While some decry the decline of the traditional music industry, we think it’s hard not to get excited about the possibilities the future holds. It’s true that major label revenue has dropped off a cliff over the last decade, but a whole new ecosystem is emerging. Today, music is easier to both create and access than at any time in human history. New business models are being forged (albeit slowly). We have Music Hack Days and new innovation is going on all over the place.
For artists, generating revenue can still be tricky, but one of the new advantages the Web offers is an unprecedented understanding of how well they are being received by fans. At the Social Music Summit in New York this week, one of the major themes was how social media creates new opportunities for artists. One of those opportunities is simply knowing more about fan behavior and preferences.
South By Southwest (SXSW) starts in two weeks, and there are over 1,400 bands and artists playing at the festival. MusicMetric, a company that specializes in tracking all of that new data about music and entertainment, has put together an infographic outlining which of those artists gets the most online buzz and activity. By analyzing tons of data about over 600,000 artists, MusicMetric is able to see which artists are growing, where their fans are located and which social networks they’re using the most. Using sentiment analysis, services like MusicMetric can get an idea of how the artists fare in reviews as well.
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Guitar photo by Gideon.
