Startup digital advertising and technology firm VoloMedia (formerly known as PodBridge) has  announced today a free metrics and analytics service that helps podcasters track the activity of the programs they publish to iTunes.

VoloMedia founder Murgesh Navar described the service in a post today on the Association for Downloadable Media blog:

“Bridge-to-Google Analytics is a plug-in to the iTunes Media player, now installed with over 100,000 iTunes consumers in the US…. Publishers are free to use this free service if it meets their needs, i.e. collect anonymous usage statistics regarding usage of their content on iTunes, and to analyze them using Google Analyics: a free and robust industry-standard platform. If you have ever used Google Analytics, then you are familiar with “GA_ID – Google Analytics ID”. With a simple modification of the RSS feed to incorporate the GA-ID the publisher can start flowing aggregated play and download data to their Google Analytics account.  More information is on our website: http://www.volomedia.com”

Navar also pointed out that podcasters can use the metrics and analytics service whether or not they are VoloMedia customers, insisting, “this free service does not require any relationship, contractual or otherwise, with VoloMedia.”

Podcasters will also have access to the API for VoloMedia’s iTunes plug-in (now available for PC and Mac). The plug-in gives the audience tools for sharing podcasts via email or social bookmarking sites and provides the podcaster with a place to display supplemental content or advertising/sponsorship messages, along with a way to track data on whether the audio/video file is played.

Reed Kavner, Associate Marketing Manager at VoloMedia, elaborated on the benefits of the service: “It’s a cool move for VoloMedia, as previous products and services were only available to top-tier publishers who had partnership agreements. And while we will continue to offer enterprise-level services, this is VoloMedia’s first offering to publishers of any size without any business development paperwork. And it’s free.”