An industry that spent twenty years unable to say what it actually sells now has a definition. A podcast is on-demand content that is fully understandable through listening alone, regardless of how it reaches the audience. The Alliance for Measurement in Podcasting (AMP) introduced it on 23 July at a summit in California, as part of the AMP Accords framework. Voting members approved it unanimously. The test fits into one sentence: “If it works with your eyes closed, it’s a podcast.”
A listen counts after 30 continuous seconds
The Accords give final wording to four metrics that the alliance agreed on in early July. A play counts after 30 continuous seconds, for both audio and video. The audience is unique users with at least one play. An ad impression occurs as soon as the spot actually starts, and ad exposure counts the unique users it reached. Campaign effectiveness is to be verified using randomised control groups. Part of the audience does not hear the ad, and the difference in behaviour between the two groups is measured. This is the same method that Meta, Google or Amazon use to measure the effect of their advertising.
Downloads stay, but get another layer
The framework does not abolish the IAB downloads that the industry has relied on so far. Those figures clean server logs of bots and duplicates and show that a file reached the app. However, they overstate listening, because apps also download episodes in the background. The Accords define a layer of actual consumption above this delivery layer, and AMP has also handed the document to the IAB for technical review. Publishers do not have to change what they measure, but what they are allowed to claim from those numbers does change.
Advertisers have signed up too
The alliance was founded in July 2025 by Oxford Road, the largest US agency for buying podcast advertising. Voting members include Spotify, SiriusXM Media, United Talent Agency, Libsyn and measurement firm Podscribe. On the advertiser side are Shopify, BetterHelp and DraftKings. According to Oxford Road, the lack of comparable numbers keeps around $1 billion a year away from podcast advertising in the US alone. “We set out to build something the whole industry could actually use, knowing not everyone would love every part of it,” said agency head Dan Granger.
Adoption is under way, enforcement does not exist
Spotify has counted plays after 30 seconds since June. Platforms with a share of plays above 1% are to implement the definitions by the end of 2026, but no sanctions apply if they fail to do so. Apple is absent from the alliance, and closed platforms including YouTube would, according to Adopter Media’s analysis, only fully join once new data export interfaces are available. The only pressure the framework has is the money of advertisers. Those who report uniform numbers will find it easier to win that money.
A video podcast counts if it survives with the screen off
For European creators and brands, the definition settles a dispute that has so far divided budgets: whether a YouTube show belongs in podcast figures. The answer is yes, if it makes sense without the picture. A conversation that works as audio is counted like an episode in a podcast app. A clip that does not work without the picture does not belong in podcast figures. Spotify is bringing the 30-second play count automatically to the Czech market as well, and local measurement bodies can take over the finished definitions rather than negotiating their own.
The definition came too late to prevent twenty years of incomparable numbers, but in time to align audio and video before budgets flow there in full. The Accords carry no sanctions, but they make the case that uniform numbers will attract money that has stayed away because of the chaos in measurement.
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