Spotify for Artists

Spotify recently launched Spotify for Artists, an initiative that is intended to help artists and their managers have better insight into their respective audiences. Artists have insights into demographic information, real-time song information, playlist performance and data and the different ways listeners are accessing or discovering their music.

"What we're seeing is that artists of all sizes need the help," said Troy Carter (global head of creator services at Spotify) to Billboard Magazine. "Someone who is one of the top 50 artists in the world, they're still trying to figure out a lot of things about their fans as it relates to specific demographics, how to reach them, how to sell more tickets, how to appeal to audiences that you may not necessarily appeal to on typical radio. But what we're seeing as you go down the stream, artists who more typically self-serve, they also need more tools. We feel like Spotify for Artists is providing them."

In a previous post, I mentioned that megastar Jay Z had utilized Spotify data to coordinate the stops on his last tour. Artists big and small are looking at data as a great tool in moving forward. The understanding of how important and useful big data is has grown and now industries of all kinds have been trying to find ways to access it easier. Companies like Spotify are capitalizing with its massive amounts of data that it has collected since 2008. 

Next Big Sound: Music Analytics Platform

Next Big Sound is a New York-based company that specializes in analytics for online music. Social networks, streaming services and radio data of musicians are compiled, analyzed and delivered to platform users with ease. It was founded in 2008 and was named one of the 10 best start-ups in 2010 by Billboard Magazine. With success, streaming giant Pandora acquired the company in 2015. Pandora CEO, Brian McAndrews said, “The combination of Pandora’s listening data and Next Big Sound’s analytical capabilities will create a vital source of data.”

Unlike other music analysis platforms, Next Big Sound is free and open. Apple acquired two analytics platforms around the same time., MusicMetric and Acunu, both private and only used by Apple. Next Big Sound allows artists, executives and industry professionals access to analytics and it is as simple as typing in an artist’s name. Once you find the profile of the artist you are looking for you can follow and stay up-to-date on changes as they happen. Currently, the data is broken down into, audience, recent releases, releases, reach, engagement and the data sources and notices. It also breaks down every YouTube video available for the artist, its streaming count and the percentage change from the previous week to the current week.

For artists that do not already have a profile, it is as easy as providing a social link and creating one. Which will do wonders for independent artists and their professional teams or for those scouting talent. Head over to NextBigSound.com to check it out and search some of your favorite artists.

The Status & Future of Music Analysis

Once upon a time record labels relied on mostly sales information. As of 2017, a lot of things have changed. With a decline in record sales and an increase in streaming, marketers and music industry executives get an in-depth look into artist’s audiences. What does it all mean?

Sales & Radio Data

Record labels once focused on the data they received from record sales. They were able to understand what geographical areas were listening to a specific artist and work marketing efforts in and around those areas. They were also able to forecast singles and album sales for following projects. Radio spins were also a way to determine what artists were more popular and learn more about the audience. The data, however, wasn’t as detail as it would become once the music industry entered the world of online sales, streaming and social media.

Streaming & Online Sales

In the early 2000’s, services like Last.fm and Pandora, launched. Although there was an attempt at music streaming in 1993 by a company called Internet Underground Music, it wasn’t until the 2000’s that this became popular. These services allow users to create stations that are specific to their listening needs. They were able to like or dislike songs that appeared on the station and this made it easier for the services to understand the listening behavior of the consumer. Services like iTunes & Apple Music are able to collect a significant amount of data because they have access to the entire library of the user. They know what the users are listening to and have begun using association analysis within the services to recommend other artists, singles, albums, etc. Streaming has become so important that in 2016, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), began distributing awards certifications based on streaming. It has also allowed artists to better plan out touring. Jay-z arranged the locations for his United Kingdom tour based on data collected by Spotify. Ticket sales have become a major source of income in light of the declining record sales. This is why artists, executives, and promoters should utilize data.

Social Media

Social media has definitely changed the game. It is uncommon for an artist to not have some form of social media. You can even find an artist or two with accounts that have no posts, like Kendrick Lamar, who has an Instagram with no posts. Jay Z had an active twitter account and posted maybe 3 times. All 3 times he was received an astounding amount of engagement. Let’s face it that’s Jay Z we are talking about. Independent artists, however, have to spend a lot of time building social media presence. Likes, shares, and comments, go a long way whether remaining independent or trying to get signed by a label. These metrics help to understand how the audience is receiving the artist and if they will be marketable or convert to sales. Again, with a decline in physical sales and an increase in digital, streaming, digital performance royalties and show sales, social media data is key in understanding the audience and making strides towards success.

The Future

With their currently being a flood of data and information coming from the music industry, the future can again look bright. It is a lot easier to forecast what songs will be popular or even deciding when an artist should go on tour. As for talent scouting, a scout will have a better understanding on what and who should be someone they invest their time into. Companies like MusicMetric and Next Big Sound have found their niche by being services that are specific to music analytics. We can imagine that more companies will arise as it has become so necessary to examine social data. And while the music industry will still need to remain focused on content, data analysis is opening up opportunities for them to better promote themselves. Algorithms have become popular in several industries so who knows how long before they give a try in the music industry. Who’s to say an algorithm can’t talent scout?

Digital Analytics: Exploring Suites

The rise of digital analytics created a rise in analytics software development. Software for analytics is designed to help marketers and developers measure the effectiveness of a given website. But how do we decide which suite is best and would be most effective as a marketer or web developer?

To start, let’s look at the characteristics a software needs to make it a fit for digital analytics. According to g2crowd.com, “to qualify for inclusion in the Digital Analytics category, a product must:

·      Measure web traffic including visits, sessions, unique visitors, user entry and exit pages, and behavioral funnels

·      Track any tagged digital event or conversion

·      Report on traffic over time and in real time

·      Segment traffic based on demographics, device, acquisition medium, geography, and cohort

·      Be WCM and development platform agnostic”

Once the software meets the original needs of the user it becomes a measure of customer satisfaction. The image below shows the categories that digital analytics suites are placed into. There are the Leaders, High Performers, Contenders and Niche solutions.

Graph courtesy of g2crowd.com 

Google Analytics stands out above the competition as a leader having ‘high ratings, substantial scaling, market share and global support/service resources.’ Adobe Analytics falls under the contenders category with its significant market presence but lacks in the area of user satisfaction. If you are interested in comparing and contrasting some of the most used suites you can head over to g2crowd.com.  

Welcome to Naomi Analytics!

Naomi Analytics is a blog that explores the beautiful world of digital data analysis and its importance in the marketing field. I will explore the status and future of big data, visualization and reporting, analytics tools, monetization and the future of digital analytics. 

Digital analytics is a large and fast growing field with changes being made every day. We are able to collect and monitor data from a multitude of channels to minimize any wasted efforts or dollars put towards marketing. Businesses have digital marketing analytics as a core part of strategizing and maintaining a competitive edge as it offers profound insights into the behavior of the consumer and purchasing trends. Marketers also have the advantage of trying out new techniques, methods, etc. to then collect data, measure effectiveness and continue or make changes. 

Google Analytics is a service that has been a forerunner in the analytics world and is currently the most widely used service on the internet. The service not only tracks activity and performance of sales but also the performance of websites and where the visitors are coming from. It is so important for us to explore and keep paced with the changes being made so again, welcome to Naomi Analytics.