NPR has unveiled a new open source podcast measurement project that aims to bring more transparency and granularity to podcast metrics. The project, dubbed Remote Audio Data (RAD), has been developed in partnership with a number of podcast app developers, ad tech companies as well as tech and media heavyweights including ESPN, Google and iHeartMedia.

At its core, RAD allows podcast publishers to tag individual moments in their podcasts — think ad breaks, mentions of sponsors, individual segments and more. Podcast apps that support RAD will keep track of listeners reaching those moments, and send relevant data back to publishers.

RAD has already been implemented in NPR’s own NPR One Android app, and podcast analytics provider Podtrack is starting to offer support as part of a beta program. In addition, NPR has gotten commitments from Acast, AdsWizz, ART19, Awesound, Blubrry Podcasting, Panoply, Omny Studio, PRI/PRX, RadioPublic, Triton Digital, WideOrbit and Whooshkaa to implement support for RAD.

The development of the standard was supported by Cadence13, Edison Research, ESPN, Google, iHeartMedia, Libsyn, The New York Times, New York Public Radio, Voxnest and Wondery. Notably absent from the list is Apple, which has long been one of the biggest players in the podcasting space.

Source: Variety Media