Since we launched our new plugin features that show song plays from Last.fm it reminded me of a program they launched to pay royalties to unsigned artists. This got me thinking about what bands could do to get more airplay from Last.fm, Pandora, Yahoo Launchcast and other algorithm driven internet radio stations. Basically SEO for internet radio.
I decided to look into Last.fm and how they pick “similar artists.” If you can get your band to show up as a “similar artist” for a more popular band, the recommendation engine should push their listeners over to you. To test this theory I took a look at Last.fm’s artist charts. The number #1 band at the time was Coldplay. If I’m correct, the bands that are similar to Coldplay should end up with more listeners than the similar artists for a lower ranked band.
I entered the number of listeners for each of the 8 bands listed as being similar to Coldplay into a spreadsheet and calculated the average number of listeners which ended up being 879,307. I then went to the #20 ranked band, Nine Inch Nails, did the same and came out with 262,462.
It looks like there’s a clear advantage to having your band associated with more popular bands on Last.fm. According to their FAQ similar artists on Last.fm are calculated based on who else that band’s listeners are listening to. I guess if you wanted to try and game the system, you could give away a copy of Coldplay’s CD along with your own so Last.fm starts to see your band being played by the same people that listen to Coldplay.
