Music popularity index
Encyclopedia
A music popularity index is a recorded music
ranking, classified by popularity, which can be measured in many different ways. Nowadays, they are very common in musical websites, since they offer really interesting statistics
which can be used for different applications, like musical recommendations. There are hundreds of ways to measure how popular an artist is and usually each website
has its own measurement system. Although, the leading systems are the ones which follow:
is Internet
's reference to musical social networks. It has a huge database
, based on all the information provided by their users when they listen to music in different ways, storing all the information in their profiles.
Every week, Last.fm
updates its music charts, based on all the information stored last week by the millions of users through the Audioscrobbler plug-in or the Last.fm radio. The website
has many different charts, including Top Artists, Top Tracks, Top Albums, Weekly Top Artists and Weekly Top Tracks. The Top Tracks and the Top Albums of an artist are also available. In a user's profile we have his/her Top Tracks and Top Artists. All these information can be classified in different time periods, such as last week, last month, last 3 months, last 6 months, last year or overall.
made up a system based on the listens of the users which corrects a song
's tag if it differs from what most people registered. On the other hand, the system has errors, like not noticing the difference between two artists with the same name or not taking track length into consideration. Artists with many short tracks will have many more listens than artists with a few but very long ones.
Band Equity measures popularity taking into account the interaction between the artist and the fans or listeners. Any artist registered in ReverNation is measured automatically and the score is tracked over time. Band Equity compares artists with similar styles, so their progress can be benchmarked.
The BBC
created its own system called Sound Index, which measured the popularity of the top 1000 artists, based on discussions taken from: Bebo
, Last.fm
, Google Groups
, iTunes
, Myspace
and Youtube
. The index updated every 6 hours, so it was easy to appreciate fluctuations in popularity. The more blog mentions, comments, listens, downloads or profile views an artist or track had the higher up in the Sound Index they were. The system also allowed the information to be filtered by sources, allowing an index only based on information coming from Last.fm, for example.
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
ranking, classified by popularity, which can be measured in many different ways. Nowadays, they are very common in musical websites, since they offer really interesting statistics
Statistics
Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....
which can be used for different applications, like musical recommendations. There are hundreds of ways to measure how popular an artist is and usually each website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
has its own measurement system. Although, the leading systems are the ones which follow:
Features
Last.fmLast.fm
Last.fm is a music website, founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. It has claimed 30 million active users in March 2009. On 30 May 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for UK£140m ....
is Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
's reference to musical social networks. It has a huge database
Database
A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
, based on all the information provided by their users when they listen to music in different ways, storing all the information in their profiles.
Every week, Last.fm
Last.fm
Last.fm is a music website, founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. It has claimed 30 million active users in March 2009. On 30 May 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for UK£140m ....
updates its music charts, based on all the information stored last week by the millions of users through the Audioscrobbler plug-in or the Last.fm radio. The website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
has many different charts, including Top Artists, Top Tracks, Top Albums, Weekly Top Artists and Weekly Top Tracks. The Top Tracks and the Top Albums of an artist are also available. In a user's profile we have his/her Top Tracks and Top Artists. All these information can be classified in different time periods, such as last week, last month, last 3 months, last 6 months, last year or overall.
Main problems and uprising solutions
Since the generated music charts depend on what the users register and on the tags from their music files, Last.fmLast.fm
Last.fm is a music website, founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. It has claimed 30 million active users in March 2009. On 30 May 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for UK£140m ....
made up a system based on the listens of the users which corrects a song
Song
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...
's tag if it differs from what most people registered. On the other hand, the system has errors, like not noticing the difference between two artists with the same name or not taking track length into consideration. Artists with many short tracks will have many more listens than artists with a few but very long ones.
Features
The website ReverbNation also has joined the great amount of uprising musical social networks, contributing with their particular version. They developed a system to measure artists' popularity called Band Equity.Band Equity measures popularity taking into account the interaction between the artist and the fans or listeners. Any artist registered in ReverNation is measured automatically and the score is tracked over time. Band Equity compares artists with similar styles, so their progress can be benchmarked.
What It Measures
- Reach: The number of unique people reached by the artist, found in social networks, blogs, home pages, etc. It takes into account the unique listeners, watchers of videos, registered fans, fans in the mailing listMailing listA mailing list is a collection of names and addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients. The term is often extended to include the people subscribed to such a list, so the group of subscribers is referred to as "the mailing list", or simply "the...
, etc. It could be described as the total potential fan base, and captures an element of effort on the part of the artist and their fans to spread their content and reach more people.
- Influence: Measures the reaction of those exposed to the artists' content. It takes into account the number of songs or videos played per listener, play-through percentage on songs, the total engagement time, etc. It could be described as the merit of the artist's content.
- Access: The ability of the artist to access those fans directly, and message to them. This factor includes the rate at which listeners/friends convert to registered fans of the Artist or joining their mailing listMailing listA mailing list is a collection of names and addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients. The term is often extended to include the people subscribed to such a list, so the group of subscribers is referred to as "the mailing list", or simply "the...
, giving the Artist the ability to speak to them directly. It could be described as the familiarity the Artist has with their fan base.
- Recency: All of the factors before must be weighted by how they have occurred in time. Because of this, Band Equity can be used as a way to identify how promotional strategies affect fan relationships in the aggregate, helping to understand the reason behind and artist's popularity.
BBC's Sound Index
This was in beta testing during mid-2008, but closed down in July of that year. As of 2011 the website still shows the beta trial as closed.The BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
created its own system called Sound Index, which measured the popularity of the top 1000 artists, based on discussions taken from: Bebo
Bebo
Bebo is a social networking website launched in July 2005. It is currently owned and operated by Criterion Capital Partners after taking over from AOL in June 2010....
, Last.fm
Last.fm
Last.fm is a music website, founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. It has claimed 30 million active users in March 2009. On 30 May 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for UK£140m ....
, Google Groups
Google Groups
Google Groups is a service from Google Inc. that supports discussion groups, including many Usenet newsgroups, based on common interests. The service was started in 1995 as Deja News, and was transitioned to Google Groups after a February 2001 buyout....
, iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
, Myspace
Myspace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
and Youtube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
. The index updated every 6 hours, so it was easy to appreciate fluctuations in popularity. The more blog mentions, comments, listens, downloads or profile views an artist or track had the higher up in the Sound Index they were. The system also allowed the information to be filtered by sources, allowing an index only based on information coming from Last.fm, for example.