Online Music Marketing: 38 Metrics and 7 Tools To Measure ROI

by Dexter Bryant Jr.

Using the Internet to market and promote your music is one of the most affordable ways to establish and build a following. The abundance of free tools and music-based social networks has made music marketing more accessible than ever for musicians around the globe. Rather than investing boatloads of cash into advertising, PR, and radio promotion, instead musicians invest their time. Through social networking and direct-to-fan engagement musicians can achieve remarkable results with online marketing.

 

The question that often comes up is how do you know if your online marketing is working? Also, how do you know where your marketing is the most effective?

 

ROI (“return on investment”) is a performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or to compare the efficiency of a number of different investments. In the case of music marketing online, your time is your main investment. Tracking the results of your music marketing efforts online is crucial to figuring out where your time is being wasted and where it is best spent so that you can amend your actions accordingly.

 

Below I have listed 38 metrics for measuring ROI and 7 tools to measure with. Use this information wisely =)

 

Metrics:

1. Number of subscribers on your mailing list
2. Twitter followers
3. Friends/fans on TheSixtyOne.com
4. YouTube channel subscribers
5. YouTube plays
6. YouTube uploads of your songs by other users
7. We Are Hunted chart positions of your songs
8. Blog mentions or reviews of your music
9. Backlinks (blogs and websites linking to your website or blog)
10. Mixtape/album downloads
11. Individual track downloads
12. P2P downloads and sharing of your music
13. BitTorrent downloads, seeds, and sharing of your music
14. Last.fm plays
15. Last.fm friends
16. PureVolume friends
17. PureVolume plays
18. Facebook fans
19. Twitter plays through twiturm.com or twt.fm
20. Plays and listeners on blip.fm
21. Plays on podcasts
22. Plays on Internet radio stations
23. Use of your music by DJs in online broadcasts or in night clubs
24. Your songs featured on digital mixtapes by well-known DJs
25. Online plays streamed longer than 30 seconds (on various music social networks)
26. International audience: number of countries where people are engaging with your content (plays, downloads, reads, shares, subscriptions, etc) 
27. ReTweets of your content (songs, mixtapes, articles)
28. 100+ concentration of fans in a specific region (touring becomes viable in that region)
29. Eventful.com Demand stats
30. Digital singles sales
31. Album sales
32. Remixes of your music
33. Attendance numbers for your live concerts broadcast on ustream.TV or similar networks
34. Attendance numbers for your concerts in-person
35. Number of credible professionals in entertainment, journalism, marketing, and other related industries who support your music (maintain a collection of quotes from these individuals)
36. Customer and client testimonials
37. Comments about your music on multiple social networks (positive or negative)
38. Myspace plays, profile views, and friends

 

Use these web 2.0 tools to measure social engagement, identify fans, find hot markets, and gauge your band’s online presence and popularity:

 

1. Music Xray - http://www.musicxray.com/
2. Band Metrics - http://bandmetrics.com/
3. Next Big Sound - http://nextbigsound.com/
4. RockDex - http://rockdex.com/
5. Topsy - http://topsy.com/
6. Backtype - http://www.backtype.com/
7. Trendrr - http://www.trendrr.com/

 

About the author:

 

Dexter Bryant Jr. [d.BRYJ] is a Dance Rock producer and singer/songwriter. His primary areas of study are music business 2.0, music marketing, digital marketing, new media, and music publishing. Dexter helps companies expand their brand presence online and he’s currently the Digital Marketing Director of Dynasty Music Entertainment and DbryJ Music Media Group. Learn more @ http://hitmusicacademy.wordpress.com/ 

Comments

[Justin Boland]

Minus context, this is basically a medium sized list of words.

[Dexter Bryant Jr.]

I hope that you found it useful nonetheless. Thanks for reading =)

[Dexter Bryant Jr.]

More metrics:

39. Plays, reviews, and fans on Jamendo.com

[Dexter Bryant Jr.]

40. Fans, plays, and chart positions on Soundclick.com

[Brian Hazard]

41. Your website's Alexa ranking
42. Monthly unique visitors to your website
43. Number of subscribers to your site's RSS feed

[Dexter Bryant Jr.]

True dat Brian!!