"A guy walks into a record store..."
It sounds like the beginning of a lame joke, but the truth is it's about the sum total of what we once knew about music consumption. Oh, except we didn't know if it was a guy who walked into the record store, or an 8-year-old girl. All we knew was that somebody walked out with a copy of the new Bay City Rollers record.
The entertainment business has gotten a lot more complicated in the Net age, for better or worse, but the good news is that more people are consuming more media than ever before, and we know more than ever about who they are, where they are, exactly what they like, and why.
BigChampagne analyzes more information about media consumption than anyone else on the planet. And we intend to keep it that way. How?
By collecting information about literally billions of titles (songs, movies, television, games, software) from all over the globe, and then analyzing the consumption of millions of consumers.
Where entertainment goes, we go.
Today, our "input" is provided by web communities, retail partners, our strategic partners at Mediabase, and then there's what we collect ourselves. Like it or not, the vast majority of online entertainment media is now acquired for free on P2P file sharing networks, and BigChampagne is there.
We continually strive to incorporate more information about online consumption, from more sources. Our mission has always been to "follow the consumer." That means when people start interacting with popular entertainment in new ways, we get there first.
Collecting The Data
BigChampagne collects a great deal of information about media consumption both online and offline through our partners. We also employ our own patent-pending systems for observing peer-to-peer ("P2P") file sharing and searching.
Data Partners
Our strategic partnership with Mediabase gives BigChampagne's customers information about digital, terrestrial, and satellite radio airplay data by format, market and station, as well as music television programming data.
BigChampagne collects additional data about other forms of online media consumption from a growing list of online partners. These relationships are described in our press release section as they are announced.
"Traditional" P2P Measurement
P2P file sharing communities are based on the voluntary participation of millions of individual users ("peers") in an open and non-hierarchical ("peer-to-peer") public exchange ("sharing") of files (MP3s, video, games, software, etc.) BigChampagne profiles this activity at the highest levels and in granular close-up. We do not collect or report any identifying information about individual users.
BigChampagne constantly measures activity on P2P networks using proprietary systems (patent-pending) that gather information about file sharing and searches in much the same way that a search engine (Google) collects information about public web sites.
Let's get technical: BigChampagne employs multiple NOCs (network operations centers), 24/7 monitoring, and 24/7 data processing.
Our monitoring technologies collect online data in real time. We maintain multiple high-speed Internet connections around the clock. We employ dynamic, simultaneous, direct monitoring presences on key network nodes. Through each node, we are connected to tens of thousands of additional locations at any moment. BigChampagne monitors billions of online searches and files.
We're high tech, but we also believe in the human touch. Real, live analysts examine each song on our charts to make sure we accurately identify and classify titles on which we report.
Using an on-the-fly geographic IP lookup, we can determine the location of file sharing by country, and in most cases by metropolitan area as well. This lets us analyze information globally, by country, region, state, and/or metropolitan area.
Analyzing The Data
Collecting and synthesizing data from a variety of sources online and off is a BigChampagne core competency. But we don't stop there. In order to provide our customers and partners with the kind of intelligence that guides strategy, we analyze millions of disparate points of data, creating models for real insight. We look at our core data in relief in order to reveal the often subtle relationships between marketing impressions (like airplay) and response from the marketplace.
We know from experience that there are true stories in the data, if you know where to look.
Media Data InputsDisparate data sources are received at different intervals and in different formats.
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All source material is archived. Some sources (including P2P Data) are processed to identify files and to match search strings to specific artists, songs, movies, television programs, games, etc. |
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New elements to any data source (new film, new song) are given a new BigChampagne ID. |
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All sources are processed and collated to conform to BigChampagne's media identification systems. |
Just the FactsDistributed Computing Systems begin analyzing each source, processing each according to its specific characteristics.
Basic steps include generating trends for each element over Time, by Geography, Mode (download, stream, share, broadcast, search, purchase, etc.), Source, and so on.
Market IntelligenceWith the basics of Who, What, Where, When and How established, it's time to figure out Why.
In this step, we start looking at patterns of consumption, like how broadcast affects online activity in a given market among fans of a particular artist. What happens when you push a video stream to a fan of one artist versus a fan of another artist? How does that affect retail? P2P downloading? This is where we take data, turn it into information and generate intelligence.
Report GenerationReports are collated, uploaded for subscriber access, and archived.
Whether it's part of a syndicated report format or a custom project, the market intelligence we provide needs to be put into the right format for the right customer. This might include generating completely new reports, or updating an ongoing analysis. Either way, the information has to be organized for presentation in a format that helps our customers get the most out of what we do.
To learn more about BigChampagne's secure, flexible web-based reporting systems, read on.
Reporting The Data
On the front page of this web site, you can get a small taste of BigChampagne every Tuesday, including a snapshot of the most popular songs online. But for our subscribers with password access, BigChampagne.com provides the most detailed market intelligence on the largest consumer segment ever measured.
In addition to subscription products focused on popular music, BigChampagne provides custom research on film, television, video, games, software and other online media.
Artist Reports
This is where the "deep data" about every artist lives. BC Artist Reports reveal what songs from each album are reacting: in which markets and with which fans. This is where you'll find which artists flock together and why. Find out here when marketing and promotion is effective, where your campaign is working and for how long. All of the information here can be trended over days, weeks and even months, with just one click. You'll see what's hot, what's not and what's about to take the world by surprise.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, we're writing the book on popular artists and songs every day.
A line graph plottng the growth in the audience for one artist's songs over time.
A bar chart illustrating the volume of online search activity by song.
A ranked list highlighting markets where interest in an artist is strongest.
What acts go well together?
One-of-a-kind relationship reports identify artistic birds of a feather.
Song Charts
Radio and video airplay is a make or break proposition for almost every artist seeking mainstream appeal. BC Song Charts compare what's on the airwaves with what people are consuming online -- by market, by format and by station. Long before traditional callout research comes back and often weeks or months before the first CD hits the stores.
Our partner, Mediabase, is the leading provider of information about radio airplay. BigChampagne collects information about every song online, whether or not it's getting attention offline. If it's a hit, you'll see it here first.
Most popular artists and songs by market.
A national format chart.
A radio station playlist chart.
A detailed song report.