Billboard and Twitter Join Forces

By Jason Epstein

Billboard and Twitter have joined forces to create “Billboard Twitter Real-Time Charts.”  The ranking system will join Billboard’s 200+ Official Billboard Charts to track the top Tweeted songs and artists.  Though there’s no solid release date, the charts are due to launch within the coming weeks on Billboard.com.

Twitter’s blog announcement provides some insight on their aim: “Our goal with these efforts is to give artists who share songs and engage with their audience on Twitter a way to get noticed by even more fans, other musicians, and industry decision-makers in real time.”  But will trending data really support the discovery of up-and-coming artists in a meaningful way, or will it just bolster already successful artists?  Is the data really for music fans, or is it consolidated into neatly packaged charts for record executives to peruse as they search for the next artist who proves to be a lucrative investment?

Lyor Cohen’s new “300” label will be using similar algorithms to find new artists on Twitter as well, supplanting talent scouting at clubs, hearing the music live, and seeing the fan base first-hand.  The music industry may have chosen to learn from its mistakes and embrace new technologies, but possibly at the cost of a more organic method of finding talent and doing business.

Data mining seems to be the preferred method of gauging, conglomerating, and analyzing the technological and musical ephemera of the age.  So, one last question: is there any use resisting it?

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