Over the last ten years, the amount of data sources that we’ve gained in the music business is staggering. We’re drowning in data - streams, likes, views, follows, CTR’s, shares, even purchases.
So that's great then? Well, not quite.
At Sound Effects, we refer to this type of data as WHAT data, because, you guessed it, it’s data that records ‘what’ happened, in the past. Broadly speaking WHAT data informs us about:
A fan/consumer, action or transaction made, in the past
The consequence of choices or actions a music biz professional made…in the past.
WHAT data has its value, but it has its limitations and more importantly, its risks.
The most obvious problem with WHAT data, if you hadn’t already guessed, is that it reflects…the past. All manner of things - culture, the economy, the competitive landscape etc – could have changed since that original ‘action’. So, WHAT data has its limitations to informing true strategic planning or innovation. The risk and the actuality are it results in a safe, but ultimately diminishing cycle of returns. In addition, WHAT data is often siloed only revealing a small part of a fan’s engagement with an artist and is disconnected from other points of contact or consumption. However, that’s not the biggest problem with WHAT data.
The biggest problem with WHAT data within music is that it doesn’t explain or unpick the human emotion that influenced that fan action or transaction that happened in the past. A big problem, because music is one of the most emotive and personal artforms, sound-tracking the very highs and lows of individual human experience.
Here lies the challenge that anyone faces in developing products or services to appeal to different superfans. No amount of transactional data can explain the psychological, emotional or irrational reasons for a fan's connection with an artist. Furthermore, from within the music business, we have a very distorted view of the real lives of real fans.
The answer is to include WHY data, that's data that reveals the motivation or attitudinal reason why a choice was made, or an action happened. WHY data is about the future, about possibility, about opportunity. WHY is about sparking creativity and empowering ‘informed’ decisions.
WHY data is captured via qualitative research methodology and can be in the form of single, focused projects or by establishing on going infrastructure that keeps delivering ongoing insight.
It's WHY data that allows you to comprehend the unique structure of the fan/artist relationship. To unpick and define the expectations, values, beliefs and behaviours that will inspiring what you should, and perhaps more importantly, what you shouldn’t do within the Fan/Artist Eco-System.
WHY data is fascinating and more empowering and creative than the flood of WHAT data that you are drowning under. Over the coming weeks, we’ll aim to reveal more about WHY and its effects. But if your impatient and eager to learn more now, then get in contact.
Next time, we'll discuss why catalogue is...bollocks!