Live Techie: Beatchain Dissecting Data For The Road

– Ben Mendoza
Beatchain

Data driven science and digital marketing platform Beatchain has partnered with Eleven Seven Label Group and McGhee Entertainment to help grow artist fanbases and help identify viable touring markets, venue size and ticket prices for their artists.

The Beatchain team, led by founder Ben Mendoza, consists of behavioral economists, PhD data scientists, artificial intelligence and machine learning experts and senior music industry professionals, offering platforms for budding artists and established businesses alike.  

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“What we’ve found from touring artists is they don’t really understand what content drives the most engagement,” Mendoza told Pollstar. “Many people spend a lot of money recording a demo or creating a  shiny music video but it doesn’t stick. You have to generate a fanbase that wants to receive that type of content. We’ve shown there’s a way and there’s a formula, you can do this.”

With Allen Kovac’s Eleven Seven (label home for Mötley Crüe, Papa Roach and many others) and Doc McGhee (manager of KISS, Vintage Trouble, many more) on board, the platform has some high-profile endorsements. In particular, Beatchain is working with Eleven Seven clients Just Loud and Bang Bang Romeo.

“I have been a proponent of technology and data in our slow-moving industry,” Allen Kovac, CEO of E7LG and 10th Street Entertainment, said. “We have been struggling to find a way to make the best use of our data and we are thrilled to be partnering with Beatchain to do just that. I am confident that Beatchain’s platform will be a game changer.”

Added Mendoza, “We’ve got clever tech to aggregate and harvest enormous volumes of relevant data from what is a growing number of publicly available data sources – all the social platforms, streaming platforms, numerous music services, even Wikipedia, and a whole range of new services.”

Beatchain offers both business-to-consumer and business-to-business platforms, with Beatchain.com aimed at startup, unsigned and developing artists to grow their fan bases and profiles. The B2B version, Fancoda.com, helps major music companies and music industry professionals.  

“What we’re able to do is put [marketing] campaigns together pushing out content from whichever artist it is across the social channels – all happening automatically behind the scenes – to all different types of audiences that the software has determined are appropriate.  

“You can set up a budget of how much you want to spend on a campaign, and it turns off the ones that aren’t working and moves that budget to the ones that are working the best, so you end up getting 

the most success – followers back, ticket sales back, whatever it is – at the lowest cost.”

Mendoza pointed to a specific example in which $120,000 was spent on billboard and radio advertising. “But where is the data coming back? How do you know who listened to radio or looked at a billboard? 

“We calculated being able to get the same results for about $3,500, theoretically. That’s the sort of difference we’re talking about.” 

While much of the data used is available publicly, Beatchain is making quick work of mountains of it. “You’d have to have rooms full of thousands of people to do the same sort of work that the software can do very quickly.

While the name Beatchain would suggest a ticketing solution akin to many of the blockchain platforms announced in recent months, Mendoza says the ticketing space appears not quite ready.

“On paper it sounds fantastic,” he said, as it allows a way around touts and provides shared data, “but where we found the problem is in the logistics. How long will it take to check somebody’s ticket? Will they have the app on their phone? What if there’s no internet on site? The actual logistics of it is very difficult. All kinds of issues can get in the way. It’s not ready yet in our opinion, but as soon as it is we would definitely look back into it.”