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Submitted by ragan on Mon, 2005-08-08 03:18.

iTunes Podcast Ranking System Easily Manipulated
If you have been using the iTunes podcast list as a way of ranking which podcast are the most popular then you have been misled. While prepping a segment for commandN (Amber Mac's and my own Vidcast) I had to click on the subscribe button of our podcast a number of times. I noticed that shortly after I had done so our rank on the iTunes Canada music store had gone up.

That got me thinking. I had Frank from Techphile.ca test out my theory. Sure enough he reported the same results. Amber and I also subscribed a number of times, which quickly moved commandN up in the ranks on the iTunes Canada store.

It looks like iTunes doesn't record how many people are actually subscribed to a podcast but rather how many times the button is pressed.

This makes the iTunes ranking as irrelevant as a list because just about anyone can change the results in iTunes by simply clicking on the subscribe button 20 or 50 or 100 times.

This was tested in the iTunes Canada store but conceivably should work in all of the iTunes stores

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well i think it may suck,

Submitted by tuffguysf on Tue, 2005-08-09 16:05.

well i think it may suck, but even if those "sub-par" podcasts move up in the iTunes charts, listeners won't stick around for more than one show. you guys (fox and feast) both have quality content that will always win out in the end. i understand the validation we all feel in "seeing our name in lights" but honestly, if you are doing what you are doing and keeping it real, people notice that and stay tuned.

I tried this and it didnt work for me...

Submitted by Fausto on Mon, 2005-08-08 14:05.

Is there something I'm missing?

I played around with it, and

Submitted by ragan on Mon, 2005-08-08 16:46.

I played around with it, and it does, in fact, work. Just another reason why iTunes is a fucking joke. God, now it's going to be a contest to see what sub-par casts can spend the most time clicking "subscribe." The sad thing is that you can't really blame people for playing the game to get exposure. I wish they would just get a system that allows actual total number of iTunes subscribers determine where people are ranked.