Jonny Quinn has been the drummer with Snow Patrol since their first full-length release Songs for Polarbears. In 2007 Snow Patrol was in the running for two MTV music awards, as well as receiving nominations for Grammy and Brit awards and winning an Ivor Novello award, along with many other nominations and wins over the years.
This success isn’t enough for Jonny and five years ago he formed a company with others from the band called Polar Patrol Publishing, a digital music publishing company, using technology to help grow the careers of its artists.
Polar works with a digital technology company, Kobalt, to capture and use data, which helps deliver many benefits. This can help increase artist payments and inform decisions such as where to tour and what songs to play. Once on tour bands can adjust their set list in each country due to the info gathered on the songs’ popularity.
Data is helping bands know more about their market and audience, which can help streamline their costs, especially with regard to touring. For example, if a band can show their booking agent there has been a huge amount of streaming from a particular country, then they can start arranging a gig there straightaway. This is a ground-breaking use of technology within the music industry and Jonny Quinn is helping lead the way.