The new stats system is live! You can see the reports by clicking the "new stats system" link in your site traffic tab. The change has resulted in a lot of questions, and I hope to respond to many here. If you have more questions or concerns, please contact me via the HELP tab; I can address your concerns faster one-to-one rather than in the forum.

What's new?
A lot! First, the new system uses Google's servers to track your stats. They have thousands of servers that analyze your traffic and filter out non-human visitors. This results in very accurate reports, which has been a huge problem for us in the past. We're happy to say that it is completely resolved with this update!

Next, we added a lot more detail to the reports. The "map" link lets you show music plays and downloads on a Google map, so you can see where people are digging your tunes. There are new graphs showing partial plays, skips, and downloads. These let you see what tracks are really popular, not just what was at the front of your playlist. If you click a track, you can drill down for even more detail. Also, instead of just showing monthly reports, you now have the flexibility to choose any date range you like.

Finally, everything is a whole lot faster. Reports, even in really popular sites, load in a second or two. And, once we turn off the old stats system in May, your site will load faster. Google's servers are much quicker than ours in logging data, making each page load faster than before.

Great but… where is the visit log?
This was one feature that we could not port over. However, in the old system, many of these "visitors" were actually automated software. The old system couldn't filter these out as accurately as Google can. We had to decide between accuracy, speed, and more powerful reporting tools -- or inaccurate results, slow reports, but retaining the visit log. We decided that accuracy is the most important thing, and that even though we will be losing that feature, we can make it up by adding more detail like mapping downloads, showing skips and partial plays, and tons more.

If you want even detail, you can visit http://www.google.co m/analytics. That site has industrial level reporting, including the most popular paths through your site, exit pages, and more. For stats junkies, you will find amazing detail on this site that I believe will more than replace the visit log. With the code embedded in your pages, you can see the summaries in the control panel or visit the Google Analytics site for the whole shebang.

Again, we appreciate your feedback, please contact us in the HELP tab if you have any questions!

Allison and I are having a great time meeting artists and Bandzoogle members at our booth at the ASCAP conference in Los Angeles. If you're in the area, we'll be doing a meetup at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel bar today (Saturday) at 5PM. Drinks are on us!

Zoogle member Glitter Rose

Ludacris interviews Quincy Jones

Bandzoogler Todd Michaelsen

Todd Michaelsen on stage at a showcase. Amazing tunes.

Sinbad!

Bandzoogler Roy Turner

Asking John Mayer "How did it feel before playing at Madison Square Garden" - "I felt like I had to poop. Nerves are nature's laxatives."

Hey everyone,

We're putting the final polish on the new site traffic section, which we now call "Reports". Colin rebuilt the whole system from the ground up, giving you a ton more detail than what you have now. At the same time, the reports display this information in a way that is easier to understand.

Here are a few screenshots to get an idea:

A whole new music report page has been added. Tracks in your music player now have graphs showing you plays, skips, and partial plays. This lets you know what songs your fans are really listening to, and which they skip over. You also have the flexibility to view the plays, downloads and purchases from the last 30 days, the last year, or any date range you choose.

The new map view lets you see activity like music plays and purchases purchases by location. It also shows more popular areas as larger bubbles, so it's easy to see top cities at a glance.

We're excited to get this new feature launched, and are working hard to get it done in the coming week. We'll post here when it is ready!

Allison and I will be at the ASCAP Expo conference from the 22nd to the 24th, at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles. Some amazing panelists will be speaking including Quincy Jones, Justin Timberlake, John Mayer, Bill Withers, Jason Mraz, and dozens more. If you're looking to get insights from the world's top songwriters on the creative process, this is the place to be. Use the promo code "Bandzoogle" to get a discount on your tickets.

We'll have a table promo'ing Bandzoogle, and handing out Zoogle schwag including some snazzy new Bandzoogle T's.

I'll also be on a panel at 1:45PM on Saturday called "Your fans are your business" with Brian from ArtistShare, Noah from Fanbridge, Patrick from Nimbit, and musician Jill Sobule. It will be an information-packed hour on how to grow your fanbase and use direct-to-fan marketing effectively.

If you're in the area but aren't attending the Expo, we're working on an informal meetup at the hotel bar. Drinks are on us! Send me an email at chris at bandzoogle.com, or on twitter @bandzoogle or on our Facebook page and we'll get it organized.

Looking forward to meeting some Zooglers!

Brenden Mulligan founded ArtistData in 2006, to help bands save time by updating all their online profiles (including Bandzoogle) in a single place. Since then, over 20,000 artists have joined the service. We asked Brenden for his take on social networking and growing your fanbase.

Can you share your background, and how ArtistData got started?

Before ArtistData I worked for a record label and management company in Chicago called Aware. We had a joint venture with Columbia Records, so we'd handle a lot of the grassroots marketing and direct-to-fan interaction, and then run the artists through the Columbia/Sony machine for their album releases. When I was there our big releases were John Mayer, The Fray, Five For Fighting, Motion City Soundtrack, and Mat Kearney.

When I was at Aware, part of my day was exploring the growing digital marketing landscape. Part of that "exploring" was keeping a lot of our artists' profiles up-to-date across a variety of websites. It was instantly a nightmare and a pain point I knew needed to be fixed. So I left to star ArtistData to solve the pain point of data management across a network of sites.

With the growth of Facebook "fan pages", is having a MySpace page still a requirement for musicians? Is there value in maintaining multiple social network profiles?

It's still incredibly important that artists keep their MySpace pages up to date with their latest music, tour dates, blog posts, etc... MySpace is still an heavily visited music destination, and any artist who chooses not to update it is putting themselves at a disadvantage. It gets top search engine ranking and still is considered to be the place to go if you want to hear music by a band. So, yes, still very much a requirement.

Having said that, I also tell bands that although I suggest they keep their content updated on MySpace, they should do all interacting with their fans through Facebook, Twitter, and their own website. MySpace is no longer a valuable place to spend time communicating. Fans use MySpace as a content source, but not a communication system. So artists should interact with fans and build their community on Facebook, Twitter, and their websites (and email lists). MySpace has taught us that if you invest all you time in building a community of fans on someone else's network, you're not protected if that network takes a dive and fans don't sign in anymore. But if you build your own community and develop a large email list, you're protected.

But back to Facebook. I hope you'll see Facebook Fan Pages becoming a lot more musician friendly. Right now 3rd parties have built apps that make them more usable, by adding music and things Facebook doesn't make easy. So iLike (owned by MySpace), Reverbnation, and a few new companies are basically installing their page within your fanpage. I disagree with this approach, as I believe to get the true power of Facebook, things should happen ON facebook, not through a window of Facebook to someone else's site. But, up to this point, Facebook doesn't have a better solution. I truely hope that changes, because Facebook has a HUGE opportunity to really help bands grow their fanbase. Of course, if they did so, I my answer to your MySpace requirement question would probably be very different.

Do you have examples of musicians that are "getting it right" in terms of social media?

Anyone trying to engage fans is getting it right. The problem with saying "this artist really nailed it .. that's the way it should be done" is that usually the artists that get the most out of social media do something really unique and creative. When everyone copies, that no longer is so special or effective. But I think those artists who invest time to connect with fans through social media will see a long term reward. But it's not easy and it doesn't happen overnight.

Can you share some tips for how musicians can best use social networks (and ArtistData) to engage their fans?

(Readers, I swear that I wasn't paid by Bandzoogle to say this.) I think the most effective use of social media right now in the current landscape is to go to where the fans are (Facebook, Twitter) and engage them there in a way where you can bring them back to your website, where you can make them a real fan by capturing their email address and engaging them on a deeper level. Post news on Twitter that a new track is available for listening on your website, not your MySpace page. Drive people to the property you own, not someone else's network. Post part of a blog on Facebook that links back to your site for the complete version.

As far as how to capture them when they're on your site, the best way is give them something for free in exchange for additionally loyalty (that could mean for them to tell their friends about you, give you their email address, etc...). It's okay to give away a few tracks. You need to give them something to chew on. When they're more interested, you can monetize them through buying more music, merch, and concert tickets.

This doesn't mean you can't spend time nurturing audiences on these social networks. Artists should spend time on there meeting fans, posting gigs, encouraging fans to share information to their friends and followers, etc... The connection is made on these networks because that's where the fans are and they're already talking. But when the time is right, take that next step and get them to connect with you outside the walls of the networks.

Oh, and one other piece of advice. Only do what you want to do. Some musicians don't like the concept of Twitter and have no interest sharing more about themselves. If that's how you are, don't do it! Don't fake it, don't ask someone to tweet for you, etc... It's important that the musicians are real on these channels. If they try to fake it, it'll do more harm than good.

What do you see in store for the music industry in the next five years?

I think people will stop bitching about the lack of album sales and move onto thinking about the industry in a new way. There will be new channels created to capture value from fans. More mid-range bands will be able to use cost effective tools to make more money and quit their day jobs. Concert tickets will continue to rise and hopefully touring will become more environmentally friendly. And there will be more music, which is better for everyone.