My First Burning Man Commute, And The Data

So I mentioned in an earlier post that I was seeing some very encouraging results with EDM in the desert using DTS data, but I've also been working through how to interpret periods where the available sample is limited.

I just had a particularly interesting weekend, with substantially more AutoStage data than I've had previously. Why? It's Burning Man week! My hypothesis is that there are a lot of tech people and people with disposable income driving through town (who can afford $500 to $3,000 tickets). And those people are more likely to have connected cars, some of which are DTS AutoStage cars, which are what is measured. This past weekend was the commute to the event.

The data from this weekend was dramatically different from what I normally see, and it gave me some fascinating clues about who is actually listening. The data also suggested some remarkably long listening sessions among people traveling through the area, possibly until the signal faded. When I drive from Tonopah (where the station is) to Gerlach (where Burning Man is), Google Maps always tries to send me on a back road, which is more direct but bumpy. That road lit up on my heat map when I narrowed the time period to just this weekend.

I saw enough data this weekend to get some hints about listening patterns, although I'm intentionally not publishing the proprietary audience figures (because I don't think I'm allowed to). One of the clearest takeaways so far is that my core audience appears to include a substantial number of people passing through the area, not necessarily people who live here. I'd be delighted to see stronger evidence of local listening, but so far, the data is giving me a very different picture of the audience.