Did you know that Aya Nakamura walks in the Philippines? That Ed Sheeran chooses songs based on concert location to benefit from a broadcast return effect? Data, understanding data exploitation, is an essential part of the music industry.
The data allows first of all to know “how music moves”, sums up Minh Loan Paturle, director of international development at Warner Music France, interviewed on Monday, February 6 by a handful of journalists in Paris.
A French piece in the Top 5 Asia
Aya Nakamura, the most listened to French-speaking artist in the world, has many surprises in store. The singer has reached audiences far removed from natural basins by titles in France, traditionally, Switzerland, Belgium, Quebec, the Antilles, North and West Africa or even Polynesia.
The song “Copines” (2018) thus rose to the Top 5 Asia on Spotify, based on a choreography published from the Philippines on TikTok. To later spread to Thailand, Burma, Indonesia, etc. A piece often referred to by the title “Pota Pota” by internet users in the Philippines.
The data not only enables traceability, but also business responsiveness. Thus, another title by Aya Nakamura, “Nirvana” (2020), remixed by a DJ from the Marshall Islands, in Oceania, one day bursts the screen on TikTok. The record label and the record company then contact him to market this new version, with the artist’s consent.
Three to six weeks to enjoy TikTok
“At first he didn’t want to believe us, he thought we were joking,” recalls William Edorh, head of Rec118, one of Warner Music France’s four local labels. Don’t stay put, insists Minh Loan Paturle: “we have between three and six weeks to take advantage of” a TikTok trend before it dries up and is followed by another.
The data also allows for projections. “With our Hype Habits project, we show how the choice of pieces in concert in a geographical area will later have consequences in this area in the transmission of certain titles after the show”, explains David Mahieux, Warner’s data pole manager. Music France, created four years ago, four members in total today.
And show an internal video on his computer where Ed Sheeran admits to being “fascinated” by this development that allows him to optimize listening on platforms after a concert, differently in Paris or Puerto Rico. “It’s a choice between one or two tracks for an artist like Ed Sheeran, it’s just a decision aid that depends on the artist, we don’t want a robot artist,” David Mahieux stresses.
How to monetize audience attention
Data is a tool in the “attention economy,” as Alain Veille, president of Warner Music France, puts it. Or how to better monetize attention when capturing an audience that is increasingly in demand between traditional media and new platforms.
Major labels like Warner’s aren’t the only ones relying on data. In 2020, during a presentation of the results of the export of artists produced in France, the independent structure Ekler’o’shock explained how, thanks to the analysis of listening platforms in South America, it targeted venues for the electro duo Polo & Cacerola . Not necessarily in the cities that would first come to mind.
Source: BFM TV
