Next Big Sound: Actionable Intelligence About Music Fans' Online Activities

Written by Jolie O'Dell / August 6, 2009 12:45 PM / 9 Comments

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Musicians do battle with the Internet in one way or another every day.

Now that many have moved beyond piracy concerns as a primary issue, they are looking at how to increase page views, prompt virality, and stimulate interaction. The better part of action is knowledge, and one of the simplest, newest ways for artists to get more knowledge about their fans' activities online is through the Next Big Sound, a site that tracks a lot more than just page views, digging a little deeper to display listens, likes, and adds.

Right now, Next Big Sound tracks plays, views, fans, comments, and other data for almost half a million artists across major properties, including iTunes, Facebook, and Twitter.

For those who need to grab data for multiple artists (hello, young record label social media intern!), NBS provides daily or weekly emails and/or RSS feeds.

The app doesn't seem to show stats for specific tracks, so this isn't the place to go to suss out your new single. And page views are tracked only for MySpace (a.k.a. the sad little website where bands go to die). Mentions on Twitter are not tracked, either.

But the greatest sin the NBS team commits is not including YouTube in their tracking of comments, favorites, subscriptions, and page views. Nowadays, YouTube is the new MTV; music fans will very often search for and listen to new or favorite music on that site rather than a music-only site.

Currently, the site is free, with no mention of premium options to be released.

The Boulder-based NBS team is part of the TechStars program there. We interviewed them on video about a month ago when they had just decided to completely change their site model.

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Comments

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Not the perfect system - Next Big Sound.

I saw this today from @scobleizer and tried to check for - Seasons After - a band that played the Jagermeister stage at Mayhem Festival here in St. Louis, MO.

Really good band, not huge yet - been around long enough - yet - nothing. As big as this genre seems to be getting these days, there should be *something*!?

Check out "Some Things Burn" from their MySpace Page - http://www.myspace.com/seasonsafter

Reminds me a bit of another band I saw the other day at Pop's - Bless The Fall - same schtick - singer sings well, and the bassist screams. :) http://www.myspace.com/blessthefall

Posted by: Rex | August 6, 2009 2:12 PM

While I understand the difficulty of really understanding a company's vision and direction by signing up to a service and testing a few features, its really disappointing in this case.

I have been working with the NBS as a mentor through out the summer. I watched these guys pull a complete student body left with their idea and dive deep into a specific real world problem.

NBS was created to help facilitate an artist's ability to connect directly with their fans, not as a way to see how many plays on MySpace they got.

It is not a social media monitoring tool. It is (and will be) much more than that, much like Google Analytics is much more than a hit tracker.

NBS will help artists and their management make the right decisions about where a concert should be played, where marketing dollars should be spent, and what activities will best support a direct connection between artists and their fans. Not as a way to see how many Facebook friends they gain, or Twitter followers they added.

As they say, they are providing actionable insights for music industry executives to make the right decisions about the bands they work with.

Today, NBS presented their vision at Techstars Investor/Demo day, its too bad that you werent able to see what was articulated or feel the excitement from seasoned investors and music professionals.

Posted by: Micah Baldwin | August 6, 2009 2:14 PM

I was at the TechStars Demo Day today and got to see NBS present their concept. I'm not in the music industry, but, as someone in the analytics business - NBS is brilliant. The system helps bands & music management target their activities and dollars to make sure that they are focusing on those things the fans care about. Truly an excellent concept that will hopefully improve the fan/musician interaction experience.

Posted by: Kevin Smith | August 6, 2009 2:36 PM

Their app is addictive. I've been playing with it all afternoon.

Posted by: Josh Fraser | August 6, 2009 6:13 PM

I must say this is a great article i enjoyed reading it keep the good work.

Posted by: supra shoes | August 6, 2009 6:37 PM

where marketing dollars should be spent, and what activities will best support a direct connection between artists and their fans .

Posted by: runescape gold | August 6, 2009 7:30 PM

Never before in the history of mankind has it been easier to reach out to people all over the world. Online communitieslike MySpace, make meeting new friends with similar interests incredibly easy. MySpace is a great place to share tips, ideas and stories about the things you find most interesting. If you have a question about your hobby, you can easily find the answer through your network of members with similar interests.

James
Email marketing software

Posted by: Email Marketing | August 7, 2009 12:39 AM

A good free app, good for bands and indies on a budget. But the music biz is already flooded with market research companies -- Billboard/Nielsen, StreetPulse, MediaBase, MediaGuide, Big Champagne -- all of whom, in some form or another, can cover the same territory in much greater detail (and at a huge price!). If NBS intends to compete with the big names, they've got a lot of work to do.

Posted by: Marcello | August 7, 2009 7:11 AM