Monday 5 November 2012

Gaga and the power of data

One of the issues many fans of long established bands have with their heroes is their insistence on playing unpopular songs and new material in concert.

I remember seeing Lou Reed at the Albert Hall in London about ten or so years ago and his set was almost entirely based on his brand new album.

Definitely not a memorable gig that's for sure.

Good old Lady Gaga however is a little more switched on than Lou.

At least when it comes to recognising the importance of the people who made her famous.

Her fans.

She works with Spotify to see which of her songs are popular and uses this data to assemble her live performance set lists.

Brilliant idea don't you think?

Apparently she also looks at data from different locations which allows her to add and subtract songs for a particular location.

We hear a lot about the importance of data in marketing. But who knew that Lady Gaga would be better at using it than a lot of big name brands?