At this point in our lives, we’ve all most likely “Shazamed” a song at least once. The act of “Shazaming” can be fun! Hearing a song when you’re out at a cafe, bar, gym, etc, holding your phone up to the air, and then within moments... boom, you get a song and artist name on your screen. What a time to be alive!
With this relatively new technology, there must be benefits to the artists that are being Shazamed, right? When analyzing data for artists in the Immensity system, we’ve found that Shazam actually has the potential to have a major impact over time.
Here’s an example.
We recently ran publicly available social media and streaming data in the Immensity system for Australian singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett. (Who’s recently released new music, tours regularly and has music on many playlists).
What we found is that across multiple time periods (April 10th - May 7th) and her whole presence online (streaming, audience growth and engagement) it was actually Shazam activity that was causing fans to listen and engage morethan any other platform.
Check out the image below and you can see that the system identified what platforms did (and did not) make an impact. As you can see, Shazam came up on top.
It may be a surprise that Shazam can make such a big impact, but it makes sense! Shazaming is a highly engaging action. Users might be hearing your music out in the world and decide that they like the music so much that they just have to know what it is. In a way, it’s a very intimate and physical interaction with the music.
In order to make sure you’re taking full advantage of Shazam, here are some tips:
First, be sure your music is actually available on Shazam. (This is an option when distributing your music through providers like CD Baby and Tunecore). Once you’re on there, search for yourself on Shazam and add an artist bio (This can be done from AllMusic). Apple Music For Artists lets you see exactly how many Shazams you've had and what region they're from. You can even add your lyrics from a site called Musixmatch.
Lastly, for your music to be heard more often out in the wild, strive to get on some playlists! (Easier said than done, right?) A great place to get started submitting your music to playlists is with SubmitHub. Don’t forget to ask your fans to add you to their own personal playlists!
The Immensity system leverages data science and machine learning and pulls in data from over 20 platforms and show you exactly what online activities are making an impact on audience, engagement or streaming.
Visit the Immensity website to learn more and book a free one-on-one demowith us today to get a full walkthrough of the system and how it works.