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Data Analytics In Music Touring

Music touring is as old as mankind. Before the invention of Vinyl records, people could only enjoy music live.

Musicians like Mozart or Clara Schumann did extensive touring of their music.

Think of music touring as of now. You probably envision big spectacles like the Bigger Bang tour of The Rolling Stones.

Or you even might remember a small intimate show of this newcomer you just discovered.

No matter what association comes to your mind. One thing is clear. Music touring has changed a lot since the days of Mozart and Clara Schumann.

Touring has become one of the most lucrative sections in the music industry. What is more, merch sold at concerts now makes a big portion of musicians income overall.

For the longest time, professionals working in touring had to have a really strong gut feeling when it came to making decisions.

How big should the venue be? How many fans are there locally and nationally? Is the magazine ad I’m running really engaging the fanbase?

Data Analytics has changed music touring in unprecedented ways

It might not come as a surprise when I say that Data Analytics has been one of the biggest changes in music touring. Collecting and evaluating data from your fanbase is giving you incremental benefits.

You can tailor your online marketing campaign to fit exactly the right people. Making your marketing budget stretch wider making everything much more economical.

That is not all, with data-driven marketing campaigns you can reach new customers. This helps you a great deal when planning a tour.

Your band might be a well-established band (and brand) that has a loyal fanbase. But what about this emerging new market? Why are there so many fans in Polen?

Data can give you a solid base for making all important decisions. Most importantly it will sketch out a custom audience. Once you have your custom audience, your marketing campaign will be much efficient and successful!

Data Analytics And Touring, Music Touring and Big Data, get data for touring, Digital Consulting for the Music Industry, Sara-Lena Probst, sara-lena probst, saralenaprobst.com, Blog about Music, Music Blog, BlackbirdPunk, Blackbirdpunk Consulting, Digital Consulting for the Music Industry, music industry digital entertainment agency, Berlin, berlin, digital, work digital, freelancer digital music industry

Data can serve you a solid base for planning a tour

There are many sources to draw your data from. Many streaming services offer the possibility of accessing data.

Spotify for Artists, for example, lets you see who listen to what music when and where. Social Media platforms like Facebook or TikTok also give access to data.

Link tracking is especially good when you are planning a tour. Make sure that all partners along the distribution chain use custom made links that you track.

That means that you can see exactly where people bought your tickets. It also shows you who is still hesitating. Making them a prime target for retargeting efforts.

However, no matter where you get your data from. Firstly, make sure that the whole process is GDPR compliant.

Secondly, you have to contextualise the collected data. Especially when the data comes from different sources. Not all data is created equally. Third-party providers like Chartmetric can help in making things easier.

Is Data Analytics in Music Touring the new black?

Data Analytics in Music Touring offers endless opportunities. You can track people and make specific profiles of your audience.

New markets are getting in reach like never before. Bands set up there tracklists after the most streamed songs on Spotify.

You have an artist like Metallica, who changes their setlist on a city-by-city basis just by looking at Spotify data to see, which the most popular songs happened to be in that city – Daniel Ek, CEO Spotify

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However, there are also touring experts who take Data Analytics in Music Touring with a pinch of hesitation.

Berthold Seliger is a longstanding booking agent and concert organizer. When I met him at Most Wanted: Music Conference, he told me:

“I was from the beginning a big streaming fan, also think AI is good and important, and I also think Data Analytics is necessary. As an agent or booker, you would be straightforward stupid not to use this opportunity. But I also think that it is the agent’s job to rather ignore Data when it comes to building up a new artist. It always depends on what you are doing with the Data. Gigmit has built its total business on letting bands play where the Data says, with average fees of under 300€. A proper agent tries to get the artist established and enforced everywhere not just there where the Data suggests.”

Data Analytics in Music Touring has become a standard. However, let’s not forget the experience it takes to manage the jungle of music touring.

There is still a lot of gut feeling needed to make the best decisions. Data Analytics in Music Touring can certainly help but it can’t make the decisions for you.

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