Atlanta-based Indie Music rolls out popularity tool for musicians

Posted January 6, 2009

Atlanta-based Indie Music rolls out popularity tool for musicians

By CARMILLE RICKETTS, VentureBeat

SILICON VALLEY —

Independent musicians looking to launch their careers online will soon have a brand new tool to measure their popularity in real time: Band Metrics.Its parent company, Atlanta-based Indie Music, raised an undisclosed angel round of funding to continue developing the application, currently in a private beta.

The service — launched in response to the explosion of digital do-it-yourself music recording and publishing tools — crawls the web for semantic data indicating name recognition, music trends and fan interests. This allows artists and groups to adjust their image and strategy as they go to have the best shot at making it big. A TechCrunch50 semi-finalist, Band Metrics has been heralded as Google Analytics tailored to the music industry.

Anyone can register for the beta on the app’s web site. Not much has been released about how its patent-pending technology actually works, or how it displays results in ways that make it so easy for bands to digest and react to. However, graphics on the site suggest geographic and long-term analysis.

Atlanta entrepreneur Allen Graber led the angel investment. The other investors were not disclosed.

$800 million in capital went to music technology in 2008 despite the downturn. Companies like SellaBand, OurStage, Amie Street, and others devoted to getting the word out about fledgling bands, have also taken healthy slices of this pie.