The Geography of Myspace: Part One
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The Geography of Myspace: Part One Authors: Taylor Brydges, Taylor.Brydges@rotman.utoronto.ca Shawn Gilligan, Shawn.Gilligan@rotman.utoronto.ca Zara Matheson, Zara.Matheson@rotman.utoronto.ca Kevin Stolarick, Kevin.Stolarick@rotman.utoronto.ca p.416.946.7300 f.416.946.7606 The Martin Prosperity Institute Joseph L. Rotman School of Management 105 St. George Street, Suite 9000 Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3E6 Charts and Figures by: Zara Matheson, University of Toronto Design by: Michelle Hopgood, University of Toronto Special thanks to Dan Silver for his collaboration and insights and to Alex Frenette for his invaluable comments. January 2013
The Geography of Myspace: Part One. By T. Brydges, S. Gilligan, Z. Matheson, and K. Stolarick
Table of Contents
Introduction to the Myspace Project 1
About the metrics.......................................................................................................... 1
Section 1: Examining Bands, Plays, Views, and Fans 3
Total number of bands.................................................................................................... 3
Total number of plays..................................................................................................... 4
Total number of views. . ................................................................................................... 4
Total number of fans. . ..................................................................................................... 6
Plays per band.............................................................................................................. 7
Views per band.. ............................................................................................................ 8
Fans per band............................................................................................................... 9
Bands per 10,000 people...............................................................................................10
Number of plays per capita. . ........................................................................................... 11
Fans per capita.. ...........................................................................................................12
Views per capita...........................................................................................................13
List of Works Cited 14
Martin Prosperity Institute | www.martinprosperity.org iThe Geography of Myspace: Part One. By T. Brydges, S. Gilligan, Z. Matheson, and K. Stolarick Introduction to the Myspace Project The geography of music is a fascinating but understudied field of research in the creative economy. The presence of musicians is a key indicator of a location’s thriving creative environment; a signal of openness, diversity and creativity. These attributes manifest themselves unevenly across geography: some cities are specialists and home to one particular type of music, such as country in Nashville, while others host an increasingly eclectic collection of bands and genres such as New York. Music is a reflection of the people within a city and their creative expression. Music adds a large amount to a city’s creative attributes. Is there a relationship between geography and music? Or, is it a strategically good deci- sion for musicians to move to a city with a strong scene in their genre or a vibrant, diverse music scene? And are more creative cities likely to specialize and succeed within one type of music or more likely to embody many types of genres? These are questions seldom answered. The goal of this paper is to test current assump- tions and theories about established music clusters using detailed Myspace data from 2007, while also highlighting unexpected or emerging clusters of musical activity in the United States. This data was initially gathered for the report, Chicago: Music City, using a custom algorithm created by Justin Savage. Details about the script and data gathering methods can be found at http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/publications/CMC- FullReport.pdf. Building on this initial work, Dan Silver, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus, who also contrib- uted to the Chicago report, brought the data from Chicago to Toronto, and has been analyzing it from a number of angles, some of which were reported on the MPI Music Blog. This Martin Prosperity Institute Whitepaper reports preliminary descriptive findings using the Myspace data, examining metropolitan areas in the United States across several key variables, including the number of fans, plays, or views a particular genre is home to. The first section of this report will examine the Myspace data by metropolitan area, and the second by genre. Future research will examine several metropolitan areas in-depth, probing the musical composi- tion of a particular music scene. About the metrics Below is a description of the key variables used, for this Myspace data downloaded from Myspace.com on January 24 and 25, 2007. Myspace is an internationally known website popular for it’s social networking capabilities, of which a key use is for musicians seeking to promote their craft. There are over 3 million artists in this dataset, and 325 MSAs (based on 2000 definitions). It is worth noting, Martin Prosperity Institute | www.martinprosperity.org 1
The Geography of Myspace: Part One. By T. Brydges, S. Gilligan, Z. Matheson, and K. Stolarick
however, that a given band may or may not carry enough social credibility to be a
band. Other recognized challenges with the data include: fan-generated duplicate
band pages for popular bands, fake band pages, or bands sarcastically attributing
a fake genre. it is also important to note that data cleaning was limited to addresses
— specifically city name. Cities were identified using two digit state abbreviation
and matched to a specific county by city name using the US Census Bureau’s place
name file. Cities that were not matched directly, were next matched using SAS’s
‘soundex’ routine to match based on pronunciation, finally, all city names that had
an identified state and were used 25 or more times, were manually investigated
and matched to a US county when possible. Counties are then used to identify
metropolitan areas.
• Bands: The name of the band is as it was displayed on Myspace.
It is important to note that not all bands are open to viewing, which
can reduce the amount of data received. Also, most of the band
names have odd characters in them, which is something Myspace
allows them to do.
• Plays: Myspace allows the band to post their music on the website
and allow users to listen. The number of times users have played a
band’s music is recorded under “Plays.”
• Views: This is how many times a band’s Myspace page has
been viewed.
• Fans: On Myspace, each band acts an individual user. While a user
has “friends”, bands have “Fans.” This is only the number of fans on
the website.
• Genre: Myspace allows a band to select up to three genres. On the
page, they are displayed as Genre 1/Genre 2/ Genre 3. If the user
chose to only enter one or two genres, the empty ones say “none”.
This variable is the type of music the band self-identifies as. In this
paper, genre is measured in two key ways. First, for a given location,
the top twenty-five genres in that metro can be examined. Second,
using the Ennis (1992) typology, we will present simplified genres.
• City and State: This is the specified city and/or state. In a fair
number of cases, users did not enter a city and/or state, or entered
something that cannot be interpreted into a city and/or state except
on a case-by-case basis. Of 2,485,564 band pages that were identi-
fied as being in the US, 2,331,357 were successfully matched to a US
county. Of those, 154,207 were matched by ‘soundex’. Over 93.8% of
bands were matched by city and state to a county.
Martin Prosperity Institute | www.martinprosperity.org 2The Geography of Myspace: Part One. By T. Brydges, S. Gilligan, Z. Matheson, and K. Stolarick
Part 1:
Examining Bands,
Plays, Views, and Fans
Total number of bands
First, we examine the ten metros in the United States that were found to have
the highest total number of bands. In this category, Los Angeles-Long Beach,
California has the highest total number with just over 175,000 bands, followed
closely by New York. In turn, Chicago, Illinois has the third largest total number
of bands with nearly 70,000 bands, which is over 100,000 bands less than in Los
Angeles-Long Beach. The remaining top ten metropolitan areas average approxi-
mately 40,000 bands each. Overall, if we look at Orange County, Riverside and
Los Angeles-Long Beach, we can see that the number of bands in the Greater Los
Angeles area is quite large. This could also suggest that Myspace is very popular
in this region.
Total number of bands (Top 10 Metros) Exhibit 1
Los Angeles-Long Beach, California
New York, New York
Chicago, Illinois
San Diego, California
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-New Jersey
Atlanta, Georgia
Washington, District of Columbia-Maryland-Virginia
Riverside-San Bernardino, California
Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Washington
Orange County, California
Martin Prosperity Institute | www.martinprosperity.org 3The Geography of Myspace: Part One. By T. Brydges, S. Gilligan, Z. Matheson, and K. Stolarick
Total number of plays
Next we examined the top ten metros according to total number of plays. Bands in
Los Angeles-Long Beach, California have the highest total number of plays, with
just fewer than 1.2 billion plays. New York, New York is second with nearly 700
million plays and Atlanta, Georgia is third with approximately 500 million plays.
Nashville, Tennessee surprisingly comes in fifth with approximately 270 million
plays which is behind Chicago, Illinois with just over 300 million. The remain-
ing cities in the top 10 all have fewer than 200 million plays. A city like Nashville
which did not fall under the top ten total numbers of bands, but falls within top ten
numbers of plays, displays the popularity of the bands that are within Nashville.
A metro that places near the top, based on number of plays, but lower down in the
number of total bands may indicate the presence of a few very popular bands that
skew the numbers(for example, Atlanta).
Total number of plays (Top 10 Metros) Exhibit 2
Los Angeles-Long Beach, California
New York, New York
Atlanta, Georgia
Chicago, Illinois
Nashville, Tennessee
San Diego, California
Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Washington
Orange County, California
Miami, Florida
Boston, Massachusetts-New Hampshire
Martin Prosperity Institute | www.martinprosperity.org 4The Geography of Myspace: Part One. By T. Brydges, S. Gilligan, Z. Matheson, and K. Stolarick
Total number of views
We can also examine the number of views that Myspace bands in a metro area
compiled. Los-Angeles-Long Beach, California had the highest total number of
views with over 670 million followed by New-York, with just over 360 million
views and Atlanta, Georgia with 235 million. Again, Chicago, (approximately 165
million views) and Nashville (130 million views) round out the top five, with the
bands in the remaining cities all have less than 100,000,000 Myspace views. The
large difference between the total numbers of views in Los Angeles compared to
New York is interesting as New York has a larger population and is a key area of
research that will be explored in future projects.
Total number of views (Top 10 Metros) Exhibit 3
Los Angeles-Long Beach, California
New York, New York
Atlanta, Georgia
Chicago, Illinois
Nashville, Tennessee
San Diego, California
Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Washington
Miami, Florida
Boston, Massachusetts-New Hampshire
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-New Jersey
Martin Prosperity Institute | www.martinprosperity.org 5The Geography of Myspace: Part One. By T. Brydges, S. Gilligan, Z. Matheson, and K. Stolarick
Total number of fans
Finally, we can examine the total number of fans for the top ten metros. Once again,
artists from Los Angeles-Long Beach Califorina have the highest number of fans
with nearly 60 million, followed by New York, New York with approximately 32
million fans. Chicago, while in third place with just over 18 million fans, has
approximately half (56%) of the fans that bands in New York have, and approxi-
mately 30% of the number of fans that are in LA. The remaining metros range
from a high of approximately 16 million fans in Atlanta, Georgia to almost 7
million fans in Phoenix-Mesa, Arizona.
Total number of fans (Top 10 Metros) Exhibit 4
Los Angeles-Long Beach, California
New York, New York
Chicago, Illinois
Atlanta, Georgia
Nashville, Tennessee
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-New Jersey
San Diego, California
Boston, Massachusetts-New Hampshire
Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Washington
Phoenix-Mesa, Arizona
Martin Prosperity Institute | www.martinprosperity.org 6The Geography of Myspace: Part One. By T. Brydges, S. Gilligan, Z. Matheson, and K. Stolarick
Plays per band
We can also compare metros by the number of plays per band in a city. For the
first time, New York, Los-Angeles and Chicago fail to crack the top ten. In this
case, Nashville, Tennessee leads with just over 19,000 plays per band, followed
perhaps somewhat surprisingly by Little Rock-North Little Rock, Arkansas with
approximately 13,000 plays, and finally Glens Falls, New York is just behind with
nearly 13,000 plays. While Nashville clearly has the highest number of plays per
band, the remaining metros in the top 10 are separated by only 3,000 plays. This
graph displays that while the metros of LA, New York City and Chicago had a large
number of total bands and views, this was partially due to their extremely large
populations. While the exposure that a large metro such as LA or New York might
could offer a band is higher, this chart suggests that a band might be better off
in a smaller city with a strong music scene well established in a particular genre
(such as country music in Nashville), as they might have their music played more.
However,this reasoning may not hold true for places like Glen Falls and more
research would be needed to further examine this trend.
Plays per band (Top 10 Metros) Exhibit 5
Nashville, Tennessee
Little Rock-North Little Rock, Arkansas
Glens Falls, New York
Biloxi-Gulfport-Pascagoula, Mississippi
Atlanta, Georgia
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Albany, Georgia
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Victoria, Texas
Charlottesville, Virginia
Martin Prosperity Institute | www.martinprosperity.org 7The Geography of Myspace: Part One. By T. Brydges, S. Gilligan, Z. Matheson, and K. Stolarick
Views per band
Myspace also tracks the number of page views each band receives. This time,
we see that Nashville, Tennessee (9,467 views per band) has lost out to Victoria,
Texas, which is the metro with the highest number of views per band with just over
10,000. Again, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago are not in the top ten, while
Little Rock-North Little Rock, Arkansas drops slightly into the rank of third place
with over 6,000 views per band. The remaining metros range from 5,638 views
per band in Atlanta, Georgia to almost 5,000 views per band in Canton-Massillon,
Ohio. Once again this displays the possibility that a certain very popular genre
of music is enjoyed by a large percentage of the population. When looking at the
larger metros on this top 10 lists (Atlanta, Nashville and Memphis), these are cities
associated with one or two very strong music scenes that dominate a particular
genre throughout the country.
Views per band (Top 10 Metros) Exhibit 6
Victoria, Texas
Nashville, Tennessee
Little Rock-North Little Rock, Arkansas
Atlanta, Georgia
Charlottesville, Virginia
Memphis, Tennessee-Arkansas-Mississippi
Athens, Georgia
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Canton-Massillon, Ohio
Martin Prosperity Institute | www.martinprosperity.org 8The Geography of Myspace: Part One. By T. Brydges, S. Gilligan, Z. Matheson, and K. Stolarick
Fans per band
Myspace also tracks the number of page views each band receives. This time,
we see that Nashville, Tennessee (9,467 views per band) has lost out to Victoria,
Texas, which is the metro with the highest number of views per band with just over
10,000. Again, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago are not in the top ten, while
Little Rock-North Little Rock, Arkansas drops slightly into the rank of third place
with over 6,000 views per band. The remaining metros range from 5,638 views
per band in Atlanta, Georgia to almost 5,000 views per band in Canton-Massillon,
Ohio. Once again this displays the possibility that a certain very popular genre
of music is enjoyed by a large percentage of the population. When looking at the
larger metros on this top 10 lists (Atlanta, Nashville and Memphis), these are cities
associated with one or two very strong music scenes that dominate a particular
genre throughout the country.
Fans per band (Top 10 Metros) Exhibit 7
Nashville, Tennessee
Glens Falls, New York
Victoria, Texas
Charlottesville, Georgia
Athens, Georgia
Little Rock-North Little Rock, Arkansas
San Luis Obispo-Atascadero-Paso Robles, California
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Canton-Massillon, Ohio
Lawrence, Kansas
Martin Prosperity Institute | www.martinprosperity.org 9The Geography of Myspace: Part One. By T. Brydges, S. Gilligan, Z. Matheson, and K. Stolarick
Bands per 10,000 people
In order to control population,we can also examine metros by the number of bands
per 10,000 people. In this case, metro areas in California are leading the rest of
the country. Yolo, California has the highest number of bands per 10,000 people
with 238, followed by Los Angeles-Long Beach, California with 184 bands per
10,000 people, which is particularly interesting because it also has a huge total
number of bands. In third is Vallejo-Fairfield-Napa, California with 183 bands
per 100,000. The remaining bands range from 176 bands per 10,000 in Las Vegas
Nevada-Arizona to Stockton-Lodi, California with 161 bands per 100,000. San
Deigo has shown up on a number of top ten lists including this one, which displays
a popular and successful music scene within the city.
Bands per 10,000 people Exhibit 8
Yolo, California
Los Angeles-Long Beach, California
Vallejo-Fairfield-Napa, California
Las Vegas, Nevada-Arizona
Jersey City, New Jersey
Honolulu, Hawaii
Orlando, Florida
San Diego, California
Texarkana, Texas-Texarkana, Arkansas
Stockton-Lodi, California
Martin Prosperity Institute | www.martinprosperity.org 10The Geography of Myspace: Part One. By T. Brydges, S. Gilligan, Z. Matheson, and K. Stolarick
Number of plays per capita
We can also examine the number of plays per capita. It is important to point out
that for per capita numbers that the fans, views, plays can come from anywhere
in the world, while band and population are tied to a specific location Nashville.
Tennessee is particuarly strong on this measure, with 220 plays per capita, nearly
double that of Los Angeles-Long Beach, California (124) and Atlanta, Georgia
(121). Athens, Georgia (116 plays) and Tallahassee, Florida (81 plays) both have a
higher number of plays per capita than New York, New York (with 74 plays). This
list sheds light into the concentration of music within certain metros. For Nash-
ville, LA, Atlanta and New York, there are many local, concentrated neighbour-
hoods known for the development and successful artists. Many local bars, record-
ing studios, companies and performance centres cater to artistic endeavours
within music as the concentration and popularity of music in these cities, leads to
a large number of plays per capita.
Number of plays per capita Exhibit 9
Nashville, Tennessee
Los Angeles-Long Beach, California
Atlanta, Georgia
Athens, Georgia
Tallahassee, Florida
New York, New York
Albany, Georgia
Las Vegas, Nevada-Arizona
Glens Falls, New York
Santa Cruz-Watsonville, California
Martin Prosperity Institute | www.martinprosperity.org 11The Geography of Myspace: Part One. By T. Brydges, S. Gilligan, Z. Matheson, and K. Stolarick
Fans per capita
Again, on a per capita basis, Nashville, Tennessee scores first on our ranking, with
9.7 fans per capita. This is slightly above Los-Angeles-Long Beach, California with
6.3 fans per capita. While New York, New York fails to make the list, Athens, Geor-
gia does well on this measure with 5 fans per 10,000, followed by several metro
areas in California (San Luis Obispo-Atascadero-Paso Robles with 4.5 fans per
capita, Santa Cruz-Watsonville with 4.4 fans per capita and Vallejo-Fairfield-Napa
with 4.3 fans per capita). The concentration of country music within Nashville
and the popularity of country music from Nashville within the United States and
across the world is the main factor in why the city is amongst the top of every list.
Fans per capita Exhibit 10
Nashville, Tennessee
Los Angeles-Long Beach, California
Athens, Georgia
San Luis Obispo-Atascadero-Paso Robles, California
Santa Cruz-Watsonville, California
Vallejo-Fairfield-Napa, California
Atlanta, Georgia
San Francisco, California
Tallahassee, Florida
Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Washington
Martin Prosperity Institute | www.martinprosperity.org 12The Geography of Myspace: Part One. By T. Brydges, S. Gilligan, Z. Matheson, and K. Stolarick
Views per capita
Finally, we can examine views per capita, with Nashville, Tennessee ranking
first again with 108.3 views per capita. Los Angeles-Long Beach, California is a
distant second with 70.6 views per capita, and again Athens, Georgia is third with
58.6 views per capita, editing out Atlanta, Georgia with 57.2 views per capita. Tal-
lahassee, Florida also does well on this measure with 41 views per capita, slightly
edging out New York, New York with 38.9 views per capita.
Views per capita Exhibit 11
Nashville, Tennessee
Los Angeles-Long Beach, California
Athens, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Tallahassee, Florida
New York, New York
Santa Cruz-Watsonville, California
Vallejo-Fairfield-Napa, California
Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Washington
Las Vegas, Nevade-Arizona
Martin Prosperity Institute | www.martinprosperity.org 13The Geography of Myspace: Part One. By T. Brydges, S. Gilligan, Z. Matheson, and K. Stolarick List of Works Cited Ennis, P. H. (1992). The Seventh Stream: The Emergence of Rocknroll in American Popular Music. Wesleyan University Press. Lena, J. C. (2012). Banding Together: How Communities Create Genres in Popular Music. Princeton University Press. Martin Prosperity Institute | www.martinprosperity.org 14
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