Next Big Sound

Knowledge to Navigate the Modern Music Industry

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Pandora to Acquire Next Big Sound!

We’re thrilled to announce that Next Big Sound will be joining Pandora. 

For the past six years our mission has been to transform the music industry through making social, streaming, and sales data useful to artists and their teams. There is no better way to further our mission than to become part of the leading music service, Pandora, whose belief in the infinite power of music aligns completely with our own. As part of Pandora, we’ll continue to provide best-in-class analytics and enhance our platform with access to the number one most requested data source: Pandora. Clients, partners, and artists – rest assured it’s business as usual at Next Big Sound. We're incredibly excited to tap into the data, resources, and expertise of Pandora. 

Read more on Pandora’s blog: http://blog.pandora.com/2015/05/19/another-big-step-towards-artist-empowerment-pandora-next-big-sound/

[nextbigsound-blog]

This Week in Music & More

Another week has flown by, and the weekend is upon us! Here are a few links for you to contemplate before you are released into the wild.

Lots of news lately about streaming services providing targeted advertisement opportunities for brands. Adweek

And who the heck even knows what is going on with Tidal these days. It looks like Kanye is being super helpful. Lol no jk, he is being Kanye. BGR

Oh Norway. Just so ahead of the curve. What can I say? Norway is just the tops. Norway killed the radio star. Move to Norway. The Verge

Interesting analysis on whether music has "missed its Netflix moment." This is terminology we use now. What does it mean? You better read it and find out. Music Business Worldwide

Didn’t you know? There’s a data journalism WAR ON! Digiday

And here's a piece on how fashion is just so hawt right now at Coachella. There has GOT to be a gif for how little I care. Atlantic

Awesome #30under30 shoutout from Inc. Magazine this week. If you haven't voted for NBS yet, you might want to just hurry up and do that. Hustle along now. Inc.

Boatloads of international coverage coming at Next Big Sound this week. Here are a few articles you won't be able to understand, but they are flattering! Trust. Nova JDN

[nextbigsound-blog]

This Week in Music & More

Ladies and gentlemen, sirs and madams, dukes and duchesses, hackers and hackesses.  

That felt fancy, lets keep it up! Once again hath come to pass the hour upon which thou shall receive thy dutiful reportage of yonder seven days. Behold, for aught that hath transpired within the realm of music shall henceforth be tallied wherein.

Never mind, that was exhausting. This week marked the 15th (15th!!) anniversary of Metallica suing the ever-loving bejeezus out of Napster. So there’s a seminal moment in music history for ya. (Hypebot)

Errybody’s talking about Apple right now, and the rumored launch of “new” Beats in June. (Billboard)

Tidal appears to be in over its head (one might say drowning) in backlash. (Billboard)

Kanye topped the Time 100 Most influential list, and Elon Musk wrote him a very public love note. (Time)

I much prefer this love letter to Kanye. (Medium)

Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame induction time is coming up, and Pandora shared some fun stats. (Billboard)

Some of you may have seen this already, it came out last week. I can’t listen to it, cause that’s so awkward (*cringes uncomfortably at sound of own voice*). I did however read through and see they spelled my name wrong. C’est la vie. Feel free to listen and tell me if I said something stupid. (Hypebot)

And Tyler Hayes, who covered us for Fast Company, asked if he could interview me about data journalism. He did. And that was nice of him. (Smashd)

See you here next week. Same time, same place. 

[nextbigsound-blog]

Certified Gold, Though Fetty Wap Has More To Offer Than "Trap Queen"

It was about a year ago when a young rapper from Paterson, N.J. uploaded a track to SoundCloud that would start a chain-reaction online.

Fetty Wap wasn’t always Fetty Wap. As he explains it, he used to be Willie Maxwell back when he wore a prosthetic eye (having lost one to congenital glaucoma at a young age). Once he stopped wearing it, he says, “I found myself, I became a whole new person.” His friends call him ZooVier, his fans call him Fetty Wap. Why Fetty? “Cause I love money.” Now Fetty Wap is signed to 300 Entertainment, an imprint launched by among others Todd Moscowitz and Lyor Cohen in 2014, that has a reputation for their data-driven and innovative approach to the music industry.

“Trap Queen” has now reached close to 40 million streams on both SoundCloud and YouTube, and was just certified gold by the RIAA for more than half a million in sales. It was only the third track the young artist ever recorded (Fetty turns 24 in June), and the first time he sang on a track. “When I heard the beat, it was just like, I felt like I had to do something different with my voice. I wasn’t even for sure that I could do it or not, I just tried it. It just came out, it just worked.” He knew right away that this track was special – 500 plays the first day, twice that on the second. “It was just crazy.”

For the uninitiated (and that includes me before I wrote this article), trap music is a hip-hop subgenre that originated in the South in the early 90s. Heavy on bass and drums, overlaid with synths, strings, and explicit lyrics, Fetty says simply, “I just learned how to convert a lot of different sounds into one sound.” The genre saw a resurgence in 2012, and Fetty lists southern trap legend Gucci Mane as one of his strongest musical influences.

"I think the most persuasive thing I saw initially was the reaction on Shazam,” says Todd Moscowitz, who signed and manages Fetty at 300. With only a modicum of terrestrial radio play, Fetty Wap soared past mainstream artists like Hozier and Taylor Swift on Shazam charts. The reaction was instantaneous, and they watched his online popularity roll like a steam engine through New Jersey, then into New York, and from state to state as word spread. His music video was attracting a rapidly growing audience on YouTube. This was spurring activity on streaming services like Spotify, and online radio platforms like Pandora.

Fetty is on fire right now, and his online audience is hyper engaged.  Just this week he saw more than 20,000 mentions on Twitter, an increase of 34% from the week prior, and a 170% increase in retweets. Of his close to 40 million plays on SoundCloud, more than 23 million happened in the past month. In that same time, he saw an average of more than 5 million YouTube video views each week.

As for his social reach, that is rapidly increasing as well. Of his roughly 54,000 Facebook page likes, more than 30,000 were added in the past 30 days. He added about half his total Twitter following (he’s been getting about 5000 new followers each week), and has seen a fivefold increase in Wikipedia pageviews since last month. Instagram is his strongest platform, he counts close to 500,000 followers in total, comparable to artists like Trinidad James and A$AP Ferg, and racked up more than 2 million likes in just the past month.

But as much as the numbers can steer you in the right direction, says Moscowitz, "The music comes first. It is still all about finding great songs and great artists. Great analytics follow."

Fetty signed with 300 Entertainment late last year, and has only good things to say. “300 – they like a machine. And when we reached a point where we didn’t know what to do, the music was doing so good, everything was going so good, we didn’t know what was the next button to press. And that’s where they came in.” Fetty was already working with his own close team of sound engineers, producers, and management, and since joining 300 that has stayed the same. “We’ve been really independent. They let me be who I am.”

“I respect them, and they respect me. It’s a real partnership,” says Fetty. In February, Fetty Wap opened for Kanye West at his Roc City Classic show, promoting the release of his Adidas shoe. The private event, held in Madison Square Park, was open to fans patient enough to stand in line at Adidas stores for invites. The opportunity came together practically overnight. Rihanna comes across "Trap Queen,” and mentions it during an interview with i-D magazine. Kanye gets wind of it, picks up the phone, and boom – a week later the up-and-comer is performing alongside some of the biggest names in hip-hop.

Fetty didn’t really know what was happening. He knew it was a fashion show, but apparently he had been giving his team a little bit of trouble about wearing a different outfit than normal. “I’m arguing with them, I’m like no.”  He opens the door to the fitting room and Kanye walked in. “I was like, oh shit.”

“Just the fact that Kanye knew the words, watching Beyonce and Jay Z boppin’ in the crowd, Rihanna singing along with me - it’s a great feeling, and I just feel blessed to be where I am at,” says Fetty of the experience.

But while fortuitous is an understatement, Moscowitz says this wasn't part of their overall strategy. "Of course you hope to get a big bump – getting a co-sign from somebody like Kanye." The appearance led to blog coverage, which he hadn't been getting much of to date. That in turn led to the massive lift in social activity. And while brands and established artists make for excellent partners, the strategy is more about taking Fetty Wap from being the guy that did "Trap Queen," to becoming Fetty Wap the artist.


"There are plenty of artists that have hit records – not all of them make it,” says Moscowitz.

Moscowitz looked to SXSW as the place to really break him. "SXSW was a really important part of our strategy," he says. Booking big showcases like Pandora and Rolling Stone (Fetty did eight showcases in total in Austin, and somehow still found time to get a tattoo), and landing a string of interviews. The festival, which has come under some criticism in recent years for rampant commercialization, gave them a platform to evolve the perception of who Fetty Wap really is, and that he already carries a wide, not to mention strong, discography. "It's an amazing place to showcase artists, get them in front of the consumer, and brands who could be great partners," says Moscowitz.

Fetty’s debut album is on the horizon, and according to the Next Big Sound success algorithm the likelihood that he’ll hit the Billboard 200 chart is currently at 84%. While this would be another epic milestone in the amazing ride he has been on this past year, Fetty still sees this as work. Work he loves, but work nonetheless.

“I don’t really care about being famous. I just wanna be able to support my family,” says Fetty, who is both humble and strikingly confident all at once. When I ask him if he seeks to be in the spotlight for decades to come, the young artist, who got his start selling mixtapes and merch out of the trunk of his car, shows that he takes nothing for granted. “You just gotta enjoy it while it lasts.”

Photo Credit: Andy Pareti/Getty Images for SXSW

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com. Liv Buli is the resident data journalist for music analytics company Next Big Sound. She takes a data-driven perspective to covering the ins and outs of the music industry. Buli is a graduate of New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and her work has appeared in Newsweek Daily Beast, Forbes, Billboard, Hypebot and more.

[nextbigsound-blog]

This Week in Music and More

Mornin’ meeps and moops.

Another faaaahbulous Friday is upon us, and here’s what you need to know.

Last weekend was just loaded with NBS coverage. I'm not saying this list of music companies doing awesome stuff with data is listed in order of awesomeness, but also I am saying that. (Billboard)

Our Alex White was prominently featured with what looks like an accidental selfie for this Rolling Stone piece on young innovators. (Rolling Stone)

And the UK’s Telegraph included us in a study on big data firms. (Telegraph)

YouTube finally confirmed the rumblings from last year about a subscription streaming service. SUCH MANY SERVICES. (TechCrunch)

And SoundCloud are making moves toward monetization, partnering with Zefr on copyright management. (The Verge)

A little follow-up on the Tidal launch from Billboard, and what it could mean in terms of chart placements if artists follow Rihanna’s lead and start offering exclusives to the service. My opinion? The rest of us (TRAGICALLY) aren’t Rihanna. Smaller fan base + less users = very probably little play and no chart. (Billboard)

Our friends at Bandsintown put together this quick study on trending artists, based on their tracking data (plz note that my #1 bf made second on the list... aw yiss).(Bandsintown)

Square is leveraging their data to dig into targeted marketing. (Adweek)

And a little microblogging start-up called Twitter is moving toward offering a more curated feed. (FastCo)

As for vids this week, here's the official video for our man Fetty Wap’s "Trap Queen." I am not ashamed to admit that I spent a significant portion of this week in a Google and Wikipedia rabbit hole researching Trap music. They don't have it in Norway. (YouTube)

[nextbigsound-blog]

Apple Collaboration, SXSW Success, And Why We Have Our Eye On Elliphant

If you were watching the Grammy broadcast earlier this year, that may very well have been the first time you ever laid eyes on Elliphant.

A lot of people noticed Elliphant that night.  Not because she performed at the award show – she didn't – but because she featured in Apple's iPad spot alongside two other up-and-coming acts: Gaslamp Killer and Riton. During a night saturated with appearances from major artists like Rihanna, Katy Perry, Hozier, and more, the young Swedish artist stole a sliver of spotlight with the music-forward advertisement.

Elliphant first appeared on the Next Big Sound chart in September 2014.  At the time, the likelihood that she would hit the Billboard 200 within the next year was about 27%, and has been hovering around an average of 28% ever since. This is a strong score for an artist still defined as "promising," with less than 100,000 Facebook page likes, 16,000 Twitter followers, and 26,000 Instagram followers.

The iPad spot generated a ton of buzz, in part because this major brand had chosen to work with smaller artists. It featured  the three of them using the device to communicate and collaborate on a remix of Elliphant's track "All Or Nothing." Several months later, the track is still one of her most popular records to date. Last week she saw more than 20,000 YouTube detection video views for the track, compared to about 15,000 for "Only Getting Younger."

The campaign also led to a big social boost for Elliphant. In the month leading up to the awards, she had been averaging about 21 new Twitter followers daily. That night alone she added 22x that, and the effect lingered for several days following. She also experienced a lift across Facebook, Instagram, and a high number of Wikipedia page views as a result.

The spot itself stands apart from your standard brand/artist endorsement deal, a fact that is reflected in its performance on YouTube (the spot attracted about half a million views within three days), and the high amount of social buzz for both the brand and involved artists.

Not long after, Elliphant made her way down to Austin for SXSW. Off the back of her showcases (among them a performance at the Pandora Discovery Den) she saw a 135% increase in new Instagram followers, a 230% lift in Twitter mentions, and about 3,500 visits to her Wikipedia page. More than 1.1 million YouTube detections in the U.S. in the past three months is an increase of 15% compared to the three months prior. She resonates well with male millennials, and her strongest social platform is probably Instagram; with a fairly moderate 26,000 followers, she received more than 120,000 likes on content in the past month.

Positive and sustained growth in numbers across networks, as well as a highly engaged following, indicates that Elliphant is indeed a rising star.

Describing Elliphant's sound poses somewhat of a predicament – it is a mélange of hip-hop, R&B, and electronic. But she's young, fresh, and in working with her, Apple may have taken a risk, but it is paying off. The young artist is growing rapidly, and expanding her fan base particularly in the U.S. (approximately 50% of her Twitter mentions in the past month came from the States, 7x the number of mentions from home in Sweden).

Once she reaches mainstream, the brand will have bet on her early, and played a major role in introducing her to new audiences – audiences that she needs to reach at this critical stage in her career. As these types of partnerships become more and more ubiquitous it is becoming clear that the brands and bands that are willing to take risks, and a creative approach to collaboration, will stand out as leaders in the market.

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com. Liv Buli is the resident data journalist for music analytics company Next Big Sound. She takes a data-driven perspective to covering the ins and outs of the music industry. Buli is a graduate of New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and her work has appeared in Newsweek Daily Beast, Forbes, Billboard, Hypebot and more.

[nextbigsound-blog]

This Week in Music and More

¡Hola todos!

I’m comin’ at you LIVE from the MIA Music Summit and have decided I should probably just stay in Miami. 1. It's like super warm and sunny here. 2. It's like super warm and sunny here. 3. It's like super warm and sunny here. 

I repped Next Big Sound in front of approximately 10 million industry folks at the crack of dawn (9:30am) yesterday. My smooth confidence was only bolstered when the organizers last-minute mentioned the event would be liv(e)-streamed to the whole wide world. Silver lining though- that means you can watch it, HERE!  

Enough about me, let’s get down to brass tacks. A little post-SXSW round up is in order. To begin with, our very own Alex White judged a music hackathon and got his picture in the a paper. (Billboard)

This guy did not really like my data-driven suggestions for whom to see at SXSW! TO EACH THEIR OWN. (Daily Dot)

I am not entirely sure if this article is saying that corporate sponsorship is a good thing or a bad thing, but it does mention our State of the Industry! (Mic)

Did you ever think you were going to see NBS mentioned in an article about Sustainable Development Goals for the UN? Neither did we! Shout out to our new pals at the UN. (Huffington Post) 

Meanwhile, in Teen Catastrophes ™… (Digiday)

Here is a cool piece from Contently on brands that are doing interesting work with Spotify. (Contently)

Our CTO Samir shared this piece with me that claims urban music is saving the album format. I guess three incidences does qualify as a trend, but I mean, like, uhm, like, what about T. Swift? (Quartz)

Today in VERY IMPORTANT PRANKS: here is the story making the rounds from Digital Music News about the alleged Spotify sale that has half the industry breathing through paper bags. Repeat: this is an April Fools’ prank. I’m only sorry it comes but once a year. (Digital Music News)

So we’re wondering if maybe Zayn left cause he wasn’t getting as much Twitter love as the rest of the boys? 

As for videos this week. I came across this cover of Wicked Game through a friend of mine that is an artist manager. I have never liked this song, and then this happened. (And no, before you ask, it is not the Lana Del Rey version.) (YouTube)

I don't know what to say about this video. But I feel strongly about sharing it with you. (Adweek)

That’s all folks. 

[nextbigsound-blog]

Seeking a Fresh Format, YouTube’s Music Awards Put Artists Front And Center

Two years ago, YouTube hosted their inaugural Music Awards Show. The event, live-streamed from a New York warehouse, was intended to celebrate the many musicians that have leveraged the platform to reach fans and build a loyal audience over the years. The video quality and response was mixed. So this year YouTube changed it up.

On March 2nd, Youtube announced the 50 award winners, chosen for their impact on the platform and massive growth in subscribers, video views, and audience engagement. On Monday, 13 music videos featuring a selection of the honored artists and performers, went live on the award show website. As the introductory video (which has already been watched more than 3 million times) states, this is an award show that you can "enjoy whenever, and however you want." And there are big names involved. Martin Garrix, Kygo, Charli XCX, and Lindsey Stirling are among the artists premiering music videos with the platform this week.

The show was "sort of" hosted by YouTube personality Tyler Oakley (Oakley has more than 6.6 million channel subscribers, and is known for breaking artists like Betty Who by endorsing her on his show), in a string of backstage commentary videos.

The format is definitely a different experience than your traditional award show. A video playlist that includes the official music videos, Oakley's introductions, and behind the scenes footage from several artists is provided, making it easy to follow, but it would not be surprising if viewers dropped off. However, each of the music videos has already racked up at least a few hundred thousand views.

Some are more popular than others, Martin Garrix feat. Usher, with the track "Don't Look Down," has close to a million views in total, compared to some of the lesser known artists like Shamir, whose video for "Call It Off" is on the lower end of the spectrum at only 200,000+ (still, that is close to 2x the number of views in one day, than Shamir saw for his all-time most popular YouTube video "On The Regular" in the past month).

Up-and-comer Shamir saw close to 2x the number of views for the YouTube Music Award video in one day, than he saw for “On The Regular” in the past month. 

You have to give it to YouTube – the clear focus on the music itself is refreshing. They haven't skimped on quality and cost. The videos are well-produced, promote the artist and their work more than the platform itself, and the entire format is an innovative approach to a tired tradition.

YouTube made the news last week as well. Previewing their new artist data tool during SXSW, the video platform is putting a lot of emphasis on supporting artists. The strategy is clever: YouTube reaps the positive publicity from making moves that are beneficial to artists.

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com. Liv Buli is the resident data journalist for music analytics company Next Big Sound. She takes a data-driven perspective to covering the ins and outs of the music industry. Buli is a graduate of New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and her work has appeared in Newsweek Daily Beast, Forbes, Billboard, Hypebot and more.

[nextbigsound-blog]

This Week in Music and More

Oh hello.

Liv Buli here. I'm back from vaca and tanner better than ever. And since it's Friday, I have a slew of links you probably won't, but really should read. For the record, this right here is why I will always know more than you. Mwaaahaha. (Also, I just had like eight coffees, so y'all got that going for you.)

So much SXSW this week! The star of the show being Meerkat. Here's a round up of all the most interesting thangs, and Gary Clark Jr. of course made the cut.  Adweek

And here's why THIS GUY thinks Meerkat is awesome for music. Medium

Also, our friends over at YouTube premiered their new data tool. Billboard

And Sony is making a bid to own 100% of The Orchard. Mine. All Mine! Billboard

It's all happening, guys. IT'S ALL HAPPENING. Adios Internet Explorer. Gizmodo

Janelle Monaé started her own label, and I think their offices will be on some sort of boat? Hooooope it's better than the Backstreet Boys cruise. Adweek

Everyone on the whole friggin’ planet is listening to Kendrick's new album. That doesn’t mean you have to! Probably should though? Mashable

Commence giggling now, as we (FINALLY, amirite?) explore the etymology of “dongle”. Slate

In case you didn't catch it, Dylan Love from The Daily Dot wrote this sweet article about us. (And included a photo of our own punk rock Frenchman Julien Benatar to add some serious cool.) The Daily Dot

The Empire season finale happened, and somehow we got name-dropped. GUYZ. We're ~famous~. Forbes

Here's our latest piece up on Medium. I fangirled a little during this interview. Which was totally out of character for me, notorious cool person. Medium

Will Ferrell threw Little Debbie a big creamy bone this week, announcing that he was the goddamn delicious snack cake’s new brand ambassadress on Jimmy Fallon. It does not appear that Little Debbie requested or compensated him for this, but we’re sure he’s helped them tap into his strong teen boy demographic, who are so famously unfamiliar with cheap, plastic-wrapped junk food.

If you are interested in expanding your own snack cake vocabulary, here is the compelling clip. Regardless, who can resist a Will Ferrell/Jimmy Fallon vid? YouTube

The Weeknd is blowing up right now. This super saucy music video probably helps. Vevo

And finally, in important GIFs this week: this is what it felt like to return from my week in Curacao, and wake up to snow in NY.

That's all folks.

[nextbigsound-blog]

Hot Off U.S. Album Debut, Sheppard Are Itching To Break Through

Sheppard are more than just a band. They are a family.

Well to be specific, the Aussie natives are comprised of three siblings and three good friends, who together are making music that is taking the world by storm. Having already gone 5x platinum with their hit single “Geronimo” in Australia, Sheppard released their full LP in the United States this past Tuesday, are wrapping up a U.S. tour with pop-sensation Meghan Trainor, and will have a whole day off before they launch their European tour next week. On the day the album dropped, they had a 78% likelihood of hitting the Billboard 200.

It all started back in Brisbane when Amy Sheppard had a university assignment to write a song. Something was missing from the track – she needed harmonies. When she heard her brother George crooning in the shower, she decided to ask for his help. Amy, George, and a friend from Sydney, Jason Bovino, started writing songs and independently recording an album. Little sister Emma, guitarist Michael Butler, and drummer Dean Gordon eventually joined the team, and the rest is pretty much history.

Sheppard are buzzing more than ever. They saw about 20,000 views to their Wikipedia page in the past month, and more than 12,000 Twitter mentions in the past month (a fairly impressive number given that their total following is still less than 50,000). Perhaps most telling of their imminent success abroad, is about 1.5 million YouTube detection video views in the U.S., an increase of 40% from the month prior.

The three songwriters meld very different styles together, which is clear in how much variety there is on the pop album. They also alternate between male and female vocal leads. George spearheads tracks like “Geromino,” and “Find Someone,” while Amy takes charge on singles like “Smile.”

While the band knew they had a hit on their hands when they recorded “Geronimo,” nothing could have prepared them for what was to ensue. “We knew we had something special,” says Amy, “but it surpassed all our expectations.” Despite their newfound celebrity, they say having a normal life still isn’t too hard, though it can be hard to find time for coffee with friends, and Amy’s bright blue hair doesn’t exactly let her blend into the crowd.

The decision to release the album in the U.S. now was fairly straightforward. “The timing was just right in the United States,” says George. “Geronimo has been doing really well over here.”

Their U.S. radio spins have been steadily increasing – about 35,000 spins since the beginning of the year is close to a 300% increase from the three months prior. Their American fan base has been growing rapidly on social (The U.S. has surpassed Australia as the band’s most active country on Twitter), they made their U.S. television debut on Ellen last fall, and played the coveted Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon this February. “It just seemed like the perfect time to release the album over here,” he says, “It has been a dream of ours for a long time.”

Their debut 18-stop U.S. tour alongside Meghan Trainor has also been a success, and not to mention fun. “It’s Meghan’s first tour around the U.S. as well,” says Amy. “So we’ve had something to bond over – going through this for the first time together.” Touring here is definitely different than at home. “There is a lot more country, a lot more cities that you have to visit,” chuckles George. He also says there seems to be more anticipation, given that they are Australian. “You’re an overseas act, and to have made it over to the States, you must be ok at what you’re doing.”

They’re tired, but excited. “It’s a lot of early mornings and late nights,” says George, “but we’re getting opportunities that a lot of people could only dream about, so that keeps us going.”

And it’s not just musical talent they possess in droves, they’ve been in the game long enough to really understand the business side of entertainment as well. Sheppard are still independent in Australia, having established their own record label Empire of Song, and distributing the album through MGM. They started working with Chugg Music in 2012, and later signed a deal with Decca Records in the UK, who established a partnership with Republic Records in the U.S. for representation here.

Sheppard has already worked with major brands, on a national scale. Among them, syncing a track to an Australian Subway commercial, as well as working with Hyundai in Italy (the latter has driven high levels of online activity in Italy for Sheppard). "I think it's really important nowadays for bands to be serious about working with brands," says George.

"The whole 'sellout' thing is a load of crap to me," he explains. "You need money to be able to sustain this business, this career." 

While creative campaigns and the right fit are important, he says you have to be realistic about the business aspects of this industry. "It's not cheap to go touring, and to set up a band. It's quite a lot of hard work, and it's very expensive. So when an opportunity comes along - like with Subway – not only is it great exposure for us, but they give us money for it." These deals are what allow Sheppard to tour the U.S., and promote their music worldwide. "If it is something I would personally endorse, then I don't have a problem with it."

As the album hits U.S. shelves, the band is on whirlwind of tour dates and press appearances. But they still find time for fun. There is that element of sibling shenanigans of course, but apparently George is a bit of a prankster with a penchant for scaring his bandmates. But he gets his comeuppance from time to time, like when bandmate Jason once hid in his bedroom closet for 20 minutes before bursting out while he was getting ready. It just takes a bit of commitment. Just like a career in music.

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com. Liv Buli is the resident data journalist for music analytics company Next Big Sound. She takes a data-driven perspective to covering the ins and outs of the music industry. Buli is a graduate of New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and her work has appeared in Newsweek Daily Beast, Forbes, Billboard, Hypebot and more.

[nextbigsound-blog]

Why You Should Be Paying Attention To James Bay

James Bay is a well-spoken and thoughtful young man.

While it would be easy to get caught up in the trappings of everything that is going on with his own career – awards, press, world travel, sold-out tours – Bay is reflective about the hard work and good fortune it takes to get where he is, the essential value of time and experiences when it comes to creating music, and the direction and future of the music industry.

Bay grew up in Hitchin, a small town north of London. Despite his young age – Bay is just 25 – he has been making music for more years than he can count. He taught himself to play the guitar, and spent years writing music and playing in bands. At 19, he moved south to Brighton, and says that is when he started stepping out on his own. “That’s where I went crazy with the whole solo thing, playing open mic nights,” he recalls. “Really learning how to play live, and how to capture an audience.”

One thing led to another says Bay. A video recording of a performance ended up at Republic Records and they reached out. “They said ‘we’d love to fly you over and hear some more songs.’” That was only Bay’s second trip to New York in his life. Next time he's in town, he’ll be releasing his debut full-length album. Chaos and the Calm will hit the shelves this March.

And the timing couldn't be better, recently the accolades have been rolling in for Bay. “The Brits Critics Choice Award was out of this world,” he says. “I get to release my debut album soon. I’ve been dreaming about this for years.” He also received a nod from BBC as runner-up for Sound of 2015. He's been highlighted as a rising star by Spotify, Yahoo, Next Big Sound, MTV - and the list goes on and on.

The first track to really gain traction for Bay was "Let it Go." A melancholy track about love and loss, Bay's pristine and aching vocals have made it an instant hit. In recent months, he has been seeing a similar amount of play for "Hold Back the River," as well as a significant number of radio spins. (About 140,000 YouTube detections in the US since the beginning of the year for either track.) But Bay says there is no single track that represents his upcoming album.

He currently has about a 40% likelihood of hitting the Billboard 200 this year, according to Next Big Sound. Driving this high chance of success is strong social growth. He added more than half his Facebook following in the past three months, and more than 50,000 new followers on Twitter, a 262% increase from the three months prior. He has close to 14 million video views in total on Vevo, and 3 million plays on SoundCloud.

As for the current state of the music industry, Bay has a strong sense of the value of working with a label. ”They’ve given me time and space, which are pretty priceless things to be given,” he says. “I didn’t sign a deal and start making a record right away.” He says he didn’t feel ready, he wasn’t sure what he wanted it to sound like just yet. His team at Republic recognized that, and didn’t push, giving him the bandwidth to really figure it out.

On artists that leverage independent opportunities he says: “There are a lot of different streams to that ocean.” It costs money to make an album. How you pay for it is up to you, but every route to success is valid.

When it comes to brand collaborations, Bay is clear. “I think it’s a way forward for music, the industry has struggled with the internet." But he doesn't see the value of working with just anyone. "I am not going to throw myself at some enormous car company," he says. "It has to come down to the artist. It has to feel right."  What he is really excited to see, are brands digging deep and uncovering real talent at an early stage, and bringing this music to a wider audience.

Bay has a warm and welcoming disposition. He greets me by my first name off the bat, squirms a bit when I ask him what his favorite song is – how do you pick just one? He settles on "Lean on Me," thanks me for asking him fun questions, and shares that his favorite color is purple. Given his current trajectory though, don't be surprised if it's soon gold or platinum.

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com. Liv Buli is the resident data journalist for music analytics company Next Big Sound. She takes a data-driven perspective to covering the ins and outs of the music industry. Buli is a graduate of New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and her work has appeared in Newsweek Daily Beast, Forbes, Billboard, Hypebot and more.

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Coast to Coast: Win The Chance To Perform

Next Big Sound is teaming up with Eventbrite and media company The Wild Honey Pie to give two individual artists or bands the opportunity to get their music heard – and heard by the right people. 

Our west coast winner will perform in front of music industry veterans at the ASCAP EXPO Attendee Showcase in LA, the other will take the stage at Brooklyn's famous Northside festival at Wild Honey Pie's Beehive this summer. 

Think you, or someone you know, has what it takes to land this opportunity? Artists and bands of all genres are encouraged to submit a clip of a performance of an original song, as well as a few other tidbits of information:

Artist or Band Name

YouTube link of an original song that you would like to perform if selected as a winner

Full names of all people in the video

Full name(s) of songwriter(s) of original song performed in the video

Your performance opportunity preference: New York, LA or either!

Next Big Sound will help evaluate submissions based on their likelihood for success, harnessing our predictive capabilities that rely on social and online streaming data for every artist in the world. A panel of judges will then make the final selections based on the quality of submissions, as well as the data. 

Take advantage of this opportunity to take center stage at key music industry events. The submissions deadline is April 6th, 2015 at 11:59 PDT. We can't wait to hear your music, crunch some data, and see you perform!

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Why Engagement Might Be The Most Important Metric For Artists

But often overlooked in this dismissal of the validity of social activity is the fact that building a significant social following is fairly pointless for an artist unless they successfully leverage that following at critical moments. To reach fans with a new lyric video, to spread the word about a tour, to gauge interest in an upcoming album release – ultimately to interact with fans and get instant feedback on what you are creating.

While a vast social following can be a valuable tool, only legitimate and loyal followers that engage with the content you provide through social channels, and ultimately your work, provide you with the reach and engagement you are seeking as an artist. For this very reason, it is important to look beyond totals, and start to measure the relationship between daily activity and the number of fans you have – a measure of engagement.

Artist manager Robbie Lackritz has been working with Leslie Feist – known only as Feist – for close to a decade, and has a strong sense of how to build valuable engagement with fans. Feist, who is a Canadian singer-songwriter with more than four solo studio albums under her belt as well as countless collaborations with other artists and bands, has maintained a successful career as an artist for many years now.

Her most commercially successful album came in 2007. The Reminder (the making of which is chronicled in her 2010 documentary Look At What The Light Did Now) earned her four nominations for Grammy awards in 2010, including Best New Artist. About her latest album Metals and their release strategy, Lackritz says “it was a lot more about finding a more engaged core of followers.”

With just shy of a million page likes on Facebook, 127,000 followers on Twitter and more than 20 million video views on Vevo, Feist is classified as a Mainstream musician. But for the artist and her management team, building the largest online following, and simply hocking social content for attention, has never been the goal.

While they see the value in cultivating a social following, and Lackritz regularly employs analytics to understand how fans are reacting online, the artist posts fairly infrequently online. Her Instagram account totals only 15 snaps and two videos, she rarely puts out more than one piece of content per week on Facebook, and her last tweet was in November.

For each individual post Feist has in her Facebook feed, there are hundreds, if not thousands of interactions from followers. But given that she is nearing the end of her current album cycle, and the relative infrequency of social activity, her audience engagement is defined as Moderate.

Next Big Sound identifies four levels of engagement: Occasional, Moderate, Strong, and Passionate. Audience engagement is defined by the relationship between daily activity and the overall size of an artist’s following, and then performance is measured against that of every artist in the database. Artists that are defined as Moderate, such as Feist, range from the 16th to the 84th percentile.

Engagement is not contingent on having a massive following. For instance, Taylor Swift’s audience engagement is also defined as Moderate, despite the fact that she has more than 77 million Facebook page likes, close to 50 million Twitter followers, and has just released her latest album to great fanfare. This measure is valuable for artists at any stage, to help them understand how they are reaching fans, and what content is reacting.

But be weary of engagement for the sake of engagement. “If we’re posting photos of cute cats, people are going to engage,” he says, “But when it comes down to the marketing of Feist, and what we put on her pages and why, we really try to center around where her head is at, and what she is working on.” The fans who follow and interact with Feist on social, attend her shows, enjoy the art of her album, and will help her sustain a career for many years to come.

“Her types of social media campaigns are far less active in volume of posts, but try to be much more curatorial about content,” Lackritz explains. “That lends itself to the type of career that she aspires to have – which is not about being the most gigantic artist on the face of the earth, but about having fans that really appreciate the deep cuts on the record, as much as they do the songs that radio might consider playing.”

“As nice as it is to have these social mediums of marketing to be able to engage people,” Lackritz says, “Don’t compromise the end result of why you do what you do, and what’s special about what you do.”

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com. Liv Buli is the resident data journalist for music analytics company Next Big Sound. She takes a data-driven perspective to covering the ins and outs of the music industry. Buli is a graduate of New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and her work has appeared in Newsweek Daily Beast, Forbes, Billboard, Hypebot and more.

[nextbigsound-blog]

Extra! Extra! Announcing Our Redesigned Profile Page

Less Complexity

The biggest change you might notice? We’ve dramatically simplified the design of the Profile page to deliver you the right information, right away. We’ve eliminated unused features while increasing the power of your favorite tools. Much more data is immediately available and exposed for easy comparison, rather than hidden behind multiple dropdown menus and labyrinthine tabs. This is perhaps our proudest improvement to the Profile page: simplification.

Real Data Science

At the top of every Profile page, you’ll discover four new data insights: Metric Trends, Overall Audience Reach, Overall Audience Engagement, and Artist Stages. These valuable new measures, based on extensive user research, use our unique, preeminent perspective to provide critical context to each and every profile we track.

With Metric Trends, you can quickly judge whether this week’s numbers are on target or spiking, then dive deeper into the profile to investigate. Metric Trends compares the past week of change across all metrics associated with a profile (from Page Likes to pageviews) to performance over the past 180 days. For example, a week after the release of the movie adaptation of Gone Girl, author Gillian Flynn’s metrics went viral, with a median increase of 537%.

Two new insights serve to measure a profile’s social strength relative to all the profiles in our database: Overall Audience Reach and Overall Audience Engagement. Overall Audience Reach measures the size of a profile’s fanbase on various social networks, compares these values to values for all the profiles we follow, then provides a percentile ranking (from a low of 0 to a high of 100) for the profile you’re reviewing. Overall Audience Engagement functions similarly, though it analyzes the ratio of social interactions to total social following. For example, although this summer’s star, Ariana Grande, lands at the 100th percentile for Audience Reach (earning her Enormous reach), her Audience Engagement ranks at the 71st percentile, a Moderate level of engagement.

Data Science isn’t limited to these measurements, however. We’re providing percentile ranks for nearly every metric in the Reach and Engagement tables. These numbers mirror the figures available in Ranks on the old profile and provide immediate, meaningful perspective on the performance of metrics.

Finally, Artist Stages are now available on all musician profiles. Through our extensive research on the digital arc of all artists, we’ve identified five stages that artists move through on their way to dominating the airwaves. This framework for the size of an artist’s social following at any given stage of their career provides context around social data and traditional criteria for success. For a more detailed explanation on how artist stages work, check out this article.

More Content Data

We’ve heard loud and clear that content is the focus for band managers and book editors alike: that latest release, that new sound, is what’s foremost on your mind. On our new Profile page, we’re automatically pulling activity for the last three releases across multiple metrics. Recent Releases are automatically timeshifted from their release dates to enable easy, relevant comparisons and to ascertain whether that latest release is performing better than previous releases.

One-to-one Profile Comparisons

We’re also very excited to share a new feature: in-page, one-to-one Profile comparisons. Simply use the comparison search to find another profile you’d like to compare — metrics for the other profile will appear side-by-side to provide that critical context, across Recent Content, Reach, Engagement, Audience, and Content measures. It’s great for those moments when you need to know, right this second, whether Katy Perry has more Twitter Followers than you. (She does. 61 million of them.)

Even More

We could go on and on! We’ve split metrics into Sales, Reach, and Engagement tables to ease comparisons between similar metrics. We have a whole host of new options for looking at data in time, whether from last week or last year. Now, you can compare profile demographics across multiple metrics, as well as see top countries and cities together. We’re very proud of our new Profile page and there’s so much more to share — why not search for a profile and explore for yourself!

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Increased Access; Added Intelligence

How does this affect you?

Registered users: Free access to all profiles

• Any currently registered users — you now have complete and total access to all profiles. Search for anything and explore all our public data, for any profile, for free.

Artist credit users: Access to all profiles and Graphs

• If you’re currently paying for monthly artist credits, congratulations! As a thank you for your valued patronage, we’re giving you access to Graphs, our core data exploration tool. • We will continue to charge your credit card at the same rate that you’re currently paying.  • If you’re unhappy, you’re welcome to cancel your account and enjoy the free access that everyone else now enjoys.

Enterprise users: Access to all profiles and all reports

• If you’re an enterprise user, you’ll notice no changes. You’ll continue to enjoy access to exclusive products, custom data integrations, and great client service.

This is a big change for us. In the past five years, we’ve changed the way the music industry does business, from independent musicians to the major labels. We believe we can make an even greater impact on all creative industries by making more of our data, and more of our tools, free and publicly available. We want to bring more value to more users, in the music and publishing industries alike.

Our mission is simple — we make data useful for everyone. For our enterprise partners, we offer advanced data analysis and reporting tools, custom reporting, and private-data ingestion.

We’re really excited about this new chapter for Next Big Sound. We want to make the best music analytics tool available to as many people as we can. We’re here to empower everyone, from the undiscovered artists to the major labels, to bring intelligence to their intuition. Please send feedback to this email address: [email protected]

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Welcome to the Laboratory

Today we’re excited to launch Next Big Sound Labs. Between the experimental and the final, you’ll find labs – prototypes of new features, research, and ideas we’re toying with at Next Big Sound.

In the first three quarters of 2014 we’ve tracked more than 260 billion song plays and a tremendous amount of activity across other metrics and industries. Over the past five years some of the ways we’ve made this data useful include the ever-improving reports in the Next Big Sound product, weekly emails, charts licensed to Billboard, launching Next Big Book, and our partnership with Spotify to make data easily available to artists and managers. We’re still early in our journey of making data as useful as possible to creative businesses, and with the launch of Labs we’re giving the world an early look at some of the new ideas and applications we’re exploring.

One of the guiding principles of labs is giving the Next Big Sound team a playground to experiment with new ideas and to give the world access to interactive ways to explore data. To this end, we spend one week each quarter dedicated to hacking. You can learn more about this and how we work on Github. Not all hacks make it into labs, but many do, and we’re excited to spotlight a few for you today. To learn more about the origins of labs check out the Making Labs blog post.

Sound Predictions

How do the audio characteristics of a track lead to sales? This analysis answers this question by comparing iTunes sales data to audio data from The Echo Nest. The properties provided break each song into components like duration, tempo, loudness, etc. 

After applying machine learning techniques, we were able to build a model that predicted sales with 63% accuracy using only the audio properties of a song. Although using other information about artists and tracks, like online social activity, can significantly boost the performance of the model, that would be cheating. Our goal was to see what can be learned exclusively from a song's audio properties. Give the lab a spin and read more about the research behind this lab. 

Lift Calculator

How much would someone need to spend on advertising to equal the social gains they've made in the last 30 days compared to the prior period? Using daily metrics from Facebook Page Likes, Twitter Mentions, Twitter Retweets, Twitter Followers, Vevo Video Views, and YouTube Video Views, this lab puts a dollar value on social media. Advertising rates can vary based on numerous factors so we've made it easy to adjust assumptions. Give the lab a spin. 

We developed the social media value calculator to help our clients determine the financial impact of social campaigns. By comparing activity for a given time period to a baseline benchmark, we are able to isolate the impact a campaign has on an artist's social reach and engagement. 

Share labs with your friends, see what you can learn, and don’t hesitate to send ideas and feedback to [email protected]. Enjoy!

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Measuring The Impact Of Brand And Band Partnerships

Once considered “selling out,” these partnerships are not only increasing in quantity, but also in quality. Artists, their management teams, and the brands they are working with, are more frequently creating clever, original content that goes beyond the traditional endorsement, and leveraging a more connected audience to spread the word. From exclusive tracks as the new cereal box prize, to tweet-driven odes to pretzel buns, to using a brand platform to help market an album release, artists and brands are proving that there is more than one way to work together.

And there are benefits to this beyond cashing a check for the financial compensation that is negotiated as part of a contract. While partnering with a brand can provide a source of cash flow that labels are unable to provide, artists are also supplied with a platform to reach an even broader audience than their core fan base. And in return, brands build a strong association with the artists, more engaged customers, and cultural relevance.

In “Bands and Brands: The Value Exchange” Next Big Sound teams up with global music agency FRUKT to take a deeper look at how these partnerships have evolved. The report highlights the implicit additional value for both parties, from increased exposure, to sonic brand recall. It attempts to quantify the impact on social, streaming and sales across campaigns. Looking at them in aggregate allows us to measure the typical impact, such as a 10% increase in Wikipedia page views for artists the week after a partnership is announced, or a 40% lift in YouTube video views for brands.

In addition this impact can be quantified as earned media value, where the value of social activity is equivalent to the cost of purchasing a similar number of social impressions. For instance, after partnering with Doritos during last year’s edition of SXSW, Lady Gaga saw more than $1.2 million dollars in earned media value on Twitter. This type of context helps set valid expectations, where expectations have not been set before.

The report also explores which brand verticals are the most likely areas for artist collaboration, as opposed to what type of brands artists and managers say they want to work with. For instance, according to an artist manager survey conducted as part of the report, while 90% of artists and managers desire to work with a technology brand, only about 45% have done so in the past.

The report is a first step toward building a new valuation model for assessing opportunity, fit, and success, as the collaborative culture of music brand partnerships is established as a core component of the industry.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com. Liv Buli is the resident data journalist for music analytics company Next Big Sound. She takes a data-driven perspective to covering the ins and outs of the music industry. Buli is a graduate of New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and her work has appeared in Newsweek Daily Beast, Forbes, Billboard, Hypebot and more.