In a digital age where album sales no longer accurately represent a band’s success, it has become increasingly important for bands and labels to be able to measure popularity on the Internet, on sites like Myspace, Last.fm, YouTube, SoundCloud and Facebook. Music data site Band Metrics is looking to offer such a service, and opened up the private beta today for several thousand artists to test its system, reports Hypebot.
Band Metrics not only gauges song plays, profile views and comments across various platforms, but also tracks airplay on over 3,500 radio stations, and scores your music 8 different ways. For example, your band has a “fandom” rating and “brand strength”. The company is also launching a standard format for sending and receiving data from the site, so it’s easy for users to share band data between each other. Check out some of the more interesting forthcoming features in development:
Amanda Palmer, lead singer and pianist of the Dresden Dolls and solo artist, writes in a blog post about how she made $19,000 using some creative strategies on Twitter. She performed a “Donation-Only Gig”, did a Webcast Auction, and started the trending topic on Twitter, “Losers Of Friday Night On Their Computers”, on May 15th. From Amanda’s post:
“I twittered a guest-list only event in a recording studio in Boston, to take place a week later. The gig lasted about 5 hours, all told, with soundcheck and signing. I took mostly requests and we had a grand old time. First come, first served. The first 200 people to ask got in, for free. I asked for donations and made about $2200 in cash. I gave $400 back to the studio for the space and the help. We sold some weird merch. I think we should call it an even 2k.”
Twitter users are more likely to buy music online than non-users. An NPD report says that 33 percent of Twitter users bought a CD in the last three months, compared to 23 percent of all Internet users, and 34 percent of Twitterers purchased a digital download, which is considerably more than the 16 percent of overall Web users who bought music online.
Can Twitter change the downward spiral of music sales? The four major labels, EMI Music, Warner Music, Sony BMG and Universal Music, all have Twitter accounts, no doubt to take advantage of easy distribution on the platform. However, bands and artists have also been able to keep their trusting followers more up-to-date on their latest releases through Twitter, and spread new music more efficiently.
Just about over a week ago, Trent Reznor vehemently gave everyone a long rant on why he was quitting Twitter and all other online social platforms. In a nutshell, Reznor was sick of all places where “idiots rule,” and decided to actually live life for a while as he avoided all the online communities he disapproved.
But what’s this? @trent_reznor is back in action with his posts such as “Just visited my 1st Euro festival toilet. This shit is on!” followed by ones like “And fuck you, trolls. I’ll tweet if I feel like it.” …What?
We Are Hunted, the site that compiles the most popular 99 songs on the internet for your listening pleasure, has gone one step further by now providing a similar list of the top songs on Twitter. The original We Are Hunted chart already combs Facebook, MySpace, message boards, forums, Twitter and P2P networks to give you the latest music, but the “Twitter only” version provides a completely different list.
A quick comparison of the two charts shows that Twitter users are discussing older music, or perhaps the music that has stayed popular over the years, with bands like Jimmy Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Iron Maiden, Faith No More and Rage Against The Machine.
Here’s a story marketing people and Twitter addicts can surely appreciate. The new mixtape from drummer Travis Barker and turntable, mix-master extraordinaire DJ-AM (aka Adam Goldstein), Fix Your Face Vol. 2 – Coachella ‘09, can be yours free in exchange for one, simple Twitter message. A ‘tweet,’ as it’s called.
The duo, known as TRV$DJAM, will give away their new mixtape as a free download once a user has tweeted the message:
Searchme is the new search engine that lets you share information instantly on Twitter and Facebook. It organizes your search into an animation that bring up each page and present s text associated with the page. You then have the option to share the page, zoom in to read it and click through to the original URL address.
Randy Adams, Founder and CEO of Searchme thinks that the service can streamline communication online. He says “whether it’s breaking news stories, videos that makes them laugh or songs from their favorite artist, people love to share what they find on the web with friends and family.”
But does the service help us do those things? I decided to find out.
Musicians have hopped on the Twitter wagon right after they’ve seen how successful MySpace was for music. They can share songs, show dates and videos just like they can on MySpace without the entire page taking forever to load. For most indie bands using Twitter, I think it’s safe to say it’s really them. However, for big stars like Kanye West – not so much. He’s just blogged about how he DOES NOT have a Twitter account and that he can’t believe Twitter allows people to pose as him. Yet… this so called Twitter account has already gained more than a million followers. So, maybe people don’t really care if it’s really the person they want – just as long as they have new info updated every now and then.
Does this affect your choice to follow musicians on Twitter? Do you follow anyway? Do you follow musicians on Twitter at all? I, for one, do follow artists and bands on Twitter because the truth always comes out anyway. Let us know what you think by voting, then read Kanye’s mad-as-hell rant about Twitter below!
Comedian Andy Milonakis’ original track Let Me Twitter Dat has been given a professional electronic makeover with the new remix from Rusko. Judging by Rusko’s official Twitter account, the track was whipped up over this last weekend, and was hyped on several occasions through the micro-blogging service.
The track is featured on Rusko’s Myspace, but it looks like the UK dubstep artist is adopting the Twitter platform to inform fans on upcoming tracks. Many artists are using Twitter to keep fans updated, and it’s possible that the greater pace of the platform puts pressure on artists to release songs as soon as they are finished. Besides the obvious Britney Spears, Sonic Youth and Trent Reznor, do you know of any other musicians or bands that use Twitter? Which do you follow? Do they release new songs frequently?
Compare Rusko’s remix to the original after the jump:
Musicians have hopped on the 
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