Networked Insights Measuring the Social Report Part 2: Music Charts

Summary

In the last Measuring the Social report, we compared Nielsen’s television ratings to Networked Insights’ list of top 10 television shows based on online interactions and influence. The results showed significant differences and new insights proving that the online population is an audience unto its own, and needs to be measured that way.

This second installment of the Networked Insights Measuring the Social report takes a similar look at music, comparing the online audience, through Networked Insights’ interaction-based audience measurement methodology, to Billboard’s Hot 100 chart that combines sales data and radio airplay information to determine song rankings.

While Billboard’s list provides a clear picture of the sales, streaming and airplay of songs, Networked Insights adds a new dimension to song rankings by analyzing the millions of social interactions occurring around individual songs online and compiling a new chart based on these interactions and their influence.

Key findings include:

• 7 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

How We Do It

Today, companies are only measuring 15% of their audience, at most. These are the people that are posting content online – the loudest people in the room. But what about the other 85% that are interacting with this content in other ways just as important as posting? This could be inviting a friend to join a group, sharing a video, linking to it from a social network page, or the many other ways of interacting online. They are the silent majority who speak through social actions.

To gather data for this Measuring the Social report, Networked Insights tapped more than 17,000 social media and social networking sites, which included 3.5 million conversation per day and over 120 million unique users, and analyzed all interactions and post content around songs. The following data includes all the various types of interactions available to online audiences, including reading, listening, rating, sharing, linking and inviting. Networked Insights can also determine the value and influence of each interaction – for example, Tiger Woods sharing a golf video carries far more weight than an everyday golf enthusiast taking the same action.

This Measuring the Social report compares Networked Insights’ top 10 songs chart to Billboard’s top 10 songs from the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the week of October 28 – November 4, 2008.

The Results

Below is the top 10 songs list from the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the week of October 28 – November 4 as compared to Networked Insights’ top 10 songs for the same period of time and based on online social interaction data as described above.

Key Findings

• 7 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

Conclusion

As we similarly saw with TV shows, the traditional audience that is measured by Billboard people buying singles and listening to the radio, is far different from the one interacting online. For music executives, advertisers and the artists themselves, this distinction provides a new and insightful take on their customers and potential customers.

Music continues to proliferate online more and more everyday. As sites like MySpace and Facebook continue to emphasize the music aspect of their networks, it becomes ever more important to reach and understand the audiences on those sites as their numbers and purchasing power increases.

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