What is Next Big Sound?
Next Big Sound provides analytics for online music. This platform is able to perform an analysis on the popularity of an artist by reviewing social networks and streaming services. Next Big Sound tracks mentions of an artist/band across several music websites. Users have the ability to associate multiple sources that will drive analytics.
Connecting Sources
After creating an account on Next Big Sound, you will want to search for yourself or an artist to confirm if a profile exists. If the profile doesn’t exist you will have an opportunity to build one. Here are a list of sources that you can connect to.
- Pandora: a free, personalized radio that plays music you’ll love
- Facebook Insights: a pretty powerful tool for those wanting to track user interaction on their Facebook Fan Page
- Facebook: an American online social media and social networking platform
- Twitter: an online news and social networking site where people communicate in short messages called tweets
- Musicbrainz: a project that aims to create an open data music database
- Google Analytics: gives you the free tools you need to analyze data for your business in one place
- Wikipedia: a free encyclopedia, written collaboratively by the people who use it
- Bandcamp: an indispensable tool for hundreds of thousands of artists and more than 3,000 labels
- Tumblr: a microblogging and social networking website
- Allmusic: an online music guide cataloging more than 3 million album entries and 30 million tracks
- Songkick: an American technology company that provides concert discovery services and ticket sales for live music events
Connect all of the applicable sources using the Connect Sources section. Consider creating accounts for any missing sources that you may have. Creating and confirming that your metadata is correct is an essential step in making sure that your music can be found and purchased.
Remember, the more sites that have your music posted will ultimately result in more exposure for your brand.
Metrics
You can use the metrics to strategize how to engage your fans or connect with new ones. You may find that you need to direct your fans to listen to your music on multiple platforms to strengthen engagement. Standard procedure is to ensure that all of your followers know where to find your music. Spend time focusing on the social sites that feed into Next Big Sound.
Data from Facebook and Twitter will provide information on your audience. This will allow you to target market based off of location and other factors. You can also export this information as a PDF to provide to potential clients. This package can be an attractive sell as you look for endorsements, partnerships or opportunities to become brand ambassadors.
Strategize
Take a look at how other similar artists are performing. What works for them? How are they operating different from you? Use Next Big Sound to map your next steps.