Music data company Viberate has unveiled new research results focused on the use (and usefulness) of streaming platforms by A&Rs around the world.
The findings are based on a survey of 125 music industry professionals. 77% were label managers or label A&Rs, with the remainder consisting of a mixture of artist managers, booking agents, digital marketers and distributors. All were asked about the role of DSPs in artist discovery.
24.7% of respondents were based in the US, with 8.6% from Germany, 6.5% from the UK, 6.5% from Brazil and 5.4% from France.
The other 48.3% were from the rest of the world, with no single territory accounting for more than 5%.
On sharing its findings, Viberate said: “63.2% of our A&R panel listen to streaming services for artist discovery daily, 29.6% weekly.
“Less, on the other hand, utilize streaming data for artist discovery daily (38.4%), and 33.6% do so weekly.”
Viberate added: “Respondents ranked Spotify as the most significant source of artist discovery data among the streaming services. This is how the others were ranked: YouTube (No.2), SoundCloud (No.3), Apple Music (No.4), and Amazon Music at No.5 (see chart below).
“Most respondents also find Spotify a necessary music discovery source for their day-to-day work; only 4% could do without it.”
According to Viberate: “YouTube has the highest level of agreement [amongst respondents] for having the biggest choice of fresh music among the streaming services. It’s also rated as the service that’s likely to feature songs other DSPs don’t, but here SoundCloud is better rated.”
Viberate also said that, based on its survey, “Data indicates that early discovery is most likely on SoundCloud”.
Added Viberate: “Survey respondents rated SoundCloud as the platform that most likely features songs other streaming services don’t.
“They also most strongly disagree that when a song appears here, it’s too late to sign it. Also, 51% of A&Rs say that they have discovered new artists on SoundCloud who later became commercially successful.”
Meanwhile, according to Viberate, “When asked about the other sources they use for talent discovery, Instagram was chosen by 75.3% of respondents, TikTok by 49.5%, and music analytics tools (like Viberate, Chartmetric, and Soundcharts) by 46.5%”.
Viberate founder, Vasja Veber, said: “Data and A&R go hand in hand and although we strongly believe that ears and good music taste will always be the key factor in finding and matching talent, using data services like Viberate makes every A&R’s life easier. I think that the results of our survey only back our hypothesis.”
Viberate Analytics is one of the largest music analytics tools for industry professionals. The platform ranks and analyzes millions of artists based on their performance on streaming and social media channels. It also recently added what it says was “a much-requested” A&R filter, enabling discovery of unsigned artists.
Music Business Worldwide