Are you a fan of Clay Aiken?  Do you want to know why you should seriously consider becoming an active member of FaceBook, Twitter, and YouTube…why it is important that you read and comment at blogs and articles about Clay?  If you read the following information, I hope you will see why it is paramount that we all participate in the social/digital world of a musician.

On July 20^th, Big Champagne unveiled The Ultimate Chart at the New Music Seminar in New York City.

The purpose of the Ultimate Chart is to update old methods that were used to track the popularity of songs and artists. For years, Billboard charts have ranked musicians by sales only. The Ultimate Chart uses everything from Amazon downloads and YouTube/Vevo views to Facebook fans and Twitter followers to provide the music industry a chart for the digital age.

Eric Garland, the CEO of Big Champagne said:

“For the first time this is getting beyond but not leaving behind traditional sales and airplay. What we’ve tried to do is take everything we know about the ways in which artists and their fans connect and put that into one measure, so that we really know where we stand.”

Big Champagne’s partners and sources for the Ultimate Chart include retailers, online and traditional broadcasters (radio and television), major content companies, subscription services, social networks and other venues where fans demonstrate their passion for music. These include: Yahoo! Music, Amazon, iTunes, YouTube, VEVO, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, MTV, ClearChannel, MediaBase, AOL, Napster, Microsoft Zune, We Are Hunted, LastFM and many more.

Data provided by Big Champagne is being used by major music companies to make decisions about signing artists and promoting music online and to radio stations.   Broadcasters use Big Champagne to help determine the list of songs performed on commercial radio and music television.

Tamara Conniff is the Founder/Editor of The Comet and a former Billboard Editor-in-Chief and Associate Publisher.  She is a huge fan of the Ultimate Chart:

“This chart is long overdue and represents for the first time an 
accurate view of where popular music is today. Music is not just about sales, it’s about interaction—listening, watching, playlisting, evangelizing and socializing. The Comet will be publishing the Ultimate Chart and using Big Champagne’s data for analysis, prediction, and consumer trends.”

The following chart is an example of how Big Champagne comes up with their figures.  It does seem like a more concise way of measuring celebrity relevance in the entertainment field.

The Ultimate chart is the up and coming way to compare the relevancy of stars.  It is being posted at many of the top music webpages.

I thought a chart that compares some FaceBook and Twitter numbers would help to see the big picture.  The Facebook column is the number of friends and the twitter column is the number of people following the singer.

I have read on many of the Clay Aiken boards that many of his fans are a bit afraid of FaceBook and Twitter.  Well, I think it is time for each of us to get signed up and get counted for supporting Clay.  It doesn’t cost anything and if you are afraid of privacy issues, sign up as whatever name you want and don’t add any information you don’t want to.  And, use it only to support Clay.

If there are those who don’t know how to use the sites, lets set up a “Twitter for Dummies” site and another for FaceBook.  Perhaps someone can host a thread at each board.  AND, if all else fails, send me a message and I will set up something here.

Do you have any suggestions??  Is this something we can work on as a huge group?  If you believe that this information is important, please pass the word around.  Post the chart, copy some of the important facts or, if you have permission, leave a link.  I never ask this, but today, I feel this information should be shared.