“The Numbers Don’t Lie!”: Metrics as Tools for Decision Making and Strategic Planning in Music Industry Organizations

In the current landscape of streaming and social media, online platforms and channels have become pivotal not only for the music industry’s approach for discovering and recruiting new music and artists, but also for how they communicate with and learn from their audiences. Datafication is thus increasingly becoming a key tool in the decision making and strategic planning of music industry professionals. The analysis of Big Data and application of algorithms are here being actively used to monitor the listening patterns and interactions of audiences, as an informed foundation for the planning and targeting of releases and promotional activities. In addition to testing audience responses, media and streaming channels are actively used. Based on empirical data accumulated through interviews and fieldwork in the “creative lab” of a major record label in Norway, this chapter explores ways in which music industry management are increasingly making use of audience and user data as a tool and source of information for decision making and strategic planning. It is argued that having the knowledge and experience to interpret audience data and to translate it into strategic planning is emerging as a key competence within the music industries, contributing to a reshuffling of power relations and transformation of managerial structures both within organizations and the music industry itself.