Live Music Technology Series: Artists & Big Data

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Music was perhaps the first industry to cry out about growing pains long before ‘digital disruption’ became a phrase. There’s been some big changes in the way we interact with music on all levels – and lessons to be learned. But what has the artist community learned, and how has the business of being an artist changed?

Ever since MySpace there has been a promise that technology has made to artists: technology will help you connect with your fans immediately, and it will help you find more fans. Now, the artists and labels finding success are the ones making the most of the newest digital opportunities.

Speaking with Vanessa Picken at Comes With Fries, a digital agency which works with many artists and labels, it’s clear one of the things music does best is collect a plethora of databases.

“We’ve helped bands in the past do an audit of everything, and identify places where they might be new opportunities,” says Picken. “And it’s a big job.”

Picken advises artists to hit up everyone they work with – their label, the venues they frequent, their management company, ticketing companies, and all the different social media platforms to use data to find and engage their audience.

Interestingly, opinions on which platforms offer the most return vastly differ. And the biggest challenge comes while working out what to do with that audience; this is where artists and industry figures alike can get stuck.

Cathy Oates, of Original Matters management (which looks after Lisa Mitchell, Tourist and more), is just one of many managers dealing with all the different touch points for local artists. She speaks highly of Spotify and Shazam as a great source of data to back up her arguments when talking to people.

“I can see where people are listening and I can do something about that,” she says.

Oates tells TMN about a discovery feature in Shazam which can show trending tracks in certain cities. This has helped Oates and her team get songs played on radio. An example of this occurred on the Gold Coast, where one track topped the Shazam chart because a station in the area took a risk to play it.

As the digital age turns increasingly transparent, big technology companies are becoming a major support system for artists in terms of offering data and insights. Some, of course, are notoriously secretive, but newer, younger start-ups are not only using data, but helping artists make sense of it.

Ticketing platformEventbriteprovides geographic insights on event attendees, and is helping bands understand and use it.

“You can see how far people are travelling out from when they bought a ticket,” notes Chris McDonnell, Head of Music Partnerships at Eventbrite Australia. “By having real time information, they can see if their audience are coming from the Eastern suburbs for example, [they can then] find a venue and play there.”

Ticket scanning and attendance on the Eventbrite app

Brisbane band Ball Park Music has embraced newer platforms like Snapchat to grow their audience and even sell show tickets. They sent out ticketing links via Snapchat to their most engaged fans first for four shows across Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. The campaign, launched in March as a teaser of sorts for upcoming album Every Night the Same Dream, saw each of the shows sell out.

Mel Cheng at One Louder says trying new platforms are crucial as old ones either become defunct or simply can’t compete with new players.

“We’re seeing our mailing list emails just go into people’s junk,” she says. “So social media and Facebook has become more important, as is paying for posts.”

Spending (or not spending) to reach your fans, is a big conversation. Alex Zaccaria, of digital agency Bolster Music, says that spending is effective, but only if it’s done right. Zaccaria says even a $10 boost to Facebook shouldn’t be activated randomly. Artists must target locations and different audience styles and not be afraid to press ‘delete’.

“It is a much more targeted way of doing it, and you can pull it when it’s not working,” he says. “It’s also still the cheapest way of doing it.”

Facebook and Twitter opens up a lot more tools if you decide to spend money with the social network giants; but going above the basics will put you ahead of the curve. Zaccaria says there is an insight button on every tweet on Twitter, which he encourages artists to utilise and analyse.

“If you just press ‘boost’, you will get some reach and engagement. But what are you actually trying to achieve?”

Some artists are using technology to simply give themselves more time to make actual music. Tim Levinson’s independent label Elefant Traks for example, has been working hard to streamline their processes with as many tools as possible. One of the label’s key revenue streams is from direct merchandise on the road. It’s been using Square, a device that turns any smartphone into an EFTPOS payment system. In doing this, Square has simplified and modernised another part of Levinson’s business.

Elefant Traks’ artists, along with others like Josh Pyke, raved about Master Tour. The end-to-end tour management solution streamlines itinerary, travel, production, accounting and more in one application, doing away with old tour books and day sheets. Pyke also uses settings on social media which syndicate his posts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. But his favourite timesaving tip for social media is to use the resource he doesn’t control – his fans.

Josh Pyke

“I like when fans create stuff,” says Pyke. “Videos, live streaming… and they can tag you. I would never have time to do all that.”

That promise of the now irrelevant and dwindling MySpace – for deeper audience connection and more fans – is an ongoing journey. But for artists willing to embrace the challenge of making sense of all the noise – the world is theirs for the taking.