About MusicID’s Digital Research Fellowship

MusicID is an academic platform that compiles current and historical music industry data into a single, easy-to-use source. Incorporating thousands of charts spanning 74 countries, MusicID provides access to chart information from Billboard and the Official Charts Company dating back to the 1950s, as well as contemporary statistics on iTunes downloads, Spotify and Apple Music streams, and Shazam searches. It also includes built-in visualization tools which allow users to create and export customizable tables and graphs.

Awarded competitively to a scholar from any discipline, at any stage of their career, the fellowship is designed to support research in music studies that uses data (especially music chart data) to reveal new insights or reinforce prior understandings. Possible subjects include historical, cultural, or business insights, such as trends in popular music, the relationship of music consumption and production to current events, reception histories, or platform-specific marketing, to name only a few. See the past winning proposals below for examples.

The recipient will receive $1,000 and access to the MusicID platform for one year (all other applicants will receive access to the platform for six months). Special preference will be given to proposals that demonstrate how they will benefit from access to the MusicID platform. The recipient is expected to write a brief final report at the end of their fellowship year, describing the research they conducted and their preliminary findings.

Submissions from faculty, independent scholars, and graduate students are all encouraged and welcome.

MusicID is proud to support the work of academics and researchers through its annual MusicID Digital Research Fellowship program. The fellowship is awarded annually each summer to a person making great strides in cultural and digital humanities research. 

“Computerwelt: Charting the Digital Revolution in Popular Music”, Sven Kube (Florida International University)

“All the Way Up: A Chronological Study of Hip Hop’s Global Emergence as the Leading Popular Music Genre in the Streaming Era”, Dr. Steven Gamble (University College Cork)

“Reggaeton without Blackness: Tracking Afro-Latinx Roots in Latinx Contemporary Music,” Eduard Arriaga (University of Indianapolis)

“Ring the Alarm: Tracking Chart Performance During Black Lives Matter, 2014-2019”, Allie Martin (Indiana University-Bloomington)

“Identity, Genre, and Chart Success”, Thomas Johnson (Skidmore College)