Billboard Charts over the years.

 If you are a fan of music you know about the Billboard Music Charts. The Billboard company was founded in 1894 and is known for publishing pieces involving news, video, opinion, reviews, events, style and of course, it’s music charts. It was on January 4^th of 1936 that Billboard magazine published its first music hit parade (chart). The first Music Popularity Chart was calculated in July 1940 and the company has been reporting and expanding its charts ever since.

Currently, The Hot 100 combines data from single sales, radio airplay, digital downloads, and streaming activity. This includes data from YouTube and other video sites. Prior to 1991 Billboard obtain its data from manual reports filled out by radio stations and stores. That November Billboard used Nielsen SoundScan and Nielson Broadcast Data Systems (BDS) to chart the Hot 100 and R&B chart for that year.

In 1983, Michael Jackson dominated March to April with ‘Billie Jean’ and April to May with ‘Beat It’. He had the most Hot 100’s that year. Other artists like The Police and Irene Cara dominated the summer. Ten years later in 1993, Whitney Houston topped the chart with what was arguably the song of the year ‘I will Always Love You (From “The Bodyguard”)’. Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey were on fire with hits like ‘That’s the Way Love Goes’ and ‘Hero’. The twist is that in the 50^th anniversary issue of Billboard, prior to the official implementation of SoundScan tracking in November 1991, many radio stations and retail stores removed songs from their manual reports after the associated record labels stopped promoting a particular single. So can we even trust the charts for the years prior to 1991?

Tips & Tricks: Using Data for Music Marketing

I want to share a few tips for using data for music marketing. As we know, companies don't just love because they see dollar signs but because they see all that comes with it. There are demographics, differentiating audiences and disruption.  If you want to compete with these companies or even improve a musicians marketing these are some of the things you need to focus on. 

• Know your audience! Do the research necessary to find the biggest streaming sites, influencers, blogs and overall media sites. It makes the world of difference in marketing. You need to know what you're targeting to come up with the best plan. 
• Dedicate 1 hour every day to Digital Marketing. Music marketers/Artists should spend on at minimum one hour on social media and digital marketing a day. This is crucial in building the brand. Interact with the artists fans and reputable influencers, promote content and/or send out snap chats. 
• Look at the stats! The data collected by marketing efforts will help artists or their teams to better understand what is working and what isn't. There are several programs that can help put together the data in a way that will make it easier to see which platforms may be best for your brand and how the audience is receiving the efforts.
• Test the tracks. Utilize tools that expose your music to potential fans and ask them for valuable feedback. The data from the constructive criticism can help improve work and promotional strategy.