The power of data mining in searching for consistent patterns and/or systematic relationships between variables is becoming undeniable. Similarly undeniable is alot of modern music tech provides great value to listeners, but meagre monetary incentive- if any at all- to the artists who use them. Bandsintown think they may have found a solution to this problem- open up their rich trove of valuable data to the bands who use their service.
With over 15 million users, the Bandsintown dataset can provide key insights to help bands better understand their listeners. Now, once an artist uses the service & gains more than 100 followers, they’ll have access to the Bandsintown Manager app, displaying 4 key metrics: an RSVP map, top 100 cities, follower growth, and upcoming RSVPs.
These analytics give insights on the location and concentration of fans and also the kind of music the users are following. With 66,000 artists having joined the platform last year, Bandsintown claims that 250,000 artists use the app to promote their live shows.
“For decades, labels were the sole owner and beneficiary of artist data they collected from their licensees and distributors, with little insights shared back to artists,” Julien Mitelberg, the president and COO of one such app, Bandsintown, told Fast Company.
“Our social media marketing platform provides free tools that work for artists, to maximize ticket sales, which are already a primary and healthy source of income.”
Pandora, Spotify, Songkick, StubHub Music, WillCall, Live Nation, and Crowdsurge, are other such apps that assist artists with relevant data to help plan concerts. Crowdsurge, for instance, gathers information by ‘enabling artists to go direct-to-consumer with a portion of their tickets.’ Pandora, on the other hand, offers an ‘interactive heat map’ of interested listeners spread across the U.S.
As Tyler Hayes of Fast Company points out, more than just music apps, these platforms are data harnessing companies that are ” serving up information to artists and rights holders.”
(Featured image credit: The National, by Kmeron)
