At a time when the music industry worldwide has been hit badly because of the free downloads and piracy, the intervention of Big Data and analytics present the opportunity to change the landscape and potential revenues for all stakeholders. The digital disruption in the music industry is attracting advertisers and helping them target their advertising spend on specific online audiences for specific types of music.

Broadcast radio is slowly giving way to online radio and multitudes of online video channels coupled with the capability to download music on devices expands the audience and the timing for targeted advertising significantly. Talent spotting and taking bets on emerging talent is a specialised activity which could be handled only by experts who have been part of the music industry for many years. When labels promoted heavily do not get the desired returns, the losses can be staggering. However it is now possible to mine the data connected to these services and study the patterns in the downloads,

social media trends, concert attendance, sales of tickets, merchandise and audio-video albums all of which help in predicting the next big hit.

With millions of downloads of music happening regularly, streaming services have been criticised by many artists. However, it is now feasible to critically analyse the huge data provided by streaming analysis including the psychological factors of consumers of all types of music as well as their other listening behaviour such as the repeat hearings of specific scores and artists and preferences for specific numbers from an album and predict with reasonable confidence the talent that has the potential to be the stars and the probability of success with their specific albums.

The Musical Genome Project conceived by Pandora Media studies the raw unstructured data of raw music and tracks using which judgments are made of the preferences of the listeners. Based on their evolving tastes, the recommendation algorithm suggests music scores to the listeners bringing in more personalisation to the musical experience and create opportunities for targeted marketing. Thus digital technology and the access of music content through devices are transforming the methods of engagement, purchase and consumption of music.

At a time when classical music enthusiasts have been lamenting on the declining audience support for this form of music partly because the complexities of music are not understood by the laypersons, digital intervention in classical music could open the world of music for hitherto uninitiated with the requisite tools for appreciation and innovation. In the month of December every year thousands of Carnatic music connoisseurs from all over the world congregate in Chennai for the month-long music festival to enjoy the performances of the masters and the upcoming artists and also to stay uptodate with the new trends in classical format of music. Most artists look forward to presenting their innovations with this discerning audience including the new Ragas they may have conceptualised. The audience attend these performances not only to enjoy the music but are also keen to know the nuances and the grammar of music and it is quite common to find many of them accessing such information from the downloaded apps on their devices while the performance is under way.

One area which has posed a challenge is to getting to know the name and other details of unfamiliar Ragas and they depend upon the knowledgeable experts who have learned to tune their ears over the years. Not any more! Just as in the case of field of medicine, with AI systems such as Watson which makes it feasible to diagnose the problem and prescribe treatment, thanks to Big Data and analytics, in the field of music, it is now going to be possible to capture the multitude of notes and scores of various performances and enable the listener in arriving at the Raga and the notes that form the raga with ease and thus enhance the overall experience of those attending the music concerts. It is also possible through machine learning to invent new Ragas, which has been considered to be a fine art that only the select few expert scholar musicians had the capability to create the Ragas so far.

There will be a debate whether machine invented raga would be as impactful and enjoyable as those invented by the masters because in the latter case, ragas are expressions of feelings based on personal experiences and there would still be the need for an intervention by an artist to give the final shape. A study carried out by Harvard University and the Max Planck Institute in Germany about the rhythmic patterns in drumming and what appeals to the listeners has interesting findings. While the computer could produce the same rhythm as the drummer with perfection, after a while, the listeners are not interested in the computer generated piece beyond a point as it is the ‘imperfections’ of the human drummer caused by a combination of drummer’s own imagination and the impromptu changes made to compliment the musical notes produced by co artists and the audience response, which is what is pleasing to the listeners. Computers are not generally successful in producing such rhythmic fluctuations in order to make music harmonised and hence the preference for the music created by human beings.

While Big Data has made huge inroads into the space of music selection and helping artists and record companies know the preferences of listeners, it also has the potential to make the musical experience more enjoyable for the listeners by providing insights that would be valuable in helping the artists design such experiences. Music creation is the frontier yet to be conquered by Big Data and it appears it would continue to remain the preserve of the artists for a long time to come.

The writer is CEO, Global Talent Track, a corporate training solutions company