Next Big Sound Expands Free Analytics For Musicians, Adds New Metrics

Music data analytics provider Next Big Sound have given musicians, other creatives and those who work them an early Christmas present. As of today, all Next Big Sound profiles, whether for brands, bands, books, etc. are free. And included within a much cleaner redesign are four new data insights: Metric Trends, Overall Audience Reach, Overall Audience Engagement, and Artist Stages.

Here's is how Next Big Sound describes the new free metrics:

Metric Trends – Quickly judge whether this week’s numbers are on target or spiking, then dive deeper into the profile to investigate. Metric Trends compares the past week of change across all metrics associated with a profile (from Page Likes to pageviews) to performance over the past 180 days.

Overall Audience Reach – This measures the size of a profile’s fanbase on various social networks, compares these values to values for all the profiles we follow, then provides a percentile ranking (from a low of 0 to a high of 100) for the profile you’re reviewing.

Overall Audience Engagement – This functions similarly, though it analyzes the ratio of social interactions to total social following. For example, although this summer’s star, Ariana Grande, lands at the 100th percentile for Audience Reach (earning her Enormous reach), her Audience Engagement ranks at the 71st percentile, a Moderate level of engagement.

Artist Stages – "Through our extensive research on the digital arc of all artists, we’ve identified five stages that artists move through on their way to dominating the airwaves. This framework for the size of an artist’s social following at any given stage of their career provides context around social data and traditional criteria for success."

Next Big Sound has also added free in-page, one-to-one Profile comparisons to compare the activity of any two artists side by side. Recent Releases are also timeshifted from their release dates to enable relevant comparisons and to ascertain whether that latest release is performing better than previous releases. (see image below)

Next Big Sound still offers paid tiers that add a graphing tool and data integration, but this impressive free offering should be a regular stop for any musician who wants to measure the effectiveness of their efforts to reach their audience.