Spotify Revamps Podcast Chart Calculations, Adds New Episodic Rankings, Web Accessibility

Spotify has announced a slight revamp to the way in which it tabulates its podcast charts, which it first launched last July as a way to chronicle the top audio series on its platform as well as to serve as a key discovery tool for listeners — harnessing a format first popularized by Apple Podcasts.

In a blog post, Spotfy said it is introducing both new and more detailed charts for the 2.2 million podcasts that currently live on its platform, as well as a web experience for browsers the U.S. Previously, podcast charts could only be accessed via the Spotify mobile app, and the company says it is looking to bring desktop charts to more markets soon.

Last July, Spotify launched two charts in 26 markets: ‘Trending Podcasts‘, to track the 50 fastest-growing shows in each market, and ‘Top Podcasts‘, which it said would list the 200 most popular shows based on “recent listener numbers.”

Top Podcasts will continue to serve as a flagship chart of sorts, though now Spotify says it will take into account both overall follower counts — a new metric — and recent unique listeners. Also new is a ‘Top Episodes’ chart, which Spotify notes will speak to of-the-moment trends, exclusively determined by unique listeners on a daily basis.

Spotify will continue to offer its Trending chart, which it says serves to reward emerging creators, as well as charts that are divided into different content categories (such as arts, business, comedy, education) and countries.