NEW YORK (CelebrityAccess) – Valence Media, the parent company of Billboard, has announced its acquisition of leading music consumption analytics platform Nielsen Music (formerly Nielsen SoundScan).
For more than 25 years, Nielsen Music has delivered data from streaming and digital downloads to physical purchases to determine the Billboard Hot 100, Billboard 200, Billboard Artist 100 and other top genre and airplay charts.
This is not the first time the music industry trade magazine finds itself under the same roof as Nielsen. Both were owned by Dutch media conglomerate Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen from 1999-2009.
As part of the new deal, Valence – whose media properties include dick clark productions, Billboard-The Hollywood Reporter Media Group, MRC Film, MRC Television and MRC Non-Fiction – has also established a new MRC Data division that will be led by current Billboard-The Hollywood Reporter Media Group president Deanna Brown.
Brown said: “By bringing Nielsen Music Products and Billboard back together, we’re answering the request from the music industry for a more coordinated, powerful, agile and global suite of independent measurement products. The new MRC Data division will leverage our scale and global, multimedia perspective to operate as a true accelerant for our music business colleagues and stakeholders.”
Karthik Rao, Nielsen Global Media chief product and technology officer, added: “Nielsen Music and Billboard have long partnered to offer a complete picture of music performance and artist activity for the largest, and most important, music markets in the world. We’re confident MRC Data will lead the next wave of growth in a business that is evolving faster than Drake drops hits.”
The Nielsen Music products included in the deal are Music Connect (a measurement and analytics platform and API that provides music streaming, airplay and sales data for artists, albums and songs), Broadcast Data Systems (a single resource for streaming, sales and airplay data at national and local market levels in the US and Canada), and Music 360 (comprehensive music research and insights reports for consumer trends impacting the industry).
Financial terms of the deal between Valence Media and Nielsen were not disclosed.
