How we count engagement metrics

Spotify offers a comprehensive list of metrics to better understand how your audience engages with your content, both on and off Spotify.

Definitions of the currently available engagement metrics and where to find them in Spotify for Creators are below.

To find your monetization metrics, check out your Spotify Partner Program monetization analytics and Subscriptions analytics.

• Impressions

• Plays

• Consumption Hours

• Consumption Hours per person

• Streams

• Streams & Downloads (All-Platform)

• Followers

Note: In May 2025, we streamlined the analytics experience and removed the “starts” metric. Plays and impression data provide a more accurate representation of your reach and overall performance on Spotify.

For shows hosted with Spotify for Creators

Go to the Analytics page to see all your plays on Spotify, as well as your streams and downloads across all platforms. Go to the Episodes page and select an episode to see that episode’s plays on Spotify, as well as your streams and downloads per episode across all platforms.

For shows hosted somewhere else

Go to Analytics to see all your plays, or Episodes to see each episode’s stats. To review your downloads, head to your hosting provider dashboard.

FAQs

Can I opt out of plays being shown on the Spotify app?
Plays will now be shown as milestone markers in the coming weeks - you will not be able to disable this feature when it rolls out. Spotify users benefit from the ability to see episode play counts consistently across the experience as a data point that helps in deciding which episode to watch or listen to.

What is the difference between impressions and plays?
Impressions reflect any time someone sees your content. This is a good way to think about your total “reach” on Spotify. Plays reflect the number of times Spotify users have actively watched or listened to your content, so this is the best way to measure your audience on each episode. We determine this number by looking at multiple proprietary signals across our platform to capture intent.

What is the difference between plays and streams?
Streams is a time-based metric that counts engagement after 60 seconds, and is an important standard in the podcast industry that enables you to compare your activity on Spotify to the 60 second “download” metric on other podcast platforms (who are only able to measure high level downloads of your file). We are able to give you more insight about impressions, plays, and other Spotify-first metrics, because Spotify delivers content over streaming. Plays takes into consideration proprietary signals that suggest user intent and reflect the number of times Spotify users have actively watched or listened.

What makes plays different from historical “starts”?
Plays and starts are distinct metrics - while starts is purely a time-based metric, plays are determined by looking at multiple proprietary signals across our platform to capture active engagement. For some shows, these two metrics will look the same or similar for now, but they will diverge more over time as the Spotify experience continues to evolve.

Are there any metrics that reflect unique user engagement?
You can look at the Discovery funnel to understand how unique users convert from impression to consumption across the Spotify app.

Should my plays number match the all platform (streams & downloads) number?
No. Both Spotify streams and off-platform downloads are only counted after 60 seconds of engagement (for consistency across platforms) whereas plays are counted when a Spotify user actively watches or listens to your episode on Spotify. Due to the differences in definition, these metrics are not comparable.

Why did my play counts change on May 7?
Since May 7, plays are now defined as the total number of times Spotify users have actively watched or listened to your episode on Spotify. You can view your total consumption across all platforms with the Streams & downloads chart in the Analytics Overview page.