Who loves a puzzle? My late father used to proudly tell people that, as a toddler, I would put my puzzles face down and see if I could solve them without the picture as a guide. When I was on contract at NBCUniversal, there was a community puzzle in the break area, and I would spend many a lunch break completing part of the Tuscan scenery. I'm not only a fan of puzzles but I'm really good at them. I'm inclined to believe serves me well in my day job.
The thing with puzzles is that you can’t just grab pieces from the pile and start putting them together, and a single puzzle piece in isolation won’t show you the whole picture. A strategy is required to make sure the correct links are made, and the final picture is complete.
Similarly, your company is likely sitting on a wealth of data pieces – from streaming numbers and fan engagement to asset detail and royalty data – but without a data strategy, it’s hard to see the complete picture and how each piece can be leveraged effectively as part of the whole.
Building the data puzzle
Identify the Edges: Define your business goals and the key questions you need your data to answer. Have you looked through all the data pieces to check what you have and determine the scope of your work? This forms the border of your data puzzle.
Sort by Color and Shape: Organize your data sources and understand what kind of information each holds. Are they performance metrics? Deal data? Sales figures? Knowing the "color" and "type" of each piece makes it easier to find its place, and eventually how they will link together.
Beware of Tricky Pieces: Just like a puzzle, some data points might look like they fit, but aren't quite right - whether it be due to an error or an unexpected anomaly. A robust data strategy helps you identify and avoid these inconsistencies and inaccuracies, ensuring the integrity of your final picture.
Connect the Interlocking Parts: Discover the relationships between different data sets. How does marketing spend correlate with streaming numbers? Which demographics are most engaged with specific genres? Finding these connections make the data far more valuable than each piece standing alone.
Address Missing Pieces: Realize that without all the necessary data points, your final picture will be incomplete. A data strategy helps you identify gaps in your data collection and establish processes to acquire those crucial missing pieces.
See the Big Picture: Without a clear "picture" to reference (like established data standards and guidelines), assembling the puzzle takes much longer. Implementing these standards provides a crucial roadmap, accelerating the process and ensuring a more accurate final image. A well-defined data strategy allows you to visualize the complete landscape of your business.
Why is this crucial?
There is more data in music than ever before, which means that sometimes it can seem like we’re mixing different puzzle pieces together without double checking that they’re even part of the same picture. Sometimes we’re taking those tricky pieces that don’t quite fit and just wedging them into the space in the hopes that it’s ‘close enough’ to work.
Going back to that communal Tuscan scenery puzzle - the reason why it was easy for anybody to just work on for a few minutes is because the reference picture was there, the pieces were categorized by section on the work top, and each person had a shared understanding of standard puzzle strategy to complete. By creating your data strategy, and getting all necessary stakeholders on board, you’re now working from the same picture and have a shared vision of how to build it with the right pieces in place.
The result?
Boosting Operational Efficiency: Imagine using your data to optimize royalty processing, streamline content delivery workflows, improve customer experience, or evaluate resource allocation needs. A clear data strategy identifies inefficiencies and provides the insights needed to fine-tune your internal operations, saving time and resources.
Unlocking New Revenue Streams: Your data can lead you to untapped opportunities. By analyzing patterns, identifying emerging trends, and understanding the value of your catalog in different contexts, you can uncover new avenues for monetization, licensing, and product development.
Enhancing Asset Quality: Think of your music catalog and related rights as valuable assets. A robust data strategy ensures the accuracy, accessibility, and proper management of this crucial information. This includes metadata and rights management, performance monitoring, and revenue assurance, ultimately maximizing the value and longevity of your assets.
Ready to assemble your data puzzle?
I help music businesses like yours transform their scattered data into actionable insights, ensuring you have all the right pieces and a clear picture to guide you. Let's discuss how we can put the pieces together to unlock your company's full potential.