Recent news shows that music data analysis company Chartmetric is expanding into an increasingly data-driven field - artist-brand cooperation matching.
For decades, advertisers have used music to reach rabid fan bases and deliver targeted impressions. But while lucrative brand deals boost revenue for artists, labels and live music, while boosting product sales, collaborations between artists and brands are often based on guesswork.
Now, Chartmetric is expanding its increasingly influential data analytics platform into music brand collaborations, with an eye toward updating traditional artist-brand collaboration matches.
Like any technology-focused company worthy of its name, Chartmetric is actively iterating and experimenting in this space. While the company is working with major music companies and artists to connect with brands more scientifically, the company's expansion into data-driven brands is still in its early stages.
The company’s initial focus on brand data was focused on social media Instagram. Together with its data partners, scours the public accounts of millions of artist fans for brand mentions and brands followed by fans. In addition to followers and mentions, also involves tags. If an artist's fans are disproportionately focused on a particular brand, Chartmetric will chart this potentially powerful connection.
Statistically, noteworthy overlap is measured using “Brand Affinity Ratios,” allowing both brands and artists (and their labels) to easily view potential matches.
For Chartmetric subscribers, these correlations are now layered alongside existing data in areas such as streaming playlists, plays, social media platforms and geo-location density. aims to build a broader platform that allows artists, labels and brands to track the progress of campaigns and the affinity of emerging brands.
Nicole Marinake, senior director of partnership marketing at Sony Music Entertainment in Nashville, has been using Chartmetric’s brand analytics to complement the company’s competencies in this area.
While more data means better matches, labels typically collect data from music fans to determine ad affinity. "Chartmetric was the first (Internet data serving tool) to discover this direct affinity," Marinake said.
Take emerging country singer Nate Smith, whose connection to Jack Daniels is easy to trace. Smith's song "Whiskey on You" mentions Jack Daniels, with the lyrics: "This glass of Jack I drank was wasted thinking." This sparked a TikTok trend centered around Smith’s song and a bottle of Jack.
An artist-brand fit may be coming soon, although rap artists need to beware of free promotion because it becomes a serious problem. However, despite people becoming increasingly aware of the advertising power held by artists, emerging artists, rappers or others, will often agree to free offers from brand owners, such as gifts, in exchange for the musician's promotional resources.
Among them is Oakland rapper Call Me Ace, who recently appeared in a commercial for the Ford Mustang Mach-E. It was so successful that the rapper released a successful song called "Tesla," which focused on the premium car while hilariously contrasting it with the more practical Subaru car, the . But neither car company paid the rapper, although the right Chartmetric match score could have facilitated partnership talks.
