Apple hinted earlier this year at WWDC that it was planning its own podcast analytics serviceso show creators could see how their podcasts are performing. The company has finally launched a beta version of that free service today, reports Recode, which gives more information on who is listening on Apple’s Podcast app and their behaviors and preferences.

The free analytics service can tell creators which episode a listener tuned out, the average completion rate of an episode, the total time listened, and time per device. It also reveals which countries listeners are from, for over 150 countries in which the podcasts app is available. But it will only include data on users running iOS 11 and iTunes 12.7.

The service could be an eye-opener to podcast creators. Before this analytics service, there just wasn’t much open information available on listener habits besides basic download metrics and other streaming figures. Now, podcast creators — and the advertisers that subsidize them — may be getting an unpleasant wake-up call if, as many creators and industry watchers assume, it turns out listener bases are far smaller than previously thought.

Source: the verge