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BMI provides my quarterlies in .pdf (human readable) and .csv (machine readable) file formats. I've downloaded all the csvs, and written a python script to push them into a database and analyze some things like: Which cues have made me the most money, which shows have a I made the most money on, etc. The data has to be looked at carefully, for instance you can't compare a six year old track to a 1 year old and expect the earnings to be at parity.

The results were interesting, and a bit surprising. I thought that my biggest money makers were rural acoustic pieces. They've been sync'd more times, but by far and away my best money makers have been uptempo, elec. git based, chickin' pickin country tunes. That's due to the fact that a certain MTV show has used a couple of them many times and the payouts have been real high.

I'm not sure how far I plan to take this. I have a small db that I keep my cues cataloged in, title, style, key, length, publishing info etc. I might merge the royalty db with this one and look for connections between style, and royalties etc.

I think that you can take this type of data analysis too far. Sometimes a track gets lucky so to speak. But, I think that looking for and reacting to big obvious trends can only help my business. First off, I'm going to clear up the projects I'm working on and get some more chickin pickers out there. Hey, we all have our crosses to bear...

Interesting for sure, Erich, and nothing wrong with market-think and monitoring.
At the end of the day it IS just retrospective counting, though informative so.

Circumstances in the market changes all the time, and it also depends on the space YOU get to inhabit, AND of course how appealing your tracks are to the end users that YOU get in touch with. So stats are one thing, constant market monitoring is another way to learn about demand.

As long as the music is recognizeable genrewise, meet the required form, and is appealing for the use, it seems to me there's a lot of leeway in the library mrkt for music. The rest is talent, and probably subdue to the 80-20 rule

It's great to look at where you're money really comes from. Obviously, you need a minimum sample size for any statistical study to be relevant.

It might be important to differentiate between the music style that got you placements and the TV network that paid you the most. Is it the music style (very well could be!!!) or working with libraries that are best connected with the higher paying cable channels such as MTV? (Not mutually exclusive, of course).

Bottom line... If something is working for you, do more of it!

Best of luck!
Casey

Ah, a man after my own heart! I'm a data nerd, too, but I haven't gotten around to this yet. I think it's a worthwhile project, but like Casey says, you've got to consider a lot of factors. You could merge your royalty data, like you said, with your cue metadata and do some regressions to figure out what's most tightly linked to royalties (obviously the program/network; but how do you get there?)

It's an interesting question.


-Nick

I like to play with data too, I have a bunch of spreadsheets tracking songs, contracts, feedback received, all kinds of stuff. I use the data to guide decisions about what's succeeding, what to work on next, what songs to pitch based on past feedback, revisions needed, etc.

But I think luck plays a big part ... Having the right song, produced the right way, getting into the right hands at the right time, heard by the right supe, placed in the right spot in the right show on the right network, a show that succeeds and maybe gets played over and over.

jdstamper wrote: But I think luck plays a big part ... Having the right song, produced the right way, getting into the right hands at the right time, heard by the right supe, placed in the right spot in the right show on the right network, a show that succeeds and maybe gets played over and over.

that sounds just like when opportunity and preparedness meet

You lost me at database...

eeoo wrote:You lost me at database...

Question for all the ASCAP'ers. Does ASCAP provide royalty statements in some downloadable, machine readable form like .csv, excel, xml etc?

teleblaster wrote:Question for all the ASCAP'ers. Does ASCAP provide royalty statements in some downloadable, machine readable form like .csv, excel, xml etc?

Yes!