A&R Playbook: New artist discovery, tracking and insights

A&R Playbook: New artist discovery, tracking and insights

Modern A&R is increasingly global and deeply regional; driven by subcultures and mass audiences alike; happening across dozens of platforms and formats at once. In a fast-paced and competitive field, data fluency matters as much as golden ears. 


CONNECT is an essential tool for A&R professionals to access, analyze and export music consumption data and metadata. This playbook covers strategies to help surface new artists, drill down on music consumption trends and understand key markets.


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Artist discovery

Ranking Reports | Artist registration | API and data sharing 


Today’s top artists are all signed. What about tomorrow’s? 


What global music resonates with Gen-Z’ers outside the U.S? What regional radio outpost will break the next Latin crossover act? What platform will host the next bedroom dream-pop prodigy? 


In these (hypothetical) scenarios and more, CONNECT facilitates the foundational A&R task of artist discovery, starting with Ranking Reports.





Ranking Reports 

Ranking Reports rank up to 50,000 artists, songs or releases based on activity. 

You set the parameters for a Ranking Report; CONNECT compiles and ranks entities for you. List items and list order are determined by one activity (i.e. Streams, Product Sales) at a time.

  
A&R applications 

With Ranking Reports, you can…

  1. List up to 50k artists or songs by Streams, Product Sales, Song Sales and Airplay
  2. Set date parameters to pull the latest data or understand trends over time
  3. Identify top artists with crossover appeal in 60+ countries 
  4. Drill down on consumption at the market level in the U.S. and Canada
  5. Filter by genre, release age and product attributes
  6. Identify imprint and label data for artists and releases 
  7. Surface ISRCs with no linked artist


Get started 

From the CONNECT sidebar menu, open Report Builder and choose Ranking. Follow the steps in our guide to create your custom ranking. 


Go to: Build a Ranking Report



Tips and tricks

Already mastered the fundamentals? Get more out of Ranking Reports with our best A&R strategies. 

Customize Release Age to stay current

Filter by Release Age to see data on Current, Catalog or Deep Catalog music. Use the sliders to change these ranges. To find newer songs and albums, define Current as <6 or <12 months. 


Uncheck Catalog and Deep Catalog to exclude all releases after your cutoffs.



Release Ages can be relative. 


Release Age spans extend backward from your selected date range, not from today’s date—unless today’s date is part of your selection. If you set up a Ranking Report to rank albums from 2020, music released during that timespan will be classified as Current, not Catalog.



Isolate “the next 40,000” to see lower-ranked items
Even if you set the deepest possible ranking, the top 1k or 5k list entries (or more!) will likely be for artists who are signed already.  


When you export your report, hide or delete the top 10,000 rows to isolate "the next 40,000." (Or start your search at the bottom of the list). 

Filter by artist attributes to return a deeper ranking
Artist Ranking Reports include artist-specific metadata filters. Click Additional Criteria or open the Data Controls menu to apply artist filters and return a deeper, more focused ranking.


Ranking Report filters 
  1. Artist Type / Filter for solo acts or musical groups.
  2. Country of Origin / Use the Search bar to add countries. Check multiple countries at once to filter by an entire region.
  3. Gender / Filter by gender or choose Mixed (for mixed male-female groups)
  4. Language / Filter for artists that record in a specific language. We tag artists with as many languages as apply.  
  5. Genre / Check the boxes to include as many genres and subgenres as apply to your search.

Use Markets to search regionally (U.S. and Canada)
CONNECT includes market-level data within the U.S. and Canada. Set Location to either one, then use the Markets dropdown to include or exclude markets.

Search by U.S. state (2-letter abbreviation) and check the boxes to add all markets within a state. 


When you're ready, hit APPLY CHANGES and run your report with Market filtering. 


The complete list of markets used in your report will appear in Excel exports on the Summary sheet. 


Rank Songs or Recordings to surface ISRCs with no linked artist
Choose a Song or Recording Ranking Report and select a depth of 20k or 50k. Apply filters as desired, then run the report.

In the exported report, you'll notice some songs have no Artist Details included (orange highlights).


This might mean that there's no Artist Dashboard in our database yet; barring metadata errors, the listed artist could be new, unknown or under the radar. Copy the ISRC and perform an ID Search to find the Song Dashboard in CONNECT.


Go to the Song Dashboard to investigate further. 

   
ISRC: USZUP1012623
 



Artist registration 

Ranking Reports can return songs or products with no linked Artist Dashboard.

Some artists—especially brand-new ones—don’t have their own entries in CONNECT yet, even if we’re tracking activity for their ISRCs. 


Get started 

Use the Luminate Artist Registration Form to submit new artists to our database. Include all required ID codes and metadata fields. See below for more details and links to all music registration forms.


Go to: Music registration: Add entries to our database






API and data sharing 

Luminate Music API and Luminate Data Share subscriptions offer expanded A&R possibilities. The Music API lets you run and automate custom queries using a wider variety of filters and endpoints. Data sharing (via Snowflake) grants access to the entire CONNECT database. 


A&R applications 

With API access and/or data sharing, you can…

  1. Retrieve metadata, IDs and consumption data programmatically (API and Data Share)
  2. Run Ranking Reports with even more custom parameters (Data Share)
  3. Set thresholds to include only artists with “between X and Y” number of streams (Data Share)
  4. Rank artists by percentage growth within an activity or market (Data Share)

Get started 

Ask us about data sharing for A&R purposes. No, really: talk to your Luminate Account Representative or inquire on our website.


API and data sharing both require separate subscriptions. Learn more here. 


Tips and tricks

If you're an API or Data Sharing subscriber already, visit the Luminate Developer Hub for guides, tutorials, sample code and all other documentation.







Repertoire tracking

Trend Reports | Dashboards


Already have an up-and-comer on your radar? 

Use Dashboards and Trend Reports to see artist, song and product metrics in detail and track a career trajectory over time. 





Trend Reports

Trend Reports offer custom performance snapshots for up to 500 entities at once. 


You choose what to include in a Trend Report; CONNECT compiles data on those items within your parameters. Trend Reports allow for detailed tracking and custom comparisons of anything in our database.


A&R applications 

With Trend Reports, you can…

  1. Analyze priority artists and releases in detail
  2. Run reports for different dates and locations to track changes
  3. Use Location and Market to isolate regional performance 
  4. Compare activity across an artist’s discography 
  5. Build your own aggregate of songs or releases to track


Get started 

From the CONNECT sidebar menu, open Report Builder and choose Trend. Follow the steps in our guide to add items and generate a report. 


Go to: Build a Trend Report




Tips and tricks

Get more out of Trend Reports with our best A&R strategies.

Build your own comparisons
Compare two or more artists by adding them to a Trend Report. Search by name or Luminate Artist ID to add artists. 


Apply filters as desired, then click CONTINUE. Set Report Format Options and run your report.


Re-run the same report at regular intervals to track performance over time. (You can clone or repeat any report from Report Builder > Management).

If an artist you want to compare isn't in our system yet, use song and release activity as a proxy for overall artist performance. Start a Trend Report and add a list of Songs, Recordings (ISRCs) or Release Groups for the artist. Do the same for each artist you want to include in your comparison. See sections below for details.

Search by Display Artist to compile songs and releases

If you run a deep Ranking Report to find new and lesser-known songs, you might notice that some results don’t link to an Artist Dashboard in CONNECT.* In some cases, we start tracking ISRC and ICPN activity before we receive enough metadata to track the artist as a standalone entity.


When this happens, the Artist Details column will show no data. But the Display Artist column might still list an artist name (see highlighted rows).


Use Trend Reports to analyze a list of titles with the same Display Artist. Start building your Trend Report, open ADD ITEMS, and select Release Group or Song (not Artist).


Search by Display Artist name to add songs and releases that may be linked to that artist, even if we don't have an Artist ID or Dashboard for them yet.

Remember, you can add Release Groups and Songs to the same Trend Report. 




*This can happen for a few reasons: the artist is new, the metadata we received is insufficient, their releases don’t show enough activity, their ISRCs aren’t registered with valid artist details, etc) You can register new artists here, but it might take a few days. 

Add ISRCs and ICPNs with no linked Artist Dashboard

Sometimes, searching by Display Artist name won't return exact matches. To be more precise, add items to your Trend Report by ISRC or ICPN.


Copy ISRCs and/or ICPNs (barcodes) with the same Display Artist from your Ranking Report export. (We recommend making your own list that's easy to copy/paste later). 


Use ID Search to find the CONNECT Dashboard associated with an ISRC. Or pull up Releases and Products with ICPNs.


Gather all the data you can, then finalize your list of ISRCs or titles linked to the artist you want to track.

Use IDs to add them to a Trend Report. Be sure to toggle on ID Search. 


When you’re done assembling your artist's “discography,” finalize report parameters and click CONTINUE. Your Trend Report export will show activity for all the titles you added—and provide a snapshot of aggregated activity for the artist. 




Configure Report Format Options for more detail
After you finalize your list of items to compare + set report parameters, click CONTINUE. You'll see a Report Format Options pop-up menu.


Set Time View and breakout options as desired. Shorter Time Views add more rows to your report. Breakouts add more columns. 

Longer date ranges do not permit daily time views, only weekly. Run multiple Trend Reports (clone + change dates) to see daily data over long periods of time.



Clone and repeat Trend Reports
Go to Report Builder > Management to see past reports.


CONNECT automatically saves every report you run.

Click the ... icon in the Actions column to open the Actions menu. From here, you can go to Details to see the parameters you used or choose Clone Report to create the same Trend Report again.


Cloning Trend Reports 1) saves time spent manually adding items, 2) lets you run the same report again and again to see performance over time and 3) makes it easy to tweak your analysis with different Location filters, Product Type filters, etc.


BONUS TIP: Use descriptive titles when cloning reports. Otherwise, you could end up like this: 



 



Dashboards

CONNECT Dashboards compile consumption data for artists, songs and releases. Dynamic, customizable Activity displays aggregate and refresh KPIs and data displays based on your filters.

In many cases, Dashboard tools and Data Controls can pull up the data you need immediately, allowing you to perform analyses and export grids without running a Trend Report.


A&R applications 

Dashboard features include…

  1. Dynamic Activity Types and Breakout Views
  2. Metadata and details, plus all the IDs we have for an entity
  3. Data Controls to customize filters and view options
  4. Links between Artists, Songs, Release Groups, ISRCs, ICPNs and more
  5. Imprint, Owner and Distributor information (Musical Rights)


Get started

Browse CONNECT or use Search to explore Dashboards. Read more in the link below. 

Go to: Dashboards: Visualize key data and performance



Tips and tricks

Dashboard controls let you filter and analyze data in real time. If you apply the right filters, you may not need to run a report to find what you need.

Use Release Group and Song Dashboards to track artists
It's possible for CONNECT to display data for an artist's songs and products before the artist gets their own Dashboard. We ingest consumption data attached to ICPNs and ISRCs. If we start logging activity at the ICPN and ISRC level, CONNECT automatically generates Dashboards for those items.

The upshot: if an artist on your radar has no Artist Dashboard yet, you can usually find their Release Group (album) and Song Dashboards in the meantime. 

Start with an ISRC and perform an ID Search to find the umbrella Song Dashboard. Do the same with ICPNs → Release Group Dashboards. 



See trends with Activity Over Time
Every Dashboard includes an Activity Over Time display that visualizes data for your selected activity and date range.  


Dashboards are dynamic; they display new data and visuals based on the parameters you set. Change Time Frame, Activity Type and Breakout View to refresh the Dashboard.


Activity Over Time will update automatically based on your new parameters. 


Export Activity Over Time grids from the top right dropdown. 

Depending on the level of detail you need, Activity Over Time can replace Trend Reports. You can also use it as a quick gut check to validate your analysis before requesting more data via Report Builder or API.

Compare countries with Activity by Location
Scroll to Activity by Location to analyze consumption at the country level. 




Build your own focused comparison using the search bar at left. Add up to 6 countries to narrow your analysis and compare priority countries to each other. 


Click ... at top right to switch to a Grid View and/or export data. All countries with activity will appear in your grid, even if you narrowed your list in Graph View as shown above. 


Exported grids include all columns and breakouts. Use the Data Controls menu to apply filters and add even more detail to your grid.

Cross-check provider and database IDs

In addition to consumption data, Dashboards compile metadata, rights information and all known ID codes for each musical entity. 



Click MORE DETAILS > at bottom left to see all metadata and ID types. Then choose EXTERNAL IDS from the row of tabs.




We list standard IDs like ISNI and ICPN, platform-specific IDs and identifiers from other sources. Use any of these to look up songs or musical products on streaming platforms or in databases. 

Song Dashboards: Export a list of all ISRCs
Find Song Dashboards in CONNECT by performing an ID Search on an ISRC or searching for the song by name. (Songs are also linked on Release Group and Artist Dashboards).

Go to any Song Dashboard and scroll to Recordings to see all ISRCs sorted by activity.* ISRCs are listed in the Recording Code column.


Click any ISRC to visit its Recording Dashboard.

Click ... at top right to export Recordings in grid form. 



*Even ISRCs with no activity in your selected time frame will appear on the list, so you don't need to set different Dashboard parameters to include more ISRCs.

 




What’s next for A&R 


We're constantly building a better, more powerful CONNECT. Several upcoming features will have A&R applications.

On the roadmap

  1. Metro Radio Streaming Reports 
  2. Additional Ranking and Trend Report filters
  3. New ID types and more artist metadata
  4. More countries 

See Platform for latest releases and product updates. 


Check Migration FAQs for details on feature availability compared to the legacy Music Connect platform.







More to know




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