The “Unique listeners” report has become unexpectedly popular at our statistics service.

How unique listeners are detected

The main indicator used for detecting uniqueness of the listener is his/her IP address. The “Unique listeners” report is a selection of unique IP addresses for the chosen period of time.

Why there is inaccuracy in the report

In many large (like Gazprom) and not very large, as well as in small (starting from 3 computers) organizations almost everybody uses proxy servers that have one IP. All these users (listeners of Gazprom or of that small organization) are considered as one, though in fact there are probably a lot more of them.

Assessments and conclusions

We conducted manual analysis of the small part of log files and concluded that data may be adjusted by 2-2,5 times towards the increase. But we leave it for the client to decide; our report contains ‘neat’ figures.

What can be done to reduce inaccuracy

We have a solution that is not yet tested, on integration of statistics modules into your player on the website. After testing we will be able to assess uniqueness more precisely (with an accuracy of 95%). But there are also shortcomings: all external websites will be excluded from the selection.