Everyone seems to be talking about big data. In this blog post we will highlight what big data is and how artists can make use of it.
What is big data?
You as an individual produce 1.7MB of data every second.
The world in total generates 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day.
From using your phone, and simply trying to get the directions to a new restaurant opened down the road, to commenting on your friend’s recent post. All of these activities are recorded and stored as data points which are collectively called big data.
What you do online is being recorded and taken into consideration to make business decisions. Companies would love to know what you are doing at each point in time so they can then direct the right product at you, at the right time, to increase the likelihood of you buying their product or service.
So, you can imagine how crucial it is for them to have access to data.
However, consumer privacy is often an issue. To mitigate this, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) laws are being followed by businesses located or using data of consumers in EU. This requires companies to desensitize data and make consumers aware of what is being collected. You may have noticed a number of emails about updates in private policy of some applications you use. This was a result of GDPR.
(We will post a detailed article outlining GDPR is and how companies are protecting consumer privacy.)
The world in total generates 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day.
How is big data used?
The power of data is astounding.
As consumers, this means: Personalized advertisements with more information directed towards you.
Recently, I was targeted at by a brand that creates custom shampoo depending on personal preferences and hair type. I had no idea that something like this existed and was happy when the product advertisement popped up on my Instagram.
The power of data is astounding.
How can artists use big data?
Considering big data is so important, how can artists use it to target their music and increase their fan base?
They can use data to target people most likely to enjoy music and join their fanbase. By analyzing data collected around engagement, artists can create customized content to get the maximum level of exposure.
However, how do artists start collecting and finding sources for their data?
Well, there is data from social media platforms available that can be used (more on this in our next post), but there are a lot of internal data sources that artists already have access to or can start generating as a starting point.
Some of those include:
1) Newsletters – Newletters can generate a lot of information about fans. By sending them simple forms and asking for information in exchange for a free track or special release, you can get data on age, gender and location of your fanbase (and a lot more). Websites such as Mailchimp and Robly are great for creating newsletters.
2) Website – Your website is a gold mine. Not only can you track what are people most interested in on your website (including songs etc.), but you can also find out where your fans are acquired from. This means you can track which post made fans click on the link to your website (We will soon post a detailed article on google analytics and other tools that can help you analyze your website traffic).
3) Links - Link management platform like Bitly help you shorten links and measure engagement metrics on links you post. You will be able to view metrics like the number of users interacting and sharing your links.
The next step is analyzing the data itself.
With the data, you can observe patterns that you would like to consider when marketing your music. For example, if certain posts cause more people to click on your links, you can analyze:
a) Platform you posted on - This highly depends on artist to artist
b) Timing of the post – People are usually more active during morning and evenings of the day
c) Content of the post – Pictures or videos usually get more hits than simple content.
This will give you some perspective.
You can then identify what kind of people are into your music. Maybe there is a certain country that identifies with your music more than others, or a certain demographic. Such data points become important because if you know that certain kind of people like your music, more of the same will do so too!
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Aridat helps artists collect and analyze big data.
For more information contact us at info@aridat.com
We would love to hear from you!