Applying data analysis definitely isn’t always the most exciting field- certainly not as fun as seeing a heavy metal band say Iron Maiden live for instance. With the constant shrinking revenues from traditional album recordings many bands are increasingly reliant on live shows- especially older bands who’s catalog of albums can be easily downloaded in a matter of minutes at no profit to the band or label. This leads them down a road of never ending farewell tours in the same reliable but boring locations.
Enter Iron Maiden: The international super group undoubtedly has fans all over the world but has struggled with their selection of where to tour, despite being one of the most iconic acts in industry. In an innovative use of data analytics for the music industry the band now weighs illegal downloads by location to help determine demand. This has paid off huge in their recent South American tours whereas prior data say that it would have been a disaster and complete opportunity loss. Their most recent tour gained them the distinction of “One of six groups that outperformed the industry” including live documentary sales and one concert alone in Sao Palo that grossed them over $2.5 million. South American attendance and revenue also trumped their previous averages in NA and the EU too.
Hail the Iron Maiden data wonks!
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/iron-maiden-using-bittorrent-analytics-to-plot-tours-20131226
This article is pretty intriguing. Just like we learned in Strategic Management, Netflix is using illegal download data to determine the demand of movie titles in other countries. I would have to say that Iron Maiden was taking a big leap of faith correlating illegal downloads to concert attendance, but it seems that it has paid off very well.
To stick with the theme of shrinking revenues in the music industry, here’s another example of a band that has tried to find unique ways to garner more sales: http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/01/radiohead-album-price-tag-its-up-to-you/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0. Back in 2007, the band Radiohead allowed fans to pay ‘whatever price they wanted’ for the album, which turned out to be very successful for them.
@Nate awesome link! Radiohead has continued to show fans that they can not only innovate musically but also the industry as a whole. Great inspiration on how you can be successful while also maintaining artistic integrity.