How Music Charts

Zael is a manager at YMU Group, a global talent management company with a roster that includes RAC, Kina, Ryan Caraveo, Ben Zaidi, and Oshi. Originally from Amherst, Massachusetts, Zael grew up around a lot of jazz, cows, and psychologists. After moving out to LA and building his own management company, Zael joined forces with YMU in late 2019 where he kicked things off by developing the marketing plan for RAC’s third studio album “BOY” before signing Kina and Ryan Caraveo in early 2020.

Connect With Zael on LinkedIn and check out YMU Group here.

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On this episode, we chat with Ami Patel, a writer for Water & Music and a passionate analyst of the international music scene.

Ami is a music marketing strategist from Houston, Texas, with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing and Entrepreneurship from the University of Houston. She has a passion for artist development and the global music market and frequently shares her thoughts on current music trends and new music discoveries on her website.

In June 2021, Patel penned a 3,600-word tome titled “Anatomy of a modern pop fanbase: How fans use data to build their own music marketing powerhouses,” which will be the main topic of today’s conversation with her. The K-Pop guide was rigorously researched and written by Patel and edited by Cherie Hu, who runs Water & Music, which is a membership-funded email newsletter, research hub, and community forum dedicated to unpacking the fine print of commercial, technological, and cultural change in the music industry.

Patel was a recent participant in the first-ever Measure of Music music + data event in February 2021, and is joining us today from the great state of Texas.

Note: Around 43 minutes in, Ami says, "1.93 million ticket buyers." The correct number is 1.33 million ticket buyers.

You can connect with Ami on LinkedIn here.

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On this episode, we chat with Tommaso Rocchi, a 2020 Master of Arts graduate of The Global Entertainment and Music Business program at Berklee College of Music in Valencia, Spain. As a former college radio Music Director at the University of Padua in northern Italy, Rocchi then moved on to Berklee to focus on copyright law, new business models, and data analytics.

In September 2020, Rocchi penned a Chartmetric article entitled “How Data is Redefining the Role of A&R in the Music Industry Today,” based off of his research at Berklee. It focuses on where the field of A&R has gone in the digital era from its analog roots, and how data plays a significant role, but should never replace the human side of how professionals operate.

Rocchi is currently a Project Manager for Data and Analytics at Netherlands-based classical music label PENTATONE.

Connect with Tommaso: LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram

Read "How Data is Redefining the Role of A&R in the Music Industry Today" here.

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If you're new to Chartmetric, follow the URL above after creating a free account here.

On this episode, we chat with Andrew Thompson, Editor and Founder of Components, a media and culture publication focused on data journalism. Originally from California, Andrew received a degree in Political Science and Government from Temple University before moving into journalism. Becoming increasingly interested in data and data science, Andrew eventually became the Data Editor and Audience Development Manager at design software startup Ceros and then the Editorial Director of video streaming search engine Flixed. After a couple of years in New York City, he moved back home to Philly, taking Components from a side project to his full-time endeavor. Since 2018, Components has been covered and/or cited in Mashable, Vice, and more than 70 academic papers, and we were lucky enough to feature some of his research on our blog in an article he wrote called “What Spotify Follower Ratio Tells Us About Artist Growth and Fan Engagement.”

Read "What Spotify Follower Ratio Tells Us About Artist Growth and Fan Engagement" here.

If you want more free insights, follow our podcast, our blog, and our socials.

If you're an artist with a free Chartmetric account, sign up for the artist plan, made exclusively for you, here.

If you're new to Chartmetric, follow the URL above after creating a free account here.

On this episode, we talk to Adam Kanwal about the article he wrote for the Chartmetric blog entitled, How to Promote Your Music in Southeast Asian Trigger Cities. Kanwal is a Digital Marketing and Analytics Consultant, working with artists including Amorphous, Still Woozy, Remi Wolf, Suzuki Saint, and Miss Madeline to analyze TikTok and YouTube trajectories, building campaigns from the ground up. He’s formed partnerships with over one hundred influencers globally, and has also served as the Digital Marketing Specialist for Shifted Recording in New York City.

He’s a 2021 graduate from Cornell University in New York, with a background in Human Development, and minoring in International Relations and Music. His primary interests are in creating psychologically smart, culturally relevant, and globally reverberating digital marketing campaigns for up-and-coming musical artists.

Read How to Promote Your Music in Southeast Asian Trigger Cities here.

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If you're an artist with a free Chartmetric account, sign up for the artist plan, made exclusively for you, here.

If you're new to Chartmetric, follow the URL above after creating a free account here.

In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, on this episode, we talk to Berklee's Camille Lopez-Silvero about the article she wrote for the Chartmetric blog entitled, The Under 27 Club: Music and Mental Health in the Streaming Era. Lopez-Silvero is a 2021 Global Entertainment and Music Business Master of Arts candidate at the Berklee College of Music program in Valencia, Spain, and a 2020 Northwestern University graduate. She currently serves as the Head of Marketing and Branding at Disrupción Records, an independent, student-run record label based out of Berklee’s graduate campus. She has previously interned at Paradigm Talent Agency in their Chicago office, and a host of diverse companies including a New York-based creative digital agency (Swell Shark), branding company (Siegel+Gale), investment firm (Loeb Enterprises), and startup (Thnks).

Read The Under 27 Club: Music and Mental Health in the Streaming Era here.

If you want more free insights, follow our podcast, our blog, and our socials.

If you're an artist with a free Chartmetric account, sign up for the artist plan, made exclusively for you, here.

If you're new to Chartmetric, follow the URL above after creating a free account here.

On this episode, we talk to the Founder and Director of London-based firm Songular, Sam Lee. We discuss streaming playlist strategies to grow your audience, how TikTok may or may not be for every artist, and how music data may be important, but at the end of the day, it's better if #ArtistsBeArtists (Songular's hashtag)

According to Songular’s website: “We amplify creative voices through forward-thinking digital services.
Songular is an independent music company that empowers fearless artists through strategic streaming campaigns. Our approach is artist-first and data-driven: this means that our bespoke campaigns are shaped by the stories our artists have to tell, and we use data to link the strategy to the story.” Songular’s roster includes Joji, Bakar, Young T & Bugsey, Zara Larsson, and Flume. Previously, Lee has served as a Music Editor for Deezer, a Radio Plugger, and in his earliest days, a Broadcast Assistant for the BBC and regular contributor to British culture outlet, NME.

Connect with Sam via LinkedIn or Songular's Instagram.

Francisco Toscano is back to discuss the final part of our series on The Rise of Regional Latin Music. Here, we will preview where he sees not only Mexican Corridos or Colombian Cumbia going, and how these and other forms of Latin American genres are mixing to create new music for today’s younger generations.

Francisco is an A&R Researcher for a major label, based in and from the great city of Ciudad de México, and has a background in financial services. He holds an MBA from ESADE, located in Barcelona, Spain, and a Master’s in Music Business from New York University. You can connect with him on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Connect with Chartmetric at blog.chartmetric.com.

On this second episode in our Latin regional music series, we talk to A&R professional and expert in the Latin American music scene, Francisco Toscano, who released another English and Spanish version of an article on the Chartmetric blog entitled The Rise of Regional Latin Music, Part 2: Colombian Music Genres or El Ascenso Mundial de la Música Latinoamericana, Parte 2: Música Regional Colombiana. It is a white paper on four of the most popular Colombian genres being streamed today on all of your favorite DSPs.

Read The Rise of Regional Latin Music, Part 2: Colombian Music Genres here: https://blog.chartmetric.com/regional-latin-music-colombian-music-genres/

Ver la versión en español aquí: https://blog.chartmetric.com/es-ascenso-mundial-musica-latinoamericana-musica-colombiana/

Francisco is an A&R Researcher for a major label, based in and from the great city of Ciudad de México, and has a background in financial services. He holds an MBA from ESADE, located in Barcelona, Spain, and a Master’s in Music Business from New York University. You can connect with him on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Connect with Chartmetric at blog.chartmetric.com.

On this episode, we speak with Dan Runcie, the Founder of the business/hip-hop/culture media company Trapital. Launching in early 2018, Trapital began as a subscription-based newsletter, but provides now features a podcast and a free weekly memo focusing on the business strategy of hip-hop, talking about topics like Beyoncé’s streaming strategy, how the hip-hop’s indie community has taken off and How Tyler, The Creator Built a Cult-Like Following. Trapital’s readers are music executives, media moguls and venture capitalists, with clientele like Translation CEO Steve Stoute and SoundCloud CEO Mike Weissman. Trapital also offers advisory and speaking services.

Prior to running Trapital full-time, the San Francisco-based Runcie has a background in market analysis and business strategy, while also spending several years as a freelance writer for publications such as WIRED and Complex. He graduated Cum Laude in Marketing & Finance at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, and earned an MBA from the University of Michigan, a fantastic place to hang out in in the winter.

Connect with Dan on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, but most importantly, sign up for the Trapital newsletter here!

If you want more free insights, follow our podcast, our blog, and our socials.

If you're an artist with a free Chartmetric account, sign up for the artist plan, made exclusively for you, here.

If you're new to Chartmetric, follow the URL above after creating a free account here.