BigChampagne

BigChampagne Media Measurement is a technology-driven media measurement company. The company produces popular music, film and television charts which have been syndicated by Nielsen, Billboard, Rolling Stone, and Entertainment Weekly, among others.

BigChampagne.com is a web site used primarily by entertainment industry professionals, major brands and their advertising agencies, and Wall Street analysts to access information about the popularity of music, film, and television as it is distributed and sold. BigChampagne's sources for data include retail accounts (point of sale), traditional radio and television broadcasters, internet radio broadcasters, internet on-demand streaming services, social networks and blogs, mobile device streaming and downloading services, as well as file sharing networks. BigChampagne's tagline is, "Now you know everything."^[1]

BigChampagne provides a number of services related to producing business intelligence (BI) and competitive intelligence (CI) for users of the BigChampagne.com site: access to proprietary data, data management (integration and analysis), combined with web applications and other technologies for producing marketing recommendations. BigChampagne also provides consulting services.^[2]

BigChampagne was originally founded by co-founders Eric Garland, Adam Toll and Zachary Allison. The company's earliest service tracked the popularity of songs on the original Napster file-sharing service.^[3]

Co-founder Adam Toll has said that the company was named for a lyric in the Peter Tosh song "Downpressor Man": "You drink your big champagne and laugh."^[4]

BigChampagne is based in Beverly Hills, CA with offices in Atlanta, GA. The company was funded entirely by the founders, without outside capital. Musician Glen Phillips was an early adviser and supporter of the company.^[5]

BigChampagne has courted some controversy. The company's early focus on Napster and other file sharing networks originally discouraged major music companies from working with BigChampagne. In 2003, founder Eric Garland testified before the California State Senate that online file sharing was "fundamentally unstoppable." The Recording Industry Association of America publicly criticized his remarks. Beginning in 2002, BigChampagne was involved in a lawsuit with a company called Webspins. Both companies alleged defamation and unfair business practices. The suit was settled out of court in 2003, but the terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Also in 2003, Altnet, a distribution partner of file sharing service Kazaa, sent legal threats to BigChampagne and eight other companies alleging patent infringement. BigChampagne was dropped from the list of targeted companies almost immediately.^[6][7]

The Electronic Frontier Foundation hoped to use the record industry's relationship with BigChampagne to defend file sharing networks like Kazaa as they believed using the networks for market information constituted a non-infringing use of the networks.^[8] This defense proved unsuccessful.

Data provided by BigChampagne is used by major music companies to make decisions about signing artists and promoting music online and to radio stations and MTV. Broadcasters use BigChampagne to help determine the list of songs performed on commercial radio and music television. Led Zeppelin used BigChampagne to choose songs for a 2007 reunion "with good results."^[9] BigChampagne also collaborated with Radiohead to assess the impact of the band's pay-what-you-wish album In Rainbows.^[10]

In 2006, BigChampagne contributed data and analysis to Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson and was featured in The New York Times best-seller "The Long Tail: Why the Future Business is Selling Less of More".^[11]

BigChampagne's metrics and analysis are frequently cited by major media outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, USA Today, and National Public Radio (NPR). Founder Eric Garland is often listed among the most powerful executives in the music business.^[12][13]

In 2011, BigChampagne was acquired by Live Nation Entertainment. As part of the deal, BigChampagne founder Eric Garland was named general manager of LiveNation.com.^[14]

Business model

BigChampagne generates revenues through a combination of data subscription fees, syndication fees, and consulting fees. The company is primarily a "B2B", selling information "business-to-business," though some aspects of BigChampagne's data and analysis are available to the general public. The company's business model is similar to the Bloomberg Terminal, Omniture, or a number of Nielsen Company products and services, although public interfaces, both private and public are allegedly in the works.

Products

BC Dash

BigChampagne's BC Dash is a software platform for integrating, analyzing, and reporting information about the sale, broadcast and consumption of popular entertainment media.

BigChampagne charts the popularity of music most places where it is heard. Partners and customers include Clear Channel Communications, Amazon, Microsoft, Mediabase, MTV, MySpace, YouTube, iTunes, Last.FM, AOL, Napster, and Real Rhapsody.

Partners and sources for data include retailers, online and traditional radio and television broadcasters (Clear Channel and Viacom), major content companies (Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group), subscription services, social networks, and other venues where entertainment is enjoyed.^[15]

Ultimate Chart

The Ultimate Chart is a ranked list of the week’s most popular artists and songs, based on music sales, radio, online streaming, and social media.^[16]

References

External links

• BigChampagne Homepage
• BC Dash
• Ultimate Chart

Further reading

• Mantis, Amy Big Champagne: The Meaning of Success, Music Business Journal.