Listening habits and searching trends

The amount of information Google collects every time someone queries is astounding. Some of this information has been made available to the public through Google Trends. By entering in a search string you are given a graph showing search volume, news reference volume, a chart of the top ten regions, as well as top ten cities and languages.

“Our graphs are based on aggregated data from millions of searches done on Google over time. And the results Google Trends displays are produced entirely by an automated formula. As an additional measure, Google Trends only returns results for terms that receive a significant amount of search traffic.” (Google Trends)

If the volume of searches reflect the regional popularity of a search string, then Google Trends reveal useful information for marketing agencies, record labels, and booking agents. A tour would receive better response, for example, if the agent booked shows in cities with a higher volume of searches for that artist.

Last.fm is another website that gathers large amounts of information from their members. Their focus is to collect details about listening habits from their members who are willing to submit this information through the Audioscrobbler. Song information (song title, artist name, album title, etc.) is coupled with user defined tags and wikis, concert information, and journals written by Last.fm members. Songs, albums, and artists are tagged however the user wishes to tag them (usually by style), ultimately connecting songs and artists via listening trends.

Would you be surprised to find that South American countries have highest amount of interest for popular British and North American bands? This is true according to listening habits and searching trends gathered by Google and Last.fm.

Combine the information collected by Last.fm and Google, and you might be surprised by the results. For example, take the five most listened to bands on Last.fm during the third week of October (Radiohead, The Beatles, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Muse, and Coldplay). Enter their names in Google Trends, you’ll find that Chile, Argentina, Mexico, and Peru consistently rank in the top ten regions of the world for these artists, no matter by which band you rank them.

How could this type of information be useful for marketing strategies?

If a record label and booking agency were planning a tour for one of their bands, they could search Google Trends to find out which cities in North America display the most interest in the band. Through Last.fm they could determine which artists would best compliment the band on tour, according to listening habits. By studying the tags that listeners use to describe their bands, this information could be used for planning advertisements that are specific to each sub-region.

Managing a small independent record label can be tricky since funding is limited. Even though their artists may not have “significant amount of search traffic,” they could pinpoint a similar artist via Last.fm that does, and study Google Trends to plot tour paths and marketing strategies.

Last.fm and Google Trends are invaluable tools at a time when the music industry is clamoring to make a profit.

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