Leaking new singles to bloggers is one of the most common ways bands try to drum up publicity for a tour or new album release.

But without tools to monitor what kind of traffic the track generates once it's posted by bloggers, how can bands know the precise impact a leaked download or streaming song generates?

Today's RockDex Case Study focuses on New York-based, Minneapolis-bred rock belters The Hold Steady. Down to a quartet following the departure of keyboardist Franz Nicolay, the sans-Franz Steady is preparing to release its fifth full-length, Heaven Is Whenever, on May 4.

Photo by Judson Baker

Within the past week, The Hold Steady has released two songs from the album to bloggers. The result: RockDex shows definite increases in social web traffic and online conversation that are directly traceable to both leaks.

Let's start with Twitter. On March 22, THS allowed Pitchfork to premiere the new track "Hurricane J." Word spread instantly and virally, particularly via Pitchfork's own Twitter feed through retweets.

The chart below shows the March 22 spike in mentions of The Hold Steady on Twitter -- 389 tweets, to be precise. It no doubt also helped that the song posting included a tour announcement. As we've shown before, announcing a tour is always a great way to stoke conversation.

And as we drill down into individual tweets, RockDex shows how immediate the viral spread occurred following the inital 'Fork tweet.

Just yesterday, March 29, NY Mag's Vulture Blog (not as influential as P-fork, but still big) got the exclusive to post single no. 2 from Heaven, "Rock Problems." This time, the spike was a bit smaller, at 250 tweets.

And, again, we can see the domino effect that the Vulture blog's initial tweet set off. Note also how many of the fans who retweet the song reshape the message to make it their own, becoming, in effect, individual marketers packaging the band's content for consumption by their friends. You just can't buy that kind of trust-based enthusiasm.

The impact wasn't relegated to Twitter, however.

On March 23, The Hold Steady's MySpace received 1,929 views -- an increase of 125% over the previous day. Traffic remained high but tapered off immediately after, and then rose again on March 30. (Note the day-long delay between when news hits Twitter vs. MySpace.)

As of this writing, the band hasn't posted the second (and, we think, better) song, "Rock Problems," to MySpace, but RockDex's MySpace singles chart shows that "Hurricane J" is a definite hit.

So, the next time your band is considering releasing a song to the blogosphere, how will you measure its impact?

Also, it's important to note that in neither case was the song given away as an MP3 -- both instances were stream only. Do you think that if The Hold Steady had chosen to leak free MP3s, they would've gotten more buzz?

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Though ever clad in dirty white t-shirt and white pants, Andrew WK is a performer of many stripes. Bloody-nosed party rocker, motivational speaker, noise artist, J-pop interpreter, classical pianist and television host are just a few of his more prominent job descriptions.

But is Andrew WK in fact Andrew WK?

The question of WK's identity -- and that of the producer behind his first album, I Get Wet, a person or entity credited only as "Steev Mike" -- came up again earlier this year after a spell of rumor-mill dormancy.

Since 2001, the real Andrew Wilkes-Krier has dealt with (and in some cases encouraged) allegations that his Andrew WK persona was created by a mysterious committee before his career began. Some conspiracy mongers allege that a series of actors have played the part of Andrew WK over the years. Others imply that Steev Mike is actually Dave Grohl.

Though the rumors have circulated for years, late last year interest rekindled, thanks, in part, to the resurfacing of a 2008 freeform lecture WK gave in London in which his statements about his artistic character were misconstrued. Things got so out of hand that eventually, on January 3, Andrew posted a written statement and YouTube video aimed at setting the record straight.

They didn't work. Or maybe they did.

Andrew WK is an awesomely entertaining dude. He takes the concept of performance art to a new level, remaining in the public eye as a music celebrity without having played a show with a band in years. Though his overall message is "party" and he's unafraid of questioning, he prefers mystery to clarity, equivocation to spelling it out.

He's also repeatedly indicated in interviews that there are people who were involved in planning the early stages of his career whose identities he is legally bound to keep secret (Steev Mike?). See this MTV clip for an example of one such interview.

Let's take a look at how the renewed interest in Steev Mike, along with other events and news, has played out in Andrew WK's social media numbers.

His official Facebook page saw some growth at the beginning of the year, around the time he issued those staments. Also at this time, WK gained attention for collaborating with People Under the Stairs on a remake of the Simpsons theme in honor of the final episode of the show's 20th season, which aired on January 14.

Buzz quieted a bit then increased again in late February due to a swirl of events. Probably stoking the most interest was the announcement of WK's first full-band show in five years, to be held in March in NYC, along with dates at SXSW and in Mexico. New episodes of the Cartoon Network show he hosts, Destroy Rebuild Destroy, were broadcasted, along with the news that he'd be releasing his long-anticipated "lost third album" Close Calls With Brick Walls as a double album with Mother of Mankind. In short, Andrew WK gave folks plenty to talk about.

All this seems to play out in the Facebook fan growth in early January and late February in the chart below.

The Steev Mike controversy resurfaced yet again during a town hall meeting WK held at the New York club he co-owns, Santos Party House. The February 23 Q&A was aired live on Justin.TV, where it reportedly attracted some 75,000 viewers and brought even more press attention to his so-called "identity crisis."

What got the most attention February 23 on Twitter, however, seemed to be the NYC and Mexico concert announcements.

How do we know for sure? RockDex's Twitter functionality allows us to see all the tweets mentioning the artist we're tracking on a day-by-day basis. First the stats, then a few of the tweets...

In terms of MySpace plays, pageviews and fans added, February 27 was a banner day. This is probably due to the concert-announcement buzz. (You'll notice he actually saw negative growth on town hall day, February 23, losing one fan. Awww.)

In the end, it seems that while the identity scandal was intriguing to die-hard fans, including ourselves -- we love us some W to the K -- it seems the public at large was more interested in when they'd get to see Andrew WK play "Party Hard" live again.

And by the way, we'll be partying hard when Andrew WK brings his gospel of good times to SXSW next week for a series of shows, including the Viper Room's Rooftop Riot on Friday and the Brooklyn Vegan & M for Montreal Saturday day party.

Rest assured that when Andrew WK gets on stage and the music begins pounding, there's no question that the dude is real.

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