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"This post is part of Mashable's Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.  The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.\nName: Next Big Sound\nQuick Pitch: Next Big Sound is a tool that gauges the popularity of bands and artists via fan activity on a variety of social networking sites.\nGenius Idea: As the music industry and the online world become more and more enmeshed, tracking band popularity via album sales \u2014 and even digital downloads (Hello, piracy!) \u2014 seems rather arcane. Just because a band isn't moving a ton of CDs at any given time doesn't make it less buzzworthy \u2014 especially as services like Pandora and Spotify continue to take off.\nThat's where Next Big Sound comes in. The website is basically a tool for fans, artists, music industry professionals and journalists to track the popularity of an artist across 16 sites: Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, Twitter, iLike, Wikipedia, Soundcloud, Reverb Nation, Pure Volume, OurStage, Vimeo, Bebo, Amie Street, Jam Legend and Virb. Fan interaction counts as plays, fans, views, likes, downloads and  comments \u2014 depending on the site.\nAs of right now, the site functions like a wiki; you can add bands that have not yet been included (I added Everyone Was in the French Resistance... Now!). Currently, there are 699,328 artist profiles.\nWe tested out the service with YouTube darlings OK Go, banking on the fact that the social media space has been buzzing about them as of late. \n\n\n\n\nAs you can see, there's a pretty visible spike in online activity around March 1, when OK Go's new video premiered. \nYou can also compare bands to see who's getting the most buzz. This could be a great tool for determining the breakout band during a festival like SXSW \u2014 or for bitter, insecure musicians to employ when their rivals hit the big-time. We tried it here with OK Go and smaller (yet perhaps more rad) band Surfer Blood.\n\n\n\n\nSurfer Blood's social media cache isn't quite as big as OK Go's, but there's a visible spike in recent activity, which makes sense considering the band is playing SXSW today.\nNext Big Sound makes it pretty easy for you to get in on the action \u2014 as least as a fan, I'm not in a band, so I haven't tried out the \"verify your band's account\" feature \u2014 you can star your favorite bands and have updates on their stats sent your inbox at whatever time you choose (either daily or weekly).\nRight now, the site is collecting data on media mentions of SXSW bands to determine which are getting the most attention \u2014 it even has as online playlist of hot bands. This data is sure to be a godsend to music journalists, concert venues and labels following the fest, which is considered one of the top arenas for breakout bands to make their mark.\nWe're down with Next Big Sound \u2014 as both a tool and toy for musicians and music enthusiasts. It's cool to see a company change how it thinks about the music industry, which seems to be more in flux every day.\nSponsored by Microsoft BizSpark\nBizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.\nEntrepreneurs can take advantage of the Azure Services platform for their website hosting and storage needs. Microsoft recently announced the \"new CloudApp()\" contest - use the Azure Services Platform for hosting your .NET or PHP app, and you could be the lucky winner of a USD 5000* (please see website for official rules and guidelines).\u201D"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2010/03/17/next-big-sound/>