It's that time of year once again to see what the most-popular episodes of the podcast were. I love seeing where we've been so I can plan on where we are gonna go in the future.

2015 was the first full year of publishing a weekly show. I want to thank all of the Patrons of the Podcast who so kindly donate $1 or $5, or $10 each and every month so that this show keeps coming out each and every week. Find out more about us on Patreon.

As I was working on the most-popular shows of 2015, I realized that some of the more recent shows don't get their due. So I decided to share 2 different top 10 lists below. The first is the Top 10 shows from July 2014 to June 2015. The second is for all of 2015.

I did this because while looking at the 2014 stats, I noticed the 2-hour end-of-the-year Bagpipe music and 2-Hour Celtic music shows were not on the best of 2014 list last year, but they are now in the top 10 when I check again.

Lets get started…

Top 10 Shows from July 2014 to June 2015

1. 36134 – 3-Hours of Instrumental Celtic Music #204
2. 29991 – 2-Hours of Bagpipe Music #181
3. 28643 – 2-Hours of Celtic Music #175
4. 28478 – Irish Drinking Songs Top 20 #197
5. 27749 – 2-Hours of Traditional Celtic Music #196
6. 27015 – Drunken Sailor #171
7. 27009 – Irish Punk #172
8. 26249 – Best Celtic Music of 2014 #199
9. 26027 – Celtic Swan in the the Misty Mountains #177
10. 25553 – 2 Hours of Celtic Rock Music! #185

Top 20 Celtic Music Shows of All of 2015

Last year, I did a Top 20 list. So I figured I would just change it to Top 20 Celtic Music Shows. The most-popular of all is the 3-hour instrumental show. Next best is the Irish Drinking Songs Top 20. I confess, I listen to both myself.

1. 36134 – 3-Hours of Instrumental Celtic Music #204
2. 28478 – Irish Drinking Songs Top 20 #197
3. 27749 – 2-Hours of Traditional Celtic Music #196
4. 26249 – Best Celtic Music of 2014 #199
5. 25309 – St. Patrick's Day Music Playlist 2015 #200
6. 24077 – Best Celtic Dinner Music in Dublin #193
7. 23390 – #202: Funny Irish Songs, Scottish Songs, and Parodies
8. 22920 – Faerie Rings #190
9. 22553 – #205: Earth Day
10. 21704 – Celtic Craic Medley #194
11. 21561 – Burns Day Scottish Music #192
12. 21486 – Irish & Celtic Music Kid on the Mountain #191
13. 21189 – #217: 10 Years of Great Irish & Celtic Music, a Retrospective
14. 20955 – The Four Redheads of Celtic Music #201
15. 20922 – #203: Work of the Weavers
16. 20902 – Celtic Valentine's Day #195
17. 20710 – #208: Your Feet Will Take You
18. 20678 – St. Patrick's Day Songs for Kids #198
19. 20037 – #206: Galicia
20. 19131 – Irish Music Postcard, Back Soon! #211

The podcast had a record number of downloads in 2015. See how it measured up over the past five years.

Total in 2015 = 1,872,591
Total in 2014 = 1,239,680
Total in 2013 = 1,090,695
Total in 2012 = 1,205,539
Total in 2011 = 1,303,502

The show went weekly in 2015, so obviously that made a great impact on the number of total downloads. The show usually gets about 9,000-12,000 downloads in a month after the show is released. That's way down from the podcasting heyday when the show got between 20,000-30,000 after a month. I'd love to see that again! But for now, the show continues to grow its numbers

I didn't publish every episode of the podcast on YouTube this year. I just couldn't keep up, especially when our new baby was born.

Top 10 YouTube Celtic Music Shows of 2015

1. 50,318 – Irish Drinking Songs Top 20
2. 1,836 – St Patrick's Day Songs for Children
3. 1,170 – Galicia Celtic Music
4. 1,106 – Celtic Music from Renaissance Festivals
5. 1,090 – Faerie Rings – Irish & Celtic Music
6. 680 – Top 20 Best Celtic Music 2014
7. 661 – Best Celtic Dinner Music in Dublin
8. 603 – 3-Hours of Instrumental Best Celtic Music
9. 591 – Dances With Celts – Best Celtic Music
10. 485 – 2-Hours of Traditional Celtic Music – Best Irish Celtic Music

I was looking at last year's results. It's fascinating to see that there was only one episode that got a TON of views. And only one. That same thing happened last year. The Best of 2013 episode got 20K+ downloads, more than any other show.

Top YouTube Celtic Music Shows of All Time

Once again, I include all of my podcasts that I released on my YouTube channel. My most-popular show is still an episode of the Pub Songs Podcast, but the the pipes, the bagpipes are calling! There's also an episode of the Celtic Christmas Podcast that is starting to lose its positioning this year.

1. 221,774 – #114 – St Patrick's Day Pub Songs Playlist
2. 135,696 – St Patrick's Day Pub Songs Playlist
3. 125,427 – Bagpipes Rock Playlist
4. 50,318 – Irish Drinking Songs Top 20
5. 39,045 – #136 – Celtic Love
6. 35,582 – 2 Hours of Bagpipe Music in the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast
7. 34,171 – Celtic Music – St Patrick's Day Playlist
8. 28,734 – Best Irish & Celtic Music of 2013
9. 16,910 – Top 20 Celtic Bands of 2012 for St. Patrick's Day Playlist
10. 16,747 – Best Irish & Celtic Christmas Music Online

Top 10 Countries Downloading the Show

People love the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast around the world. The only big change this year is that the United Kingdom beat out Germany for popularity.

1. 4,207,529 – United States
2. 471,628 – Portugal
3. 405,193 – United Kingdom
4. 329,474 – Germany
5. 268,754 – Canada
6. 219,862 – Japan
7. 125,297 – Spain
8. 123,775 – France
9. 107,596 – Italy
10. 90,250 – Switzerland

Goals for the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast in 2016

The show currently has 3,089 subscribers to the Celtic Music Magazine. I would love to hit 4,000 subscribers by the end of 2016. That's about 76 new subscribers a month, or 2-3 per day. That might be attainable.

Our Facebook page has 6,480 Likes. My goal is to hit 8,000. To do that, we will need to get 127 new Likes per month, or 4-5 per day. That's gonna be tough, I think. But if people keep sharing the podcast each and every week, it's not impossible.

I mentioned earlier that we had 1,872,591 downloads in 2016. That's a 1.5 times more than last year. Could we hit two times next year? Let's aim for 3,500,000. Wow! I'm having trouble imagining that right now. That's 135,618 more downloads each and every month. Wow! Just wow!

I donate a portion of my Celtic compilation CDs to charity each and every month. At the end of the summer, I also hit a Milestone whereby I am now donating 10% of income earned through Patreon to charity as well. In all, I donated $1,841.94 to charity. I will be sharing more details about where the money went later this month. You can see past Celtic non-profit donation recipients here.

Finally, we have 132 patrons pledging $327 per episode of the podcast over on Patreon. I would love to see that number hit $500 per episode because that would mean a serious full-time income from the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast. But I am grateful for whatever donation is given. Once again, thanks to all of my awesome Patrons. Thank you all for making this a record year!