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Chris Evans Podcast Tops The ITunes Chart

1:33p.m., Thu 14 Jan 2010

Podcasts are a weird thing aren't they. The podcast charts on iTunes are even weirder.

Case in point: BBC Radio 2's Chris Evans managed to top the iTunes charts with a podcast channel that comprised a single episode that lasted only 8 seconds and didn't actually feature the man himself.

After reaching the Number 1 slot, the podcast promptly disappeared from iTunes and the iTunes chart (although it's still available via RSS from the Radio 2 site.)

Date 8th 9th 10th 11th
Chart Position 30 16 4 1

Graph of iTunes Chart performance of Chris Evans Breakfast Show Podcast

The show itself launched on 11th January amid a blaze of publicity and media interest. Presumably the accompanying website received a spike of traffic, and the podcast, in turn received a spike of subscriptions. Given that the first episode is only 160Kb in size and 8seconds long it's not inconceivable that those new subscribers downloaded and listened to the rather uninteresting announcement contained within. It still feels like the chart has been hijacked though, doesn't it? It does show, however, the power of traditional marketing (i.e. radio and TV) has in promoting online content.

The first episode proper is due on Friday 15th, by which time it will have re-appeared in Tunes presumably. It'll be interesting to chart its progress.

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