With around 40,000 tracks uploaded to Spotify daily – and 500 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute – how can those working in the global music business hope to discover the most promising emerging artists in the world?
One option, of course, is to turn to the robots. Instrumental, a long-term partner of MBW, uses proprietary algorithms combined with human intelligence to comb streaming services and discover around 5,000 new commercially interesting artists a week whose popularity is starting to spike.
A small percentage of the 800,000 artists Instrumental tracks are tagged as ‘hot’ by their algorithm and are subsequently monitored day-by-day on Instrumental’s platform.
They are also recommended to Instrumental’s partners, which include all three major labels and companies like Corite, Live Nation, Image Sound and Paradigm.
Now, every week, MBW will highlight five of the most promising prospects within Instrumental’s new ‘hot’ artists from around the globe.
Luz, Indie Café Pop, IE
19-year-old Luz is a singer songwriter from the small town of Ferbane in Ireland.
She started her music career posting covers on Instagram and Youtube which turned more than a few heads, as she’s now got almost 30k Instagram followers.
Her cover of Dean Lewis’ Lose My Mind, which took her to the next level and led to her supporting him on tour in April of last year.
To date she has released three original singles which collectively have over 1 million Spotify streams.
Luz appeared as a ‘Hot’ artist on the Instrumental platform at the end of March this year following her latest single I’m Lonely, and remains on a ‘Hot’ streak 25 days later. She uploaded a live video for the track just two weeks ago and already has almost 50k views.
Since she became ‘Hot’ this track has gained almost 400k streams and features on editorial playlists including Easy and Fresh Finds.
Huron John, Bedroom Pop, USA
Huron John is a pop artist from Chicago who began making music during college.
He takes the ‘DIY’ independent artist standard to a new level by entirely writing, producing, mixing and recording all his work.
Picked up as a ‘Hot’ artist on the Instrumental platform in February of this year, he has now had a ‘Hot’ streak for a total of 34 days.
His most recent album Apocalypse Wow (released April 22nd) intended to unite his fans and reach out to a world all going through the same experience. The release has over 1.3 million streams and appears in editorial playlists including POLLEN and Bedroom Pop.
Check out his standout video for Friendzone on his YouTube channel – currently at 25k views and climbing.
Dead Emerson, Contemporary Pop, USA
Dean Emerson (better known under his alias of Dead Emerson) is an LA based singer and producer.
He’s had recent features in Our Culture Mag and Obscure Sound and a brand new video for his latest release 24 went up last week.
In line with his video release, He’s become ‘Hot’ on the Instrumental platform and has remained on a hot streak for 7 days.
Dead Emerson is currently featured on editorial playlists including Fresh Finds and Study Break.
Bickle, Bedroom Pop, USA
Bickle is a 21-year-old pop artist from the USA.
After showcasing his music through SoundCloud for 3 years, Bickle released his debut single Naked in March of this year.
He became a ‘Hot’ artist on the Instrumental platform a week after this release and has now had a ‘Hot’ streak for 34 days.
The debut track now has 650k Spotify streams which continues to grow significantly week on week.
The track features on playlists including All New Indie and Lorem.
Jenevieve, Indie R&B, USA
Jenevieve is a soulful R&B singer/songwriter who was raised in Miami and is now based in LA.
She first became a ‘Hot’ artist on the Instrumental platform in February this year following her debut release Medallion.
Since then, Jenevieve has remained on a ‘Hot’ streak for 27 days. During this time she has released her latest single Baby Powder, which now has 232k streams – over 100k more than her debut.
Now working on her album launch, Jenevieve is definitely one to watch in the R&B scene.
Like what you see? For a limited time, Instrumental are offering a 14-day free trial for their daily Hot Artist Alerts. Click here to sign up now!
Music Business Worldwide