Even if your "@Drake, please RT for my birthday" tweet didn't get any love, every bit of online engagement with your favorite artists doesn't go unnoticed. All of your tweets, Instagram likes, Soundcloud shares, and downloads are carefully tracked and aggregated by big data companies, who then often sell that information back to corporations. Universal Music, the label home to Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, Drake, and many more of your favorite artists, has announced that they're taking new steps towards turning the digital data on their artists into new marketing opportunities.
In partnership with French marketing company Havas Media, Universal is launching the Global Music Data Alliance. Lucian Grainge, chairman of Universal, was pumped for the new venture, but was unspecific about exactly what the Alliance plans to do with the heapings of data they've collected. "We want to continue to find new revenue and marketing opportunities for all of our artists by... supercharging our efforts to realize previously untapped revenues from consumer brands and other new business partners," said Grainge.
Dominique Delport, the global managing director of Havas, hinted at the processes that the Global Music Data Alliance will explore. He told Ad Age, "We are bringing in talent from both sides. Universal is already the leading music company in terms of data, and we are taking it to the next level by bringing in Havas data scientists and algorithm experts, merging the two worlds."
Delport expanded by emphasizing the potential impact that their strategies—albeit vague and unclear at the point—will bring about. "This isn't just about teens, it's the whole music world – and it's all very focused on business, on creating messages that are more and more relevant. We are not here to produce surveys," he said.
Grainge and Delport could be on to something major with their new Global Music Data Alliance. "There is so much to invent," noted Delport. Well, here's a free invention idea: Personalized Drake birthday retweets. For sale, of course.
[via Rolling Stone]
