Music Artist Discovery: The Digital Road to the Top of the Radio.pdf.pdf' (1.56 MB)
Music Artist Discovery: The Digital Road to the Top of the Radio
thesis
posted on 2014-05-01, 00:00 authored by Emily WrightRadio is a powerful and influential medium with a vast and encompassing audience reaching
about 244.5 million consumers a year (Nielsen, 2014). Consequently, a music artist’s position on
the top charts of radio is a primary measure of success in the music industry. It is of particular
interest to record labels to promote and position their artists in a way to ensure they hit the top
charts of radio. When identifying potential artists to join their label, record labels may also be
interested in assessing how likely an artist is to hit the top charts of radio. This paper is a
statistical analysis examining the relationship between an artist’s online presence and their
appearance on the top charts of radio. It is hypothesized that artists with higher activity online
are more likely to reach radio’s merit of success. First, radio data and artist online activity data
were collected from two sources. The data were then linked using statistical data matching
techniques to create one relational database. The online channels examined include Facebook,
Wikipedia, Twitter, Youtube, Vevo and SoundCloud. The linked data were then used to fit a
logistic regression model with the explanatory variables as summarized time series variables for
each online medium. However, this approach was not found to adequately capture the
relationships. Instead, a Cox Proportional Hazards model predicting an artist’s presence on the
top chart of radio was fit. The final findings show evidence urging artists and record labels to
place increased attention on their use of Twitter, Vevo and SoundCloud. After establishing an
online presence, the expected time period of success is between 1 and 3 years.
History
Date
2014-05-01Advisor(s)
Rebecca NugentDepartment
- Statistics