Next Big Sound has published its 2011 report in online music consumption and habits.
The key takeaways from 2011:
- Almost 6 billion plays have been tracked from Last.fm, Soundcloud, MySpace and others
- Artists have amassed 3.4 billion new fans, though bear in mind that one person can become a fan of several bands
- Social media pages for musicians have been viewed over 16 billion times
The report goes on to present site-specific data from the leading social networks and music platforms, detailing their growth since 2010, top five artists, and popularity per day of the week.
If you are a musician, take heed of which days people are more likely to use a particular service so you can share new content to it on that day. If you don't have content for a specific platform, start thinking about what you could create to help build those page views.
Soundcloud
After recently announcing its landmark of 10 million users this week, Soundcloud continues to be the hottest place to store and share music online. We understand that its user base has pretty much doubled in the last year, and tighter integration with external services will help it gather new users. Today, the company is keen to build its user base by positioning itself as a home for podcasting, and more recently, storytelling.
- 231% growth in plays since 2010
- Foo Fighters were most played artist, Beastie Boys were 3rd
- Fans are more less likely to listen to Soundcloud at the weekend, with most plays occurring mid-week
Twitter
Despite widespread encouragement for bands to join twitter to promote their music, it can be a hard platform to get attention for newcomers. Rather than manage a band account, it can be better for musicians to develop their own personal accounts and network with specific individuals from the music industry rather than attempt to build a large following.
- 104% growth in fans following musicians on Twitter
- Pop acts have the most followers, led by Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber
Vevo
After a tie-in with YouTube, Vevo specialises in music videos which can earn artists royalties on ad placements. However, it's dependency on YouTube may potentially allow an external competitor to compete 'from the outside', though this could be unlikely because of YouTube's dominance of video online.
- 97% growth in video views since 2010
- Hip hop and pop artists are most popular, thanks to high-budget videos
- Most music videos are viewed on and around Thursday was week
Facebook
With recent partnerships with music streaming services like Spotify, and the forthcoming 'Listen With Friends' feature, Facebook is proving to be a music behemoth despite being a relatively new entrant to the landscape. It collects information about music habits from user plays and likes in order to help advertisers target specific audiences.
- 96% growth in page likes on musician fan pages
- As with Twitter, pop artists gain the most likes
- Likes are spread through the week, but as with Vevo, more fans are collected on Thursdays
YouTube
While the growth of music video views may seem tame compared to other services, this does not include Vevo views within YouTube. It continues to be the most popular portal to video content on the web, and uploaders can earn a substantial income from ad placements. Anecdotally, it is sometimes seen as the most popular music streaming service in the world, though its owner Google appears to shy away from such a description.
- 62% growth in video views since 2010
- Linkin Park are the second most viewed band on the site, with Skrillex at no. 4
- Video views rise over the week, peaking on Saturday before a sharp drop on Mondays
MySpace
Its fall from grace is well documented, and these page view growth figures leave little room for optimism. But it still carries a powerful SEO ranking, and rallies many plays for artists who continue to maintain a profile.
- 6% growth in page views since 2010
- Less page views at the weekend
Wikipedia
While it is not generally considered a music platform, it remains a popular and easy way for journalists and fans to find out simple factual information, like when a certain album was released. Maintaining a Wikipedia profile is underrated by independent artists, but it can go a long way to helping your act get more detailed media coverage.
- 9.7 billion page views tracked through 2011 (no 2010 figure available)
- Most page views are between Monday - Thursday
What do these figures tell us?
While the critical mass of pop fans may skew the figures too much for rock bands to learn from the information, there are clear patterns in page views and their relation to the working week. Passive sites like Soundcloud which allow you to listen to music in the background while working are popular during the week, whereas the weekend dip could suggest the same people will listen to their home music collection at the weekend.
Similarly, services like Facebook, Wikipedia and Vevo build their traffic over the week, as if their visitors are more easily distracted over the working week, though it could be that they have more free time after completing tasks.
YouTube is the only platform which specifically has higher views at the weekend. Again, we can speculate that people are unable to watch videos without it distracting from their work. Then again, YouTube is often the media player of choice for weekend parties, given its free access and extensive alternative music catalogue. Of course, Vevo is also a video service, and its collects most views during weekdays, but this may relate to the age of its audience.
You can see the original report, and information on the most played and shared artists of the year, at Next Big Sound.
We also recommend Next Big Sound's free service which emails weekly reports on any band you like - including your own, if you provide it with links to your social media sites. In turn, it is able to analyze how many plays, new fans and page views your band collects.
How will your band use this data? Help each other build social networking strategies in the comments, and we may round up the best ideas in a future post.
By Tom Davenport
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