Band Metrics Opens Up its Private Beta

About time, right? Yeah, we agree. Unfortunately we encountered some significant hurdles during the past 10 months that put us behind schedule, and while many of you have been waiting for several months (we truly appreciate your patience!), please know that we plowed through these hurdles as fast as we could. The good news is that they're behind us, so you should now see faster updates and features from us going forward.

What I can say is that data analytics for the music industry is all that we do, and we're working on delivering a sophisticated system, not just a web app. Additionally, we're doing some innovative development through our patent-pending band scoring system, and initiatives like the Music Data Exchange Format (mDef). So hang in there with us, because at the end of the day, I think you'll be glad you did. Moreover, we're not planning on charging for our service anytime soon, as understanding your needs and building the appropriate music metrics for you is a joint effort that we're committed to, and so you get to enjoy Band Metrics as we build it to meet your needs.

With that said, we're excited to announce that we let several thousand users in our system this morning. However, some of our features may not function correctly or fully, but we're working to fix and expand them as soon as possible, as well as rollout additional features. Because of this, we're going to remain in private beta a little while longer while we polish our service. So if you didn't receive a welcome email from us this morning, than please use the code indiemusictech to gain access, but it will only be good for the next 25 people that use it.

In case you're curious what you can do with Band Metrics today, here's a brief list:

• track plays, fans, profile views and comments across MySpace, Last.fm, iLike, SoundCloud and YouTube
• track radio plays from over 3,500 terrestrial radio stations 
• view real-time reviews about your music on Musebin  
• view real-time comments about your band on Twitter
• view 8 different types of scores relative to your music including hotnes, fandom, and brand strength, among others

And here's a screenshot of the inside of Band Metrics:

  
Curious about what's next for Band Metrics?

• daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly stats/reports
• enhanced charts and visualizations
• advanced data porting
• additional social media site monitoring and management
• automated actions
• manage multiple bands from one login
• view real-time comments about your band in Facebook and within the blogosphere
• API
• Sentiment Analysis

We also have a few tricks up our sleeve that we have not yet disclosed, so stay tuned for some exciting announcements.

Finally, if you tell us in the comments section of this post why you think your band should be displayed on our home page, we'll select the top five artists we believe gave the best reasons.

Band Metrics to Present at C/O Pop in Cologne

Band Metrics is excited to announce that we're presenting at this year's C/O Pop music festival and conference in Cologne, Germany. It's one of the leading international music events that brings together over 30,000 artists, publishers, labels, technology companies, music enthusiasts and investors, and we're honored we've been invited. In addition to presenting, I'm also speaking on the Creative Music Business panel and I'll provide more details as soon as I have them. We're also going to make an announcement during the conference, so please keep in touch, and let us know if you're going to be there too so we can meetup. In the meantime, you can learn more about the conference by downloading the C/O Pop press kit.

Band Metrics Announces Music Data Exchange Format (MDEF)

With the enormous amount of data being created online by artists of all sizes (e.g. digital music, photos, blog posts, videos, etc.), and by their fans each day (e.g. plays, downloads, likes, faves, sharing, recommending, commenting etc.), it seems there needs to be a way to organize and share this kind of data relative to musicians and bands effectively and efficiently. Unfortunately, we were unable to find a free, open and portable format for exchanging this kind of artist data, and RSS is not sufficient. Additionally, each music provider, from iLike to PureVolume is expressing artist data a bit differently, making the exchange process cumbersome.

With that said, Band Metrics decided to create the Music Data Exchange Format (MDEF), a free, open and portable XML based format for the purpose of sharing data relative to musicians and bands, and we're announcing it today at the SanFran MusicTech Summit.

We created this format for two reasons. First, measuring artist data is what we do, and we wanted to help other companies, developers and artists collaborate on this effort, as presently, there is no effective and efficient way to exchange artist data. (if you know of a format that already exists, please let us know, as we'd welcome the opportunity to utilize it)  Secondly, we wanted to standardize the way companies, developers and artists exchange data with our soon-to-be-released API.

To provide your feedback, comments and/or suggestions about the MDEF, please go here and tell us what you think.

Btw, the initial schema for the Music Data Exchange Format (MDEF), version 0.1, while operational, is in the very early stages, so we welcome your thoughts on how to improve it.

Win Free Tickets to Tonight's Mashable Mixer

So you want to go to tonight's Mashable Mixer in Atlanta, but you don't have tickets, and the event is sold out (it's even oversold beyond sold out). Well, no worries, as Band Metrics is giving away a pair THREE pairs, so here's your chance to get access to Atlanta's hottest tech event this year. All you have to do is add your name to this post by making a comment, and you'll be eligible for the drawing. At 3PM EST, I'll randomly select the winner and I'll notify you via email if you've provided one. If not, I'll just announce it via my Twitter account. You'll then be added to the guest list - just bring your ID and your ticket will be waiting for you at the door.

Band Metrics to Present at SanFran MusicTech Summit

Just a reminder, we're presenting at the SanFran MusicTech Summit this coming Monday, May 18th at the Hotel Kabuki around 1pm. We're excited to finally showcase the initial version of our technology at this premier one-day music tech event. If you would like to meetup on Monday and learn more about Band Metrics, just send me an email. Go here, to purchase your tickets to the summit.

Band Metrics Named an OnHollywood Top 100 Private Company

I really wish I was announcing the expansion of our private beta in this post - I really do, especially considering how many people have been patiently waiting to use our service. All I can say is I truly appreciate your support and we're doing the best that we can. The good news is that the wait is almost over, and if you've registered for an account, you will get access later this month.

In the meantime, I would like to thank the folks over at AlwaysOn for naming Band Metrics as one of the 2009 OnHollywood Top 100 Private Companies. If you're curious as to what this award is all about, here's the press release from earlier today.

Band Metrics Swag Contest

How would you like to make $100?  All you have to do is come up with a design for a new Band Metrics t-shirt. There are just two guidelines:

• your design has to incorporate at least a portion of one of our logos so our brand is not lost in your design
• your design has to fit onto at least one of these types of tees

That's it! If we like it, we'll send you a check for 100 Greenbacks, and post your design on IMT.

Submit Your News

For your convenience, you can now submit your news directly onto IMT. Just fill out the form and I'll review. To increase your chances of getting it posted, please make sure it's music tech related and newsworthy.

Band Metrics to Present at SanFran MusicTech Summit

I'm a big fan of the SanFran MusicTech Summit, an intimate gathering of music technology developers, evangelists and companies. I attended the second summit, and wrote about the last one this past October. So I'm pretty excited to announce that we're presenting at the 4th summit this May. Because they're only having one Summit this year (last year they had three), it should be a really great event, so I'd make sure and follow their announcements, as well as buy your tickets early, as it always sells out.

Music Digital Summit

I'll be at the Leadership Music Digital Summit 2009 in Nashville next week, and if you'd like to meetup, please send me an email. Also, I'll be speaking on the panel, "Drastic Measures: New Metrics in the Music Business" on Tuesday, March 24 from 1:15pm until 2:00pm, so if you've got a question or a topic you would like us to explore, please add it to this post and we'll see if we can squeeze it in.

Band Metrics to Join the MashableMIXER Party

Band Metrics was recently asked by Regator to help sponsor the first ever MashableMIXER in Atlanta, and we jumped at the chance as it's going to be a fantastic evening (see below).

Hosted by Regator, a high-quality blog aggregator, the event will be held at the HQ of one of the fastest-growing independently published music magazines in the country, Paste Magazine, so the event brings together our two favorite subjects: music and technology.

Also, we will have released our initial public version well before then, so we hope to meet some of our users and chat about music analytics and how Band Metrics can help a band/musician manage and grow their brand.

Here are the details, but please make sure to save the date and follow @mashable for ticket announcements because this event will be limited to only a few hundred people, so it will sellout quickly as they're expecting guests from throughout the Southeast.

Date:
Thursday, May 14, 2009

Time:
7-10 PM

Where:
Paste Magazine
619 East College Avenue
Atlanta, Georgia 30030

Who:
tech and social media folks from Atlanta and the Southeast, startups, investors, local and national bloggers, Mashable staff, Regator, Band Metrics, the press, music industry folks, and many, many interesting people.

What to Expect:
product demos, open bar, live DJ, light hors d’oeuvres, networking, free stuff/swag, and more!

We Are Listening Launches The 2009 Singer/Songwriter Awards

We Are Listening, a London-based artist and content development group with divisions in artist management, music publishing, and online services for musicians and music fans announces its 23rd Singer/Songwriter awards contest for independent performing artists, songwriters, and lyricists.

The contest is offering a greater variety of prizes this year, divided into six music industry sectors: Songwriting, Licensing, Marketing, Production, Post-Production, and Retail Distribution - for a total of six winners in 2009. Grand prizes range from a week-long songwriting retreat in Stockholm, Sweden; network-sized television placement in the US; college radio promotion and administration; a production weekend in London, England; mixing and mastering services; and CD replication and digital distribution.  The 26-member panel of judges include executives and creative directors at EMI, Universal, and Sony/BMG; producers credited by Sting, Bjork, Dido, and Eric Clapton; songwriters credited by Faith Hill, Lenny Kravitz, Chaka Khan, and Wyclef Jean; and professors at the Songwriting Department at Berklee College of Music.

Performing artists, songwriters, lyricists, or agents acting on their behalf must submit their original music by May 1st 2009. Registration, entry fee, and additional details are available here: 
http://www.wearelistening.org/singer.php

Band Metrics Named a 2009 Top 40 Innovative Georgia Technology Company

We are excited and honored to announce that Band Metrics has been named as one of the 2009 Top 40 Innovative Technology Companies for Georgia. The award is given annually by The Technology Association of Georgia (one of the largest state technology associations in the nation) to Georgia based technology companies that demonstrate a significant degree of innovation, have a high likelihood of success, and will play a role in promoting Georgia’s innovative efforts nationally and internationally. As such, the competition was stiff, and the selection committee was composed of some of Georgia's most prominent technology leaders including, Sig Mosley, Stephen Fleming, Kathy Harris, Ben Dyer, Knox Massey and many others. Not to mention, we are among some fantastic tech companies. With that said, we are extremely grateful for our selection, and we sincerely thank TAG and the selection committee for their support of Band Metrics!

Georgia Music Biz and Music Technology Facebook Group

A few days ago I created a Facebook group for discussing all things relative to the Georgia music industry with an emphasis on technology. If you're an artist, have a Georgia based music company, work for one, or would just like to be plugged into the Georgia music tech and biz scene, than please join this group. It's an open group, so anyone can join. We're just getting started, but plan to have monthly meetups, so please let us know if you have any topic suggestions, and we'll try and have an initial get together in about a month.

ReadWriteWeb on Band Metrics

Many thanks to Richard MacManus, Founder and Editor of ReadWriteWeb for his great write-up of Band Metrics - very much appreciated!

New Design for Indie Music Tech

Just launched a new design for Indie Music Tech created by our very own Jared England, and integrated by TypePad Hacks. It still has a few bugs we're hammering out, but I welcome your feedback, comments and suggestions. Here's a screen shot of the old design. Is the new one an improvement?

Invitation to Music Tech Companies

I'm looking for some music tech companies to write about in 2009, so if you have a product/service you would like me to cover, please send me an email and let me know, or just add your suggestions to this post. Here are a few companies that are already on my radar (in no particular order):

• Topspin
• SoundCloud
• FanMail Music Marketing

Heading to Midem in 2009

Band Metrics has been invited to participate on a panel discussion about understanding an artist's audience at MidemNet in Cannes, France on Saturday, January 17th. MidemNet is a two day digital music conference within Midem, the leading global music industry event. We're excited about this opportunity, and if you're going to be at Midem and would like to meet, please send me an email.

Band Metrics Announces Advisory Board

Today marks a big milestone for Band Metrics with the announcement of its initial board of advisors (official press release), an all-star mix of music industry veterans with deep experience. The board includes former Warner Bros. music executive Barney Kilpatrick, Hypebot and Skyline Music founder, Bruce Houghton and Parag Chordia, Assistant Professor with Georgia Tech's Center for Music Technology.

They're a fantastic group of individuals and I'm very excited, honored and grateful that they have all chosen to be a part of Band Metrics, as they most certainly will help contribute to building the analytical tools and applications that artists and music industry professionals need...

See you all in 2009, it's going to be a great year!

Amie Street Offering 50 Percent Discount on Entire Music Catalog

Just got an email from the good folks at Amie Street and they're offering a special holiday discount of 50% off any purchases from their best of 2008 list. Sweet! I'm gonna download The Walkmen's release, You & Me. And to sweeten the deal, Amie Street extended this deep discount to their entire music catalog!  So be sure to make your purchases soon as I doubt their offer will last long.