In a world where everyone is working remotely and digital scouting is the only way to discover hot new artists, how can you sift through the tens of thousands of tracks released every day to find the talent that matters?
That’s where Instrumental comes in. A long-term partner of MBW, the company uses data science to comb streaming services and social media to discover and track new, commercially interesting artists every day.
Over the last three years, Instrumental has developed a ‘hot score’ that flags artists daily that are seeing exceptional performance across a range of key metrics. It is that pool of talent that goes on to big things, with the algorithm tipping acts like Surfaces, Tones and I, Lil Tecca and Anson Seabra months before they went mainstream.
Now, every week, MBW will highlight five of the most exciting prospects from around the globe from within Instrumental’s current batch of ‘hot’ artists.
Nina Cobham
Nina Cobham is a singer songwriter who spent much of her childhood in Spain and is now based in Manchester. Her bilingual vocals complement the contemporary R&B/Jazz beats in her music.
To date she has released three original singles. Her most recent track, Sola (released March 27), has gained a lot of traction and currently has 386,000 Spotify streams. In line with this release, she was featured as “Manchester’s Next Big Thing” in Ones to Watch.
Nina became a ‘Hot’ artist for the first time on the Instrumental platform this month and is currently on a ‘Hot’ streak of 11 days.
Just this month her Instagram following has surged by 17% and her video for Sola already has thousands of views on Youtube.
ELLIANA, Indie Café Pop, USA
ELLIANA is a pop duo consisting of producer Ben Tan and vocalist Elliana Hahn. Their debut single Emotional is a track built entirely around the first two lines of the chorus. The track dropped in May last year and has over 600,000 Spotify streams.
ELLIANA became ‘Hot’ for the first time on the Instrumental platform 3 days ago following their latest release Nirvana, a track with a nostalgic and reflective vibe – appropriate for the times we’re all experiencing currently.
20-year-old Malaki is a hip hop artist born and raised in Dublin, Ireland. He started his musical journey with the powerful spoken work epic Call us By Our Names last year, and has since revealed many more layers to his talent.
His live shows have received high praise, this piece in Hot Press hailing him as “Dublin’s latest and greatest.”
His raw lyrics are complimented by Lucy McWilliams’ vocals in their latest single Fair Play (released April 17). Following this release, Malaki became a ‘Hot’ artist on the Instrumental platform on April 27.
Fair Play is featured on Evening Chill and Boho+Chill, which collectively hold over 1 million followers.
Ella Jane, Indie Pop, USA
Ella Jane is an 18-year-old Singer Songwriter from New York.
With soft yet precise vocals resembling the likes of Billie Eilish, she’s gained significant attention from her debut release The City, which dropped at the end of February.
Ella is currently on a 26 day ‘Hot’ streak on the Instrumental platform and her direct followers seem to be consistently growing.
Having written songs “for as long as she can remember”, her next release is sure to be welcomed by her existing fan base of 200,000 monthly Spotify listeners.
mazie, Indie Pop, USA
Grace Christian, otherwise known as mazie, is a pop artist from Baltimore.
She first became a ‘Hot’ artist on the Instrumental platform earlier this week following her first release no friends. In just two weeks this track has over 100k Spotify Streams and features on Fresh Finds.
Just like Nina Cobham who also features in this list, Mazie has recently featured in Ones to Watch – so it’s not just us tipping her for big things to come…
Like what you see? Over the period we are all impacted by COVID-19, Instrumental are offering a free 14-day trial to its Hot Artist Alerts. Click here to sign up now!Music Business Worldwide
