set the tool to instantly send your latest episode - complete with episode artwork