Want Maiden to play in your town? Pirate their music...

[laughedatbytime]

For more than a decade, musicians have battled rampant music piracy that has put labels and record stores out of business at a rapid pace. Unlike the shift to Amazon that did in the book store chains, record stores are suffering from outright theft, and the migration to iTunes or Spotify streaming isn't making up the difference.

 

Between 2003 and 2009, about one-third of all independent record shops in the U.S. closed their doors, according to the Almighty Institute of Music Retail, a California-based marketing firm. That translates to 3,700 stores. The one bright spot is that the trend has slowed since 2008.

 

In England, it's worse, with 70 percent of independent record stores disappearing in the last decade.

 

But some bands are dealing with the issue in a unique way. A U.K. company called Growth Intelligence aggregates data on U.K. companies to offer them a real time snapshot of how their company is performing. They capture everything from real-world data, like hiring of employees, to online indicators like email to online discussion.

 

Its stats were compiled for the London Stock Exchange "1000 Companies That Inspire Britain" list. On that list were six music firms that outperformed the music sector, one of them being Iron Maiden LLP, the holding company for the venerable heavy metal band. (Another company on the list was Shazam, which we recently profiled.)

 

Enter another U.K. company called Musicmetric, which specializes in analytics for the music industry by capturing everything from social media discussion to traffic on the BitTorrent network. It then offers this aggregated information to artists to decide how they want to react. Musicmetric noticed Iron Maiden's placement and ran its own analytics for the band.

 

"Having an accurate real time snapshop of key data streams is all about helping inform people's decision making. If you know what drives engagement you can maximize the value of your fan base. Artists could say ‘we're getting pirated here, let's do something about it’, or ‘we're popular here, let's play a show’," said Gregory Mead, CEO and co-founder of the London-based firm.

 

In the case of Iron Maiden, still a top-drawing band in the U.S. and Europe after thirty years, it noted a surge in traffic in South America. Also, it saw that Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, Columbia, and Chile were among the top 10 countries with the most Iron Maiden Twitter followers. There was also a huge amount of BitTorrent traffic in South America, particularly in Brazil.

 

Rather than send in the lawyers, Maiden sent itself in. The band has focused extensively on South American tours in recent years, one of which was filmed for the documentary "Flight 666." After all, fans can't download a concert or t-shirts. The result was massive sellouts. The São Paolo show alone grossed £1.58 million (US$2.58 million) alone.

 

And in a positive cycle, Maiden's online fanbase grew. According to Musicmetric, in the 12 months ending May 31, 2012, the band attracted more than 3.1 million social media fans. After its Maiden England world tour, which ran from June 2012 to October 2013, Maiden's fan base grew by five million online fans, with a significant increase in popularity in South America.

 

 

Mead said that thanks to analytics, "Maiden have been rather successful in turning free file-sharing into fee-paying fans."

 

So bands now have a new tool to try and make up for the loss of music sales. Emphasis is now on touring and t-shirts as CD sales dwindle. "If you engage with fans, there is a chance to turn a percentage into paying customers. You can see that through various bands using the BitTorrent network in a legal way to share content," said Mead.

 

 

http://www.citeworld.com/consumerization/22803/iron-maiden-musicmetric?page=1

[Rod in Toronto]

Downloading Clockwork Angels Live now and hoping Rush adopts the same strategy. Actually, I might as well download their whole discography!

[calirush]

This is not new news anyway. That's why concerts are so expensive now. Bands record to build interest so that they can cash in on tours. In the old days touring was used to increase album sales. There's no way I would have seen even a handful of the concerts I saw when I was young, if they had been at the prices of today.

[J2112YYZ]

Maiden is a smart band. It used to be if album sales were good in certain areas it would influence the bands to play there. Now with so many people downloading music this has become the new way to gauge a bands popularity. Deciding where to play based on the number of downloads makes perfect sense since more people are doing that now than buying albums. I wonder how many other bands are using this method to decide where to play? It seems like something all artists should look into at some point since this whole downloading thing isn't going away any time soon.

[KW84]

So thats why the finally come back to St.Louis after 13 years!

[Babycat]

I don't know why, but I was thinking of Napster.

 

Anyway, thanks, LABT..! :)

[bathory]

this probably explains them playing the south for the first time in forever on the maiden england tour

[PolarizeMe]

Turns out that the whole torrenting thing regarding Maiden is bogus...the website with that article just updated the post saying that they have retracted their story.

 

http://loudwire.com/iron-maiden-story-file-sharing-touring-turns-bogus/

[laughedatbytime]

Turns out that the whole torrenting thing regarding Maiden is bogus...the website with that article just updated the post saying that they have retracted their story.

 

http://loudwire.com/...ng-turns-bogus/

[bathory]

wow, now we look like dumbasses

[PolarizeMe]

They certainly fooled me, it was pretty believable IMO.

[J2112YYZ]

Nah, we don't look like dumbasses. With how huge downloading music has become, it seemed like a completely believable story.

[Rod in Toronto]

I don't download, but I do benefit from downloads that some of my friends do...will I go to hell?