MUMBAI: Viberate is bringing data-driven insights and a better approach to award nominations to Miami this month, as part of Winter Music Conference. First, the live music data platform has surfaced nominees for the WMC’s high-profile International Dance Music Awards (IDMA), with the final award going to the nominee who receives the most votes. Viberate will also be hosting a panel on the WMC Main Stage with media and industry voices addressing the importance of data for live music and festivals.

For the second year, Viberate has analyzed five key data points to determine which artists had the greatest impact in the previous year. After the WMC determines the award categories, Viberate looks at artists’ social followings, gigs and performances, peer connections and network, fan growth, and, importantly, fan engagement “because you have to be a human to engage,” notes Viberate co-founder Vasja Veber.

“We chose indices that would present a balanced, neutral picture of who has real traction in particular sub-genres and formats,” explains Veber. “We didn’t want this to devolve into a simple bot popularity contest. So peer connections, fan engagement, and live shows all play into our calculations.” (The full list of nominees can be found here.)

Viberate’s data-driven approach is a natural extension of their massive network of carefully curated artists, venue, and festival profiles. The platform will share what it’s gleaned from years of managing and analyzing data at a discussion on the WMC Main Stage on March 18 titled “Data Science--Can Social Media and Streaming Metrics Be the Deciding Factor Between Profit and Loss?” The panel features producer Deniz Koyu, entrepreneur and artist Arabian Prince, Rolling Stone’s Emily Blake, Napster’s André Glanz, and Veber, for a discussion of how dance music events and artists can best use data to boost their business.

“The margins of so many events and tours are extremely thin,” Veber says. “Data can help ensure we have more sustainable, thriving live music events and more successful touring artists. This is about more than tracking likes; it’s about getting a real data-informed picture of who’s getting traction and what’s working.”