FUSE News: A look at Next Big Sound, the so-called “Moneyball of music”

What is Next Big Sound?

Next Big Sound is a new company tracking our every like, download, share, tweet and more as they relate to our music listening, shopping, and purchases. Called the “Moneyball of music” by Forbes, Next Big Sound is putting all that data to work—by analyzing the way we find and acquire music and they discover new insights to help musicians from the indies up to the majors to find new ways to market their music to fans.

[next big sound office picture]

How does it work?

I recently got a tour around their New York offices to see how it all works. Alex White, the 27 year old co-founder & CEO, is making waves in the industry, and he’s taking his background in the music industry to the next level. Whereas the old model was to look at CD sales and radio play, the new model offered by Next Big Sound takes a deeper look at how we interact with music online by examining a much wider list of sources including Facebook, Spotify, VEVO, vimeo, Shazam, YouTube, iTunes, Soundcloud, Pandora, and many many more.

Next Big Sound primarily takes a look at three big numbers to get their wider view of the industry. One is the social numbers, which takes a look at all the social activity and views aggregated across a variety of sites. Then they take a look at the sales numbers, which includes things like iTunes sales and Spotify plays. The third big number is events, which takes a look at things like concerts, press mentions, and chart appearances.

Who uses the tech?

Far from a niche player in the industry, Next Big Sound is putting their data to work in big ways. In fact, Billboard is already utilizing their services to produce some really unique lists like the Social 50 which ranks “the most active artists” on social media. They also use it for an interesting new chart called Uncharted which looks at new and developing artists who haven’t yet cracked a major Billboard chart. Cool stuff!