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 and 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 20th, 2010,  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.  BigChampagne  sells the data to record labels, talent agents, and radio stations that are looking to find under-the-radar acts. Increasingly, clients also want to gauge the impact of social media such as Twitter, which recording artists have embraced wholeheartedly.

According to Billboard, the concert promotions giant, Live Nation, purchased Big Champagne in December of 2011.

Musicians seem to know how to attract Twitter followers.  The top four users with the highest number of followers are:

*  Lady Gaga = 26,035,744 followers

*  Justin Bieber = 23,715,693 followers

*  Katy Perry = 21,757,575 followers

*  Rihanna = 21,120,890 followers

These celebrities use twitter as a way to share their thoughts and experiences with fans in real time.

I hope that every Clay Aiken fan is a member of twitter and facebook.   It is time for each of us to get signed up and get counted to help support 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.  No one will care.   And, if you don’t want to be bothered using another internet site, use it only to friend or follow Clay.

Now that Clay is using Twitter, it is really fun to see his tweets. They make me smile.  You never know when he will post a thought, but its fun to read what he has to say.

If there are those who don’t know how to use Twitter or Facebook, just ask another fan for help…you can even ask for help here.  Maybe we can have our own  “Twitter for Dummies”  and another for FaceBook.  I have more than one twitter account.  One is used for Clay Aiken news only and another follows people outside of the music business (but both ” follow”  Clay).

What do you think?  

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 and  copy some of the important facts.   I feel this information should be shared.