Music

Big Data comes to music and entertainment studies - and opens new avenues of research.

Music ID is a growing repository of historical and current sales data spanning 60 years from over 30 countries. Billboard, Official Chart Company, Gfk Entertainment and many more reporting agencies in Europe, Canada, Japan, Australia and elsewhere provide the data.

This data is presented in highly interactive, feature-rich tables and graphs where for the first time faculty and students can derive an amazing amount of information about their research questions and the business of music around the world.

A wealth of Case Studies show faculty and students how music sales data can be applied in Music, Performance, Entertainment Industry, Business Studies, Film & Media Studies, Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, Political Science, Humanities, History and Statistics. New insights into the cultural New insights into the cultural context when the Rolling Stones first toured the U.S. in 1964? How does a classical artist cross over to pop?

The benefits for institutions and faculty:

  • Makes new lines of academic inquiry possible
  • Integrates our unique Sales Rankings with a timeline of World Events to give scholars a complete picture of the impact of music in social, political, and cultural contexts worldwide
  • Encourages real rigor in scholarly investigations in the humanities
  • Provides the opportunity to deliver new and inventive courses
  • Supports the trend towards interdisciplinary academic study
  • Attracts new students who are looking for data-driven research opportunities

The benefits for students:

  • Links academic study with real world commercial opportunities
    • communication and media (e.g. radio, TV, the printed press)
    • arts and cultural administration (e.g., orchestras, music festivals and institutions)
    • archives and libraries
    • publishing and the recording industry
    • music technology
    • organizations promoting national and international cultural collaboration
  • Allows students to export data in spreadsheets and to export Sales Rankings for use in coursework.
  • Provides a fresh, data-driven lens into the musical achievements of musicians, songwriters and composers across countries and cultures.

Music ID informs research

Data displayed in Sales Rankings

  • View Sales Rankings in relative or absolute relationships
  • View metadata for each graph point
  • Add data to a custom graph
  • Zoom into details of Sales Rankings
  • Sort data by Artist, Writer, Label; First Charted Date; Most Recent Position; Peak Position; Weeks in Chart; Chart Type; Country

Advanced search and scholarly integration

  • Search for Artists, Albums, Singles or by date
  • Access relevant articles in major academic publications with embedded links
  • Listen to audio samples
  • Filter by country and data type
  • Superimpose any artist’s results on any other, around the world
  • Export spreadsheets of data and images of graphs
  • Store work in Research Folders

MusicWeb

Make the connections

Provides more context for any artist or group you study, through

  • Bios
  • Videos
  • Related artists found by semantic indexing

"Music ID’s content is tremendously valuable; the charts from which it derives its data go back, in some cases, more than 60 years... the product already fills such a significant need for music researchers."

The Charleston Advisor

"Music ID’s...set(s) itself apart from other online music resources by using analytical tools to gauge the impact of classical, jazz, and pop music all over the world."

Booklist Online

"Music ID is an indispensable tool in examining chart data for the sales of sound recordings in countries around the world."

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

In short, the database should be of significant value to any institution with courses of study in pop music and history of contemporary Western music.

University of Hong Kong

"…provides us with a statistical meta-narrative of popular culture…"

University of Northampton

"We set up a trial and have been very pleased with it and its application across the curriculum, not just in music…"

Bowling Green State University

"It will make music librarians wonder how we got by without it until now"

‘Note’s review, Music Library Association