Setting up the tracking prefix

To track your episode downloads, we use a so-called tracking prefix. The tracking prefix is simply put in front of your audio file link (enclosure URL) in your RSS feed. This way, any request to the original file is first sent to our tracking endpoint, which then redirects the podcast app to the real audio file.

Table of contents

Where can I find my tracking prefix?

You can find a short, step-by-step guide here.

How to set up the tracking prefix

Select your hosting provider from the list below:

If you're already using a prefix like Podtrac or Chartable, please see the instructions at the bottom of the page.

Detailed Instructions

Audioboom

Castos

  • Follow the directions on this Castos support page
  • When the instructions mention your unique Voxalyze media file prefix, paste your Voxalyze tracking prefix

Captivate

  • Follow the direction on the Captivate support page
  • When the instructions mention your "URL Prefix" or "Prefix URL", paste your Voxalyze tracking prefix

Fireside

  • From your Fireside Podcast’s Dashboard:
  • Settings > Advanced
  • Go to the Third-Party Tracking Prefix section
  • Enter the full Voxalyze prefix into the field.
  • Click Update at the bottom of the page to save your changes

Omny Studio

  • Follow the directions on this Omny support page.
  • When the instructions mention your "URL Prefix" or "Prefix URL", paste your Voxalyze tracking prefix.

Megaphone

  • To get started, you will need to have customizable prefixes enabled for your organization. If you do not have that option in the "Podcast Settings" page, please contact Megaphone via Live Chat to enable this feature.
  • Please follow Megaphone's instructions for custom prefixes here.
  • Click the box to “Enable custom prefix for your feed URLs”, then enter the Voxalyze prefix in "Prefix":

Simplecast (2.0)

  • Follow the directions on this Simplecast support page.
  • When the instructions mention your "Analytics Prefix" or "Prefix URL", paste your Voxalyze tracking prefix.

SoundCloud

  • Log into SoundCloud
  • Click on settings, found under the three dots next to mail
  • In the Content tab, add your Voxalyze URL prefix to “Stats-service URL prefix field”:
  • Please ensure you use the HTTPS URL provided—not HTTP—if your episodes are served via HTTPS.
  • Choose a category in the dropdown menu
  • Save changes and you’re done!

Spreaker

Squarespace

Self-hosted

If you independently host your podcast, add the Voxalyze prefix to each enclosure URL tag in the RSS feed.

Please ensure that you use the HTTPS URL provided—not HTTP—if your episodes are served via HTTPS.

Sample enclosure tag without Voxalyze prefix:

<enclosure url="https://myhost.com/me/episode.mp3" length="123456" type="audio/mpeg" />

Sample enclosure tag with Voxalyze prefix:

<enclosure url="https://a.pdcst.to/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/myhost.com/me/episode.mp3" length="123456" type="audio/mpeg" />

WordPress

WordPress doesn't support Voxalyze out of the box. You may be able to install a plugin, like Seriously Simple Podcasting, that allows you to integrate Voxalyze (and would give you better podcasting tools as well)

Other hosting providers

If the link in the table of content took you here, then your hosting provider currently doesn't support Voxalyze tracking prefixes natively. Don't worry, you can reach out to their support team so they implement it manually for you. For your convenience, we have prepared an email template. Don't forget to replace the tracking id placeholder with your own.

Hi,

I started working with Voxalyze to measure my downloads and other information. I would like to add this URL prefix to all my enclosure tags:

https://a.pdcst.to/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

(where xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx represents your own 16-character Voxalyze tracking id)

The URL provided above is an audience analytics prefix.

Please treat it as you would a Podtrac prefix, so that enclosure URLs look like:

https://a.pdcst.to/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/podcasthosting.com/show/episode.mp3

Important: Please ensure that the / (forward slash sign) between the Voxalyze prefix and the audio file address is properly inserted. Failure to do so will result in the inability of podcast apps to play my episodes.

Thank you!

How to test the analytics prefix

After setting up the analytics prefix, testing it and ensuring everything works properly is important. If a failure occurs during the implementation, episodes may not play.

  1. In your hosting provider, navigate to your episodes. 
  2. Select any episode. 
  3. Click on the download/MP3 download option. 
  4. Check to see if the episode plays properly.

Got a question? Need help integrating your prefix? Feel free to contact us via the help window in the lower-right corner or email us.

Unsupported hosting services

Unfortunately, not all hosting providers embrace the idea of an open podcasting ecosystem. At this time, the following hosting services are known to be incompatible with the Voxalyze analytics prefix:

  • Spotify for Podcasters (formerly Anchor)
  • Acast
  • Libsyn
  • Podigee
  • Red Circle

FAQs

What if I'm already using another tracking prefix?

You can use the Voxalyze prefix either before or after an existing prefix. We recommend testing the combined prefix in your browser before changing your RSS feed.For example, here's one way to use Voxalyze with Podtrac:

https://a.pdcst.to/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/feeds.myhost.com/my.mp3

Please note, we only support HTTPS for all redirects.

Is this slowing down the loading of my audio file?

Going through our tracking endpoint means the podcast app must send an additional request before reaching your audio file. Therefore an additional latency is to be expected. However, since we run our tracking endpoint on one of the largest globally distributed edge computing providers, the typical latency is less than 150ms and, therefore, not noticeable to the user.

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