White Bastion verifies podcast download numbers independently of the hosting platform.

A measurement prefix — a short URL placed in front of the audio files in an RSS feed — passes each download request through White Bastion before handing it to the host. From those requests White Bastion counts downloads to the IAB Podcast Measurement Technical Guidelines v2.3, separates automated and invalid traffic from real listening, and produces a per-show audit report.

In short

• It is a redirect. Each request passes through and is handed to the host in milliseconds.
• Audio files stay where they are. The feed is unchanged apart from the prefix itself.
• The hosting platform's own statistics keep working exactly as before.
• Removing it is one edit, and measurement stops that day.

These pages

• How it works — the four stages between a download request and an audit report.
• Adding the prefix — where the setting lives, how to check it worked, how to remove it.
• What we measure — how downloads are counted and what the figures on a report mean.
• Data and privacy — what is recorded and what is not.
• Questions — the ones that come up most.