What data tools are available to Sony, Warner, and UMG?

You’d think these data tools that the labels use are top secret. They’re not.

@BRANDONVHIXON

Nov 06, 2022

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What data tools are available to Sony, Warner, and UMG?

You’d think these data tools that the labels use are top secret.

They’re not.

Sony, Warner, and UMG have their own proprietary data tools that they’ve created to track consumption in real time across their respective catalogues.

The tools give them access to tracks metrics like:

streams in real time (hourly, not on a 24 hour delay)
save rate / skip rate / replay rate / search
free versus paid streams (subscription versus non-subscription)
male versus female ratio
age + geo demographics
mobile app versus desktop client streams
and much more, that I’m not willing to expand on here

Sony uses a technology called Apollo.

Warner Music uses a technology called Tableau.

Universal Music Group uses a technology called SWIFT / UMX.

These tools are not available to third parties and you need to be an employee (or an employee of a distributor like The Orchard) to have access to data around consumption. These tools were built on top of Spotify’s private API, which was negotiated for many moons ago. This access to first party data is what differentiates the big three and independent labels and distributors.

@itsnorequests