British band Coldplay released its fifth studio album, Mylo Xyloto, Monday, Oct. 24. The album is positioned to head straight to the top of the Billboard 200 charts next week.
Coldplay chose not to make its new album available on Spotify or any other streaming music subscription service. Fans will either need to purchase physical copies or MP3 downloads from places like Apple’s iTunes store, Microsoft’s Zune store or Amazon. The decision is more likely financially motivated as Coldplay stands to make a great deal more money by encouraging the tens of millions of consumers who have streaming music subscriptions to purchase the songs.
How has the new album release affected Coldplay’s buzz online? We used Social Radar to find out.
Coldplay buzz October 2009-present
Coldplay buzz is currently more than 3x higher than its previous high point within the last two years.
Coldplay sentiment
Conversations around Coldplay are currently 76% positive online. The new album name, Mylo Xyloto, is currently being mentioned in 6% of Coldplay conversations. Rihanna, who collaborated with Coldplay on a song for the new album, is being mentioned in 5% of all Coldplay conversations. The classic Coldplay track “Fix You” is currently mentioned in 6% of all Coldplay conversations.
After years of waiting, Spotify finally launched in the U.S. today. As our European friends have been telling us, Spotify is what the long-rumored iTunes subscription service was supposed to be. With a catalog of 15 million songs, it lets you search for and listen to specific songs, artists, and entire albums (for up to 10 hours a month), after which you’ll need to pay $5 for the Premium service.
How does Spotify buzz stack up against competitors such as Rdio and Grooveshark? We used Social Radar to analyze conversations online.
Spotify buzz
Not only did Spotify skyrocket past Rdio and Grooveshark, but Spotify mentions are quickly approaching the overall number of iTunes mentions online. After one day! Wow! Most people do not even have access yet. Will Spotify change the music game in the U.S.?
Amazon.com’s one-day, 99-cent promotion of Lady Gaga’s highly anticipated second studio album, “Born This Way,” resulted in downloading delays on the Internet retailer’s website due to high volume, the company said Monday.
Amazon thanked users for their patience on its website and on Twitter. Consumers who ordered “Born This Way” on Monday would get the full album for the promotional price, a spokesman confirmed.
Amazon is buying “Born This Way” at the full wholesale price, around $9, from Lady Gaga’s recorded-music distributor and absorbing the cost of the discount. ”Born This Way” costs $11.99 or $15.99 on Apple Inc.’s iTunes Store, depending on whether buyers opt for the regular album or a deluxe configuration that includes eight extra songs.
Amazon sentiment
Conversations around Amazon spiked to 96% positive today.
iTunes vs. Amazon mentions within Gaga or Born This Way chatter
The promotion did seem to generate some buzz for Amazon. Amazon was mentioned in nearly 12% of all conversations around Gaga or “Born This Way” online yesterday.
Music distribution executives say that most weeks, Apple commands 90% or more of paid digital music downloads, while Amazon’s share of that market is typically under 10%. Keep an eye on sales figures next week to find out if the promo and increased buzz helped Amazon’s sales vs. iTunes.
Black is scheduled to appear on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno tonight, and her single is so popular on iTunes that she could earn hundreds of thousands of dollars.
We used Social Radar to compare Rebecca Black to teen girl stars Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez and Miley Cyrus.
Rebecca Black vs. Selena Gomez vs. Demi Lovato vs. Miley Cyrus
Throughout the past 30 days, Black has generated significantly more chatter than established stars Lovato, Gomez and Cyrus.
Change in chatter over the past 30 days
Buzz around Rebecca Black is up a ridiculous 6.8 million percent.
Sentiment comparison
Conversations around Black have been 56% negative, while conversations around Cyrus are 69% positive, and conversations around Lovato and Gomez are both 80% positive.
I guess there really is no such thing as bad publicity.
Facebook continues to become one of the most important platforms for brands to engage. The Next Web published a list of the top 25 most ‘liked’ brands on Facebook. Do more Facebook ‘likes’ mean increased chatter for brands online? We used Social Radar to run analysis on Web chatter around each of these brands in 2010. Compare the lists below.
Interestingly, there seems to be little correlation between which brands have the most Facebook ‘likes’ and which brands are being talked about most online.
The chart below contains the brands ranked in order of most Facebook ‘likes’, with bars representing online chatter.
Discussing online social media buzz around hot topics. This week we discuss MySpace’s Facebook Integration, Apple announcement of Beatles finally on iTunes, Facebook’s new messaging system, Black Friday and of course, the Prince William / Kate Middleton wedding.
When iTunes Ping launched in September, there was no way to post songs onto major social networking sites Twitter and Facebook. By connecting iTunes to Twitter, users will be able to find Twitter friends on Ping and tweet out Ping activity.
Will this new partnership help Ping generate more buzz? Despite a spike in chatter around its launch, chatter around Ping has been almost nonexistent.
The Nano made big news at the event with the announcement of its new built in camera, 2.2-inch display, Genius mix capability and built-in FM radio.
The iPod Classic increased capacity to 160GB while keeping the price the same at $249.
The iPod Touch was advertised as the most affordable gateway to the App Store at $229, with no monthly fees. The keynote called the Touch Apple’s fastest growing product line and highlighted its gaming and pocket computing capability.
Apple also highlighted iTunes 9, which includes Genius mixes, home sharing, iTunes LP and a redesigned store layout.
We used Social Radar to measure share of voice for the following words within coversations about “iPod” within the last month: Touch, Nano, Classic, Shuffle, iPhone, Zune and iTunes.
Conversation around Nano spiked dramatically following the announcements, but Touch still holds the highest share among iPod conversations online.
iPhone and Touch hold the largest percentage of posts within the last 30 days at approximately 30% each, with Nano and iTunes each under 10%.
