Measuring the Social Report #2: Music Charts

November 19, 2008

We’ve come out with our second Measuring the Social report — last time, we compared our television ratings based on online social interaction data to Nielsen’s approach. This time, we’re focusing on music charts and comparing our data to the Billboard Hot 100 list, and once again, the results are very revealing. You can download the full report here.

Billboard’s weekly Hot 100 chart is currently based on sales and airplay. The fact is, nowadays, people are listening and interacting with music online more than ever before – just look at the way MySpace has changed the game for emerging musicians. This effect is true for big-name artists on the charts as well, there is a ton of social engagement around music online. While sales and airplay do play a role in determining music popularity, those metrics are becoming less relevant as millions of social interactions around songs, albums and artists are happening online everyday.

Our second Measuring the Social report was actually slated to appear as an exclusive in Billboard magazine. Unfortunately, some higher-ups at Nielsen, who owns Billboard, put the kibosh on the story because they see us as competitive.

Regardless, looking at the lists it is clear that the online audience is unique, and music companies and advertisers need to approach them and market to them in a very different way:

Some of the findings of the report:

• Seven of the songs on Networked Insights’ top 10 list do not appear in Billboard’s top 10 songs, indicating a large discrepancy between song purchase/airplay and audience interactions online
• While both lists consist mostly of pop and hip-hop/R&B songs, Networked Insights’ chart shows a different genre with two songs in the “alternative” category: Secondhand Serenade – “Fall For You” (5) and Coldplay – “Viva La Vida” (7)
• Secondhand Serenade’s lyrics are popular among social network users as they lend themselves well to posting as comments and on friends’ pages as evidenced by “Fall For You” taking the fifth spot on the Networked Insights chart
• During this timeframe, R&B group Brutha released an a capella version of Kanye West’s song “Love Lockdown” online, generating interest from the online audience, and boosting the rank of the original song on the Networked Insights chart to number 9. “Love Lockdown” does not appear on the Billboard top 10
• American Idol winner David Archuleta’s “Crush” is third on Networked Insights’ list due to the strong interactive component of the show transferring to online interactions

Clearly, the importance of “the social” doesn’t stop at TV ratings and music charts — we have more upcoming Measuring the Social reports focused on other industries and revisiting the ones we’ve already looked at. So stay tuned, and for more social insights subscribe to the Measuring the Social feed.

Download the full Measuring the Social report here.

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