In
October, I flew to Manchester, England to moderate a panel at the In The City music conference. To start,
I was so impressed by how vibrant the areas of Piccadilly and the North Quarter
were. The conference's tagline - The UK's Premiere New Music Festival - was
spot on. I met an amazing group of people while I was there, from fellow
speakers, to artists, to attendees. In
The City covered a wide array of topics that are important to the future of
the music industry.
Of course, my favorite panel was Analyze This, as it was the one I
created and moderated! My fellow panelists were Chris Cooke, the Business Editor of CMU Daily, Barney Wragg of Barney
Wragg Associates, Richard Davies of Ownpig, Dana Al Salem, the founder of Handshake and Stephen Stanton-Downes, the founder of Music Balloon. We all agreed: With empty pockets and smaller album sales, fan
analytics can be immensely useful for musicians to actively engage with, and
understand, their fan base.
What are fan analytics, you may be wondering? Analytics allow you to identify who your fans are, how they
differ, what they're interested in and the best ways to reach them.
Digging deeper, fan
analytics is data to help you understand your fans better. This can include not
only WHAT a fan buys, but also their behavior and what their preferences are: what they like, what they
want to purchase, how they want to purchase it and what they aren't interested
in at all.
The
Section101 platform marries artist website development with digital tools and
social networks, making it easier for artists, managers and record labels to
succeed. Analytics are a core part of our platform as it's something I am
passionate about. You need data to analyze but there's so much out there - you
can't turn it in to something actionable unless you know what you're looking
for. To make better decisions, I always recommend you start small with data
capture, but think big with where you're going with it. Major decisions
translate in to a future win.
It's not
always all sexy stuff getting to be a successful artist but at Section 101 we
want to give you the option of being provocative AND smart!
