The results of last night’s 56th Annual GRAMMY awards are in. While most already know who the winners are, here’s a recap just in case:

Record of the Year: “Get Lucky” – Daft Punk featuring Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers

Album of the Year: Random Access Memories – Daft Punk

Song of the Year: “Royals” – Joel Little and Ella Yelich O’Connor, songwriters – Lorde

Best New Artist: Macklemore and Ryan Lewis

Best Pop Solo Performance: “Royals” – Lorde

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance: “Get Lucky” – Daft Punk featuring Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers

Best Rock Album: Celebration Day – Led Zeppelin

Best Rap Album: The Heist – Macklemore and Ryan Lewis

Best Country Album: Same Trailer Different Park – Kacey Musgraves

Check out the full list of winners here.

Did Big Data make the right calls?

Last week, SiliconANGLE published some predictions made by different parties based on advanced analytics incorporating data from previous years and current social media trends.  So who called the winners last night?

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Spotify

The music service used its streaming data to predict Grammy winners, speculating that Imagine Dragons’ “Radioactive” would win Record of the Year, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ The Heist would win Album of the Year and Best New Artist, and predicted Lorde’s “Royals” would take home Best Pop Solo Performance. Spotify also predicted that Daft Punk featuring Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers’ “Get Lucky” would win the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.

Based on the actual winners, Spotify got three right: Best New Artist, Best Pop Solo Performance, and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.  Last year, Spotify correctly predicted Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know” for Record of the Year, and Mumford & Sons’ Babel for the Album of the Year. It seems Spotify listeners are the best source for predicting Grammy winners.

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Bing

Bing looked to its search activity from 2013 to predict that Record of the Year would go to Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines,” and that either Katy Perry or Justin Timberlake would win Best Pop Solo Performance. Microsoft’s search tool also guessed that Taylor Swift would bag this year’s Best Album of the Year award, and that Macklemore and Ryan Lewis would win Best New Artist this year.  Bing only got one prediction right.

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Shazam

The mobile phone-based music identification service used listeners’ habits to predict that “Blurred Lines” would be named Record of the Year, The Heist as Album of the Year, “Just Give Me a Reason” by Pink as Song of the Year, and Macklemore and Ryan Lewis would win Best New Artist.  Just like Bing, it only got one prediction correct.

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CivicScience and AXS TV

For the first time, CivicScience, creator of iQpoll, and AXS TV aired their Grammy predictions. CivicScience used a proprietary method for predicting the winners by analyzing results from surveys conducted online among a mix of music enthusiasts and general consumers.

The team predicted the following: Macklemore and Ryan Lewis would win Best New Artist; “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke featuring T.I. and Pharrell would win Best Pop Duo/Group Performance; Mechanical Bull by Kings of Leon would take Best Rock Album; “Royals” written by Joel Little and Ella Yelich O’Connor and performed by Lorde would win Song of the Year; Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ The Heist was predicted to win Best Rap Album and Album of the Year; Taylor Swift’s Red would take Best Country Album; and Record of the Year would go to Lorde for “Royals.”  CivicScience correctly predicted the Song of the Year, Best New Artist, and Best Rap Album.

Analytics methods are not created equal

What did these predictions reveal about the bigger picture of analytics? Predictions, despite the use of advanced analytics, are not 100 percent accurate.  There are many factors to consider and they don’t necessarily follow the masses. Different consumer groups and web activity are strong indicators of who will win big at the Grammys, but that doesn’t go for all user activity across search platforms and radio streaming sites.

Nevertheless, it’s fun to see how accurate these parties were based on their early predictions. Who will win next year?  Will others be inspired to share their predictions using Big Data tactics?  The anticipation for next year’s Grammys is already building!

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