A representative for Musicmetric, an entertainment forecasting startup that analyzes BitTorrent and social media data, has refuted a widespread report that British heavy metal legends IRON MAIDEN used the company's analytics to plan its tours. A December 20 article on the CiteWorld tech blog claimed that MAIDEN analyzed BitTorrent data to plan a concert tour in South America, implying that Musicmetric directly advised the band to on how to map out the countries where its music is most popular. Musicmetric's head of PR, Andrew Teacher, has since issued a statement saying that the company never worked directly with IRON MAIDEN and that the CiteWorld article referenced above is "sadly not substantiated." According to the updated CiteWorld post, the Musicmetric analysis "was carried out without the band's participation or knowledge... [with] no confirmation that the band ever saw or used it." Musicmetric's full statement about CiteWorld's original article: "We never stated or implied that IRON MAIDEN had used our analytics to plan its tours. "[On November 29] The Guardian correctly published Musicmetric data showing the band's BitTorrent and social engagement after the band was named one of the UK's fastest growing companies a London Stock Exchange report. They were far older than many newer names in the report and we wanted to see why MAIDEN were in there. The data provided an interesting insight, showing just how many fans they'd added through intense touring across emerging markets and highlighting via BitTorrent data precisely where they were popular. "This is precisely how Musicmetric's analytics are used by artist managers and labels: to see where their artists are popular and what drives that popularity. "However, the CiteWorld story is sadly not substantiated. It is a follow-up of a Guardian piece and it misrepresents our position by stating that the success was down to use of analytics, which we simply never said nor implied. "Musicmetric never said IRON MAIDEN had used its data to plan a tour we simply said where the band was popular and stated that BitTorrent data generally, could be useful to see precisely where an act is popular."
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