This project analyzes the impact of the 2022 digital pivot by The Recording Academy, where the web presence was split into two distinct domains: grammy.com (fan-facing) and recordingacademy.com (professional/membership-facing). This audit evaluates user engagement, seasonal trends, and competitive positioning before and after the split, which occurred on February 1, 2022.

The data capture for the original domain was not affected by the split, meaning visitor data was collected consistently throughout the entire timeline.

The analysis utilized the following core datasets:

• grammy_live_web_analytics.csv & ra_live_web_analytics.csv: Longitudinal engagement data containing daily visitors, pageviews, sessions, and duration flags.
• desktop_users.csv & mobile_users.csv: Device-specific traffic logs.
• grammys_age_demographics.csv & tra_age_demographics.csv: Audience breakdown by age bracket.

• Pages Per Session: Total pageviews divided by total sessions.
• Bounce Rate: Total bounced_sessions divided by total sessions (multiplied by 100 to get the percentage). A bounced session is when a visitor comes to the website, does not interact with any links, and leaves.
• Average Time on Site: Mean of the avg_session_duration_secs column. This measures how engaging the website experience is for users.
• Device Distribution: Calculated by filtering dates post-April 2023, finding the sum of desktop/mobile visitors, and dividing by total_visitors to find the percentage share.

Pre-Split: Combined Website

Post-Split: Individual Sites

There are two consistent traffic spikes every year. There is no correlation found for the minor spikes throughout the rest of the year.

• Awards Night: The largest spike, driving over 40 times the traffic compared to non-show nights (1,389,590 vs 32,388 visitors).
• Nominations: A secondary spike occurring approximately 2 months prior to the main event.

The transition to independent sites allowed for deeper user journeys. The most significant change post-split was in the Pages Per Session metric.

• Average pages per session increased from ~1.5 (combined) to over 2.0 (split).
• The Recording Academy site saw a massive jump in session duration, averaging 128.50 seconds compared to the original combined site (102.85 seconds) and the new Grammys site (82.99 seconds).

The split successfully allowed the organization to capture distinct audience segments. The Grammys site pulls in a larger percentage of older-aged users, while the Recording Academy pulls in a slightly larger percentage of middle-aged users.

A comparative analysis against the main music award competitor, the American Music Awards (AMA), highlights key strengths and growth opportunities.

Competitor Baseline (AMA):

• Average Time on Site: 5 mins 53 seconds
• Pages per Visit: 2.74
• Bounce Rate: 54.31%
• Mobile Traffic Share: 86.85%

Grammys Performance vs Competitor:

• The Strengths: The Grammys are performing significantly better in total visitor volume and boast a much healthier (lower) bounce rate than the AMA's 54.31%. Pages per visit are highly competitive.
• The Mobile Gap: While the Grammys outperform overall, they lag significantly in mobile adoption (68.16% vs the AMA's 86.85%).

Following the domain split, the data indicates a clear improvement in user engagement across both platforms. The split successfully made it easier for each website's audience to find content tailored to their specific interests. The Recording Academy site achieved a significantly lower bounce rate (33.67%) compared to the original combined site (41.58%).

• Recommendation 1: Maintain the split. The current strategy has optimized engagement metrics and successfully segregated the professional audience from the fan audience.
• Recommendation 2: Address the Mobile Gap. Bridging the ~18% mobile gap with the AMA is essential. A "Mobile-First" technical optimization push is recommended, as mobile users represent a massive portion of the audience who access the site anytime, anywhere, especially during live broadcasts.