NextBigSound.com
This is an interesting little website, though I doubt it's especially accurate at what it claims to be trying to do. Basically, it attempts to glean an artist's current popularity based on social networking statistics, mostly gleaned from "Likes," "Friend requests," etc., on Facebook, Last.fm, and MySpace. So, for an ultra-important band like the Figurines, you get this:
http://www.nextbigsound.com/2796/stats-Figurines#2796-fans
You can also compare an artist with up to three others, so (for example) you can see how the Figurines are doing in relation to The Brother Kite, Emma Pollock, and ex-Slowdive lead singer Neil Halstead, and if you click "Share" it'll even give you a nice compressed URL suitable for Twitter:
http://nxt.bg/549tc
Of course, if you bring in a Big Name Act on top of three small-ish ones, the small-ish ones will appear to be flat-lined at zero, and what's more, the original band name you looked up (in this case, the Figurines) remains in the uncompressed URL even though the band itself has been removed from the graph:
http://nxt.bg/56ovy
So it's not perfect, but it seems harmless enough, and it doesn't currently cost anything (unless you want web-traffic details too, or whatever they're calling their "premium" service). Then again, the internet is supposed to be dominated by underemployed nerdy guys between 20 and 35, so we have to assume these results will be skewed in favor of Yo La Tengo and Death Cab for Cutie, right? That doesn't seem fair.
http://www.nextbigsound.com/2796/stats-Figurines#2796-fans
You can also compare an artist with up to three others, so (for example) you can see how the Figurines are doing in relation to The Brother Kite, Emma Pollock, and ex-Slowdive lead singer Neil Halstead, and if you click "Share" it'll even give you a nice compressed URL suitable for Twitter:
http://nxt.bg/549tc
Of course, if you bring in a Big Name Act on top of three small-ish ones, the small-ish ones will appear to be flat-lined at zero, and what's more, the original band name you looked up (in this case, the Figurines) remains in the uncompressed URL even though the band itself has been removed from the graph:
http://nxt.bg/56ovy
So it's not perfect, but it seems harmless enough, and it doesn't currently cost anything (unless you want web-traffic details too, or whatever they're calling their "premium" service). Then again, the internet is supposed to be dominated by underemployed nerdy guys between 20 and 35, so we have to assume these results will be skewed in favor of Yo La Tengo and Death Cab for Cutie, right? That doesn't seem fair.
Comments
On the few small-market bands I checked, MySpace was consistently down, while last.FM was consistently up. Interesting, I always assumed that most sane people have fled MySpace by now, but bands still use it to promote.