N.B. The scale refers to the number of open download sessions monitored rather than the total number of downloads.

Hop Farm promotes itself as an independently run festival that is sponsorship and branding free. You may recall that Neil Young [click the link to see the Fantracker stats page] headlined its inaugural event in 2008, but in 2009 it failed to capitalise on this success with a middle of the road indie-rock line-up. Last year Bob Dylan made his only UK performance of 2010 at the festival, and the supporting bill benefited from a consistent folk-bias including breakthrough artists of that year Seasick Steve and Mumford & Sons.

This year’s bill of headliners was certainly something of a coup for festival promoter Vince Power, who secured three legendary acts: The Eagles, Prince and Morrissey. Other rock legends appearing over the weekend included Bryan Ferry, Iggy & The Stooges, Lou Reed and Patti Smith.

The most contemporary of the sub-headlining acts this year was 22-year-old double-Brit award winner, Tinie Tempah, and it was he who kept the veterans of rock and pop off the top the Hop Farm Band Tracker chart over the festival weekend. Following the success of the biggest show of his career on Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage, and his appearance at the Wireless Festival in London’s Hyde Park, at Hop Farm Tinie was main support to Prince who was playing his first show in the UK since his record-breaking 21-nights at London’s O2 Arena in 2007.

If we take a look at the Musicmetric graph below, we can see significant increases in daily plays, comments and fans added on Tinie Tempah’s YouTube page that coincide with the Glastonbury weekend, and the Friday of his Wireless gig.

Tinie Tempah released his debut album Disc-Overy last year and has had two number one singles in the UK with Pass Out and Written In The Stars, the latter peaking at number 12 in the Billboard singles chart in the US, where he is currently being promoted heavily. The positive reception Tinie’s music has been getting across social networks where he is active is clearly indicated in the graph below, which shows the distribution of sentiment from articles mentioning a combination of his recent releases (1 = very negative, 5 = very positive).

If you saw Tinie Tempah at Hop Farm, or indeed at any of his other festival shows, it would be great to hear what you thought.

Toby Burton

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Although the Big Four have had their differences over the last 25-30 years – this year Anthrax, Metallica, and Slayer all celebrate 30 years together – their shared legacy, time, and (ahem) maturity, seems to have erased any remaining bad feeling. If performances on the Sonisphere Tour so far are anything to go by, fans will even see musicians from all four groups playing together on a song by seminal new wave of heavy metal band, Diamond Head, at the end of Metallica’s set.

By individually adding Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax to your artists on the Musicmetric App., you are able to easily combine and then compare the social media activity, or other data, in one graph. I have done just that so we can look at how the Big Four compare across some of the social networks on which they and their fans are active:

Metallica are the undisputed number one thrash metal band of all time, and the above graph of daily plays, views, comments and fans added on their YouTube networks certainly seems to visualise this rather well. No guess as to which line represents Metallica!

Again, in the Facebook graph below, Metallica’s peaks in activity seem to dwarf those of the ‘Other Three’. It is also interesting to see how the bands’ activity in the lead up to Sonisphere follows a similar pattern, corresponding with announcements and buzz about the imminent festival.

Interestingly, Metallica fare less well on Twitter (below), where in comparison to the Other Three, they see the least of the social network activity.

If you are going to Sonisphere, which of the Big Four bands are you most looking forward to seeing?

Toby Burton

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LMFAO

First up is American electro hop duo, LMFAO, who have soared to fame after their song ‘Party Rock Anthem’ stormed the charts, gaining them a number 2 position. ‘Party Rock Anthem’ is the first single to be taken from their sophomore album, Sorry For Party Rocking, so we’re going to try and predict whether LMFAO are going to be a flash in the pan, or the new Lady Gaga.

When looking at the the Release Sentiment graph for ‘Party Rock’, we can see that the highest rating, is for rating number 4/5, meaning that, in the majority of cases, articles written about the song have had generally positive things to say, and that both critically and on personal blogs, etc., the song has been well received.

However, the next highest rating number is 3, which means that those articles written had an overall neutral rating of the song, meaning that quite a few people are still ‘on-the-fence’ about the band, and could be potentially swayed either positively or negatively by the group’s second release. Only time will tell if they’re new releases will be as catchy as ‘Party Rock Anthem’, or have the power to keep this band in the limelight.

LMFAO Online Review Sentiment Distribution

Katy B

Katy B is another pop artist getting hype in all the right places – as we can see in the app, included in her Top Websites section are the highly influential, drownedinsound.com, nme.com, bbc.co.uk and guardian.co.uk.

This is reflected in her social network activity. As you can see, her amount of plays on the site Last.fm dramatically climbed since the end of March, which correlates up to around the time that she released her album, On A Mission on April 4th this year.

Katy B Last.fm Plays and Release Dates

The Blackout

Welsh rockers, The Blackout have actually been making music together since 2003 and have quite a cult following in the Rock and Indie world. However, their new album, Hope, could possibly be the key to unlock them to Top 40 success.

The band released the album on the 4th of April. As this chart clearly shows, The Blackout saw a considerable increase of fans on sites Twitter, Facebook and Last.Fm following this date.

The Blackout Social Network Activity

However, more interestingly, when we take a look at the Top Regions data collected from torrents for The Blackout, then the second most popular country for downloading torrents of The Blackout’s music is Australia, which suggests that the bands influence stretches rather further than their Welsh origins, so might be one to watch out for. We hope their managers and marketers are taking note and using these stats to maximise their potential.

The Blackout BitTorrent Top Regions

Ellie and Marina's Total Social Network Fans

Looking at the bar chart above, sites focused on updates and networking (Facebook, Twitter) show that Ellie has far more followers. However on the majority of sites where visual/audio content is available (Myspace, YouTube and iLike) the numbers of fans are closely matched and Marina is often the frontrunner. Looking at the breakdown of fan growth over time we can see how these relationships developed during the year.

The graphs below show that at the time of the BBC announcement both artists were fairly even in terms of online followers. Whilst Marina’s fan numbers have remained fairly level, Ms Gouldings have grown consistently. Ellie’s “Your Song”, an Elton John cover, was used in the John Lewis Christmas TV ad campaign and consequently reached number 2 in the charts, her highest charting single of the year. This explains the sudden rise in followers towards the end of the year and is confirmation of the benefits to an artist of a well placed sync. In contrast Marina’s last single of the year, “Shampain”, was released with little other than an indie music video and only reached a sorry 141 in the charts in October.

Ellie and Marina's Facebook Fans

Ellie and Marina's Twitter Followers

Interestingly, despite relatively weak chart success compared to Goulding, Marina’s tracks and videos received equal and often more online attention than Ellies, as shown in the graphs below. This suggests that those fans buying music differ to those listening and watching online and vice versa. So as labels search to find new ways to promote their artists in the face of dwindling album sales perhaps Myspace plays and YouTube hits can no longer helpfully predict an artist’s chart potential.

Ellie and Marina's YouTube Views

Ellie and Marina's Myspace Plays

Ellie has ended the year with a number 1 album and several top 10 hits but now finds herself fronting ad campaigns and featuring on rap tracks to remain current with today’s throwaway pop fans. Whilst Marina’s singles have rarely made it into the Top 20 she has continued to play sell out shows across the country, ending the year with a sold out show at the Camden Roundhouse. What she lacks in top ten hits she may be making up for in credibility. As we enter 2011 it seems that Ellie may have won this battle but Marina may just have the staying power to win the war.

Marcel Legane

You don’t?

Well whatever…she did and at the time she was pleased as punch.

But now it appears she’s not…. apparently the BRIT Awards are one big record label conspiracy…

So was the BRIT Award worthless? Well just look what it did to her Social Network Buzz…

The BRIT Effect - click to expand

I put that big arrow there so you can see the affect… or lack of it.

Similarly there was little change in her MySpace Views & Plays. In fact the BRIT Awards coincide with a drop in plays & views but I would put that down to a regular fluctuation rather than something caused by the Award show.

MySpace Ain't Moving - click to expand

There is one site where the award had an affect… or should I say Twaffect?

No. I don’t think I should…

Twimeline of Twollowers - click to expand

As you can see Lily had a steady increase of followers from the day of the Award Show onwards; although to be fair this was probably caused by her performance at the Awards rather than the Award itself.

Alternatively it could have been her drunken acceptance speech which made people think “Hey, Lily’s pretty outspoken and entertaining. I wonder if she’s on Twitter?” In fact the second arrow shows the start of a peak which is more than likely caused by Lily’s spat with Courtney Love at the NME Awards.

What do you think? Are award shows relevant anymore? Or are they just a place for celebrities to get drunk and embarrass themselves (and then reap the publicity benefits…)

Answers on a postcard please!

The latests of these exports is The Asteroids Galaxy Tour.

Following in the footsteps of other Danish artists such as Aqua and Alphabeat; The Asteroids, (for short) have taken their brand of Danish Pop global. Check the geographical spread of bit torrent downloads for their album Fruit (2009).

From Denmark to the World - Click to Expand

As you can see from the below bar graph they have a strong following in America, again this is based on bit torrent downloads of their album Fruit (2009) . With their home country only appearing 7th on the list it appears they have a home from home in America, no wonder they’re doing three dates at SXSW…

Home from Home - Click to Expand

They not only appeal to a wide number of nationalities but also a wide number of ages. Their strongest following maybe in the under 20′s but they have quite a wide age spread. Here’s their age spread alongside Katy Perry who they recently supported on a tour of Europe.

You can see that Katy Perry has quite a narrow peak focused around the mid 20′s age range, but interestingly The Asteroids Galaxy Tour have a much wider age spread focused around the under 20′s.

Under 18's to Over 30's - Click to Expand

And their gender split isn’t bad either…

Not just for women - Click to Expand

Perhaps this universal appeal is why their biggest online following is not found on MySpace or Facebook but on LastFM. Clearly The Asteroids infectiously catchy pop music is a big hit with the LastFM listeners.

LastFM is first choice - Click to Expand

You can catch Denmark’s hottest, newest, most appealing export at SXSW on these dates and who knows you may be lucky enough to bump into one of the Musicmetric Crew!

17 Mar – Austin, TX: Emo’s Annex

18 Mar – Austin, TX: Vice

19 Mar – Austin, TX: Beso Cantina

Band of Skulls

This Southampton formed three-piece have been making a lot of noise across the pond. Check out this chart that shows the the top locations for the bands followers on MySpace.

Austin comes in at 7th place for social network fan locations, so South by South West should be a good gig.

Band of Skulls: From Southampton to L.A. - Click to Enlarge

The next chart is a good visualisation of where people have been downloading the latest Band of Skulls Album – Baby Darling Doll Face Honey using Bittorent, as you can see – they are pretty popular in the USA on Bittorent too. Maybe some of those people will attend the gig ?

Band of Skulls - Baby Darling Doll Face Honey : Bittorent download locations

And finally,  here is a chart showing the top countries for Band of Skulls, also based on where people are downloading their album on Bittorent. It shows the same data displayed in the map above, but aggregated by country and shown as a bar chart. Interestingly, their home country Great Britain comes in at 3rd position, behind USA and Canada.

Band of Skulls - Top regions for Bittorent downloads - Click to expand

Why not check out the gig if you’re going to SXSW? Visit their MySpace page for the dates – We’ll be there!

Muse and Kasabian were the two biggest winners on the night picking up two awards each. Muse fended off competition from Kasabian, Arctic Monkeys, Biffy Clyro and Oasis to pick up the Best British Band award. They also picked up an award for Best Band Website so it’s no wonder they have the biggest online presence of all the bands nominated in the Best British Band category.

The below bar chart shows total fan numbers for the Best British Band nominees across a spread of social networking sites.

Best British Band - Click to Expand

Bombay Bicycle Club took home the award for Best New Band, previous winners of this award include Kings of Leon, Arctic Monkeys and The Strokes so they are certainly in good company. However they have had a slow start to the year as you can see by the below trend graph. This shows Myspace plays since the begging of this year, The XX are racking up the play count with Bombay Bicycle Club appearing near the bottom of the graph.

Best New Band - Click to Expand

We see a similar trend in the Best Solo Artist artist category, Jamie T even admitted he’d had a ‘stop-start year’. Florence is way out in front with her play count and we can see the winner of the award Jamie T down at the bottom of the graph.

Best Solo Artist - Click to Expand

The eagle eyed among you may have spotted that there is a nominee missing off this graph. As you can see in the following graph her sheer popularity makes it hard to compare Miss GaGa to the other nominee’s.
(For reference the multi-coloured line along the bottom of the graph represent the other nominee’s…)

Best Solo w/ Lady Gaga - Click to Expand

And finally here’s a nice graph showing the effect of the NME Awards on the winners play count. The artists plays all begin to rise on the morning after the awards and continued to rise through the day.

The NME Effect - Click to Expand

It’s always interesting to see the impact of conventional media (TV/Radio/Print) on the digital realm. However seeing as the play count only rises the day after the awards, it is more likely that the reporting of the awards in various blogs, news posts and tweets that has prompted this rise in play count.

But wait one second – comparing MySpace plays between Susan Boyle and Lady Gaga shows wildly different popularities between the two artists on that social network:

Lady Gaga and Susan Boyle plays on MySpace - click to expand

Squint really hard and you’ll see a blue line right near the time axis – this represents plays per hour on MySpace for Susan Boyle. For a sense of scale, look at the highlighted values: 144 plays per hour for Susan Boyle and 50,000 plays per hour for Lady Gaga.

Surely this shows some kind of error considering Susan Boyle’s latest success in the UK and US charts? Let’s drill down into some other sources of data to attempt to identify the reason for this difference:

The chart below shows the number of new followers/friends/fans per hour added or lost by Susan Boyle on social networks:

Musicmetric - Susan Boyle friends per hour Facebook - click to expand

At first glance it looks pretty messy, but if you look carefully you’ll notice that the most dynamic of the trends for is Fan Adds on Facebook (green line). Some days she’s getting 14 new fans per hour, but others she’s losing then at the same rate. This gives a clue as to where fans of Susan Boyle are the most active online…Facebook

Now let’s look at where Susan Boyle fans hang out online compared to Lady Gaga:

Lady Gaga & Susan Boyle fans on Social Networks - click to expand

Clearly most of Susan Boyle’s online fans reside on Facebook. Looking at MySpace – If you compare the number of Susan Boyle fans with the number of Lady Gaga fans, it’s obvious that Lady Gaga has way more fans on than Susan Boyle on this particular social network: 2101 MySpace fans for Susan Boyle vs. 911,993 MySpace fans for Lady Gaga. This helps explain the considerable difference between the MySpace play counts for the two artists, and indeed – the ratios of number of fans on MySpace for the two artists and number of plays for them are relatively close:

Susan Boyle MySpace fans = 2012
Lady Gaga MySpace fans = 911,993
RATIO = 450:1

Susan Boyle MySpace plays per hour = 144
Lady Gaga MySpace plays per hour = 50,014
RATIO = 350: 1

Now let’s take a look why Susan Boyle has so few fans on MySpace compared to Lady Gaga by taking a peek at the fan age profile for both artists:

Susan Boyle and Lady Gaga fan ages - click to expand

That above chart clearly shows that the fan age spread for Susan Boyle is considerably wider than that for Lady Gaga (the numbers represent percentage of fans of any given age). This goes some way towards explaining the fact that Susan Boyle has less ‘fans’ on MySpace than would be expected – her fan age demographic is much older than the normal MySpace user demographic and falls more into the demographic for Facebook or older – explaining the larger number of Facebook fans.

Now taking into account the high number of physical sales Susan Boyle has made, one could make the conclusion that since the age demographic for her fans is considerably higher than that of the average social network or streaming music user demographic – it would be fair to assume that most of Susan Boyles fans do not use the social music web to listen to her music, they would rather buy her CD. This is backed up by her low play count on MySpace.

So there we go – these examples demonstrate a good reason why taking stats at face value, without looking at the full picture can give incorrect insight into music trends.