Data Is NOT the Future of the Music Industry

Urska Jaksa

Feb 25, 2021

For years now, major labels have known that the right data provides them with the upper hand in understanding the market and predicting which artists will blow up. That’s why their teams of data scientists analyze various stats to make the releases, tours and merch drops of their artists more successful. Some have gone as far as to build their own music analytics platforms, inaccessible to outsiders.

This positions a handful of major labels miles ahead of smaller ones and independent artists. 

Let’s put it like this: Imagine playing a game of cards where one player knows everybody's hand, while the others only see their own and don't even know the rules that well. Which side would you rather be on?

That's why the question isn't whether data is the future of the music industry (in fact, it’s the present), it's:

➡️ Is it possible for everyone in the industry to be able to access the same amount of information without huge teams or lots of money?

In the past three years, a couple of startups tackled this very problem, developing tools that help artists and labels get the information that had previously been reserved for big players.

5 main challenges that music analytics tools are addressing right now

✅ Making scouting for new talent more efficient.

With around 60,000 tracks uploaded to Spotify every day, saying that scouting for talent isn’t easy is an understatement. It turns out that one of the best solutions to this issue is music data. Analytics tools can filter out the standout artists and simplify comparing them, which saves tons of time compared to traditional A&R.

✅ Helping evaluate the true potential of artists.

To know whether an artist is rising and how fast, you used to have to collect all the data points from different social and streaming platforms by hand and analyze them in Excel – some labels are still doing just that.  One of the biggest benefits of music analytics tools is the complete overview of an artist’s performance they provide, often in one dashboard.

✅ Helping independent artists save money on promotion.

Tracking the success of your promotional campaigns and targeting the right audiences without losing money comes in especially handy when you're investing your own money without the know-how of a big label. Music analytics tools are great at providing artists with detailed breakdowns of their audience, including where they come from, their age and other metrics.

✅ Not missing out on big trends in the music industry.

Catching onto the trends in the music industry early on pays off. The promotional power of social media channels shifts every year or so, and trends within genres or local music preferences can unveil even more specific opportunities. Those who act on these opportunities quickly are usually the ones who reap the benefits for years to come. Monitoring data is the best way of not missing out.

✅ Finding the right markets to promote your music and plan gigs.

Each country is a specific market, especially when it comes to live gigs or the popularity of social media and streaming channels. Artists and labels often miss out on potential markets without even realizing it. With data on streams, events, festivals and popular artists, it's much easier to know where audiences match an artist's music.

If you face any of these challenges and want to try analytics on your own, we have a free trial that covers all of the above and more. You’ll also receive free learning materials during the trial, so don’t worry if you’re new to analytics.