Metablocks Sound and Pictures

Artistmatic is a new service from Metablocks Sound and Pictures and allows music labels, management, marketers and artists to get realtime social media analytics. Artistmatic is essentially an analytics dashboard that allows helps labels, musicians and bands analyze and measure the online success of their music as it relates to digital sales, fans and followers, blog and twitter mentions, and other important trending data.

The dashboard pulls into a single location information from popular social networks (Facebook, MySpace, i.e.), micro-blogging sites (Twitter), online music stores (iTunes, Amazon, i.e.) as well as Internet traffic related information directly from an artists site (Google Analytics, i.e.) or through public proxies for that information (Alexa, Compete, i.e.). 

By bringing together valuable social media information, Artistmatic significantly reduces the time and cost involved in collecting it (for each one of a music label’s artists), and allows “brand” managers to quickly identify and potentially exploit important social media trends, as well as “remix” and republish content or metrics via Twitter, blogs or email. If you are interested being part our limited beta program, email us.

According to a new Nielsen/Soundscan report, online digital sales of music continues to grow. Here are the highlights of the report:

Album Statistics:

• In last 5 years, digital accounts for 40% of total music sales (units)
• At the current rate, digital will account for 50% of music sales by the end of 2010
• Nearly 1 out of every 3 album purchases in the U.S. currently are through a digital service, Internet retailer, mail-order, at a “non-traditional retail store” or at a concert
• 21% of all album sales in ’09 YTD are Digital album sales (30 million) which is up from 15% at year-end ‘08
• Album sales were down 14% compared to last year
• CD album sales were down 20% over 2007
• Digital albums were up 32% and accounted for 15% of all album sales
• In 2008 digital album sales reached 65 million; up 32% over digital album sales in 2007
• Types of digital albums consumers are buying: Rock (41%), Alternative (27%), R&B (12%), Hard Music (9%), Rap (7%), Sountracks (6%), Country (6%)
• Country music leads in growth for digital album sales; all genre’s are up 10%+ except for Soundtracks

Track Statistics:

• Digital track sales broke the 1 Billion sales mark in 2008 and were up 27% over 2007’s digital track sales
• The Top 200 digital tracks in 2008 account for 17% of all track sales

The study also shows the impact that TV competitions (American Idol, i.e.) and award shows (CMA, i.e.) have had on music sales. You can click here for the Nielsen presentation that summarizes these studies in PDF format.

Welcome to the Metablocks Sound and Pictures blog! Metablocks Sound and Music is a division of Metablocks, Inc. We focus on selling technology solutions into the music, film and entertainment industries and thought it would be a great idea to have our own blog focused on music and movie marketing overt the Internet. Stay tuned for most posts on the subject!