Almost every second of every day, a new track is added to Spotify. As a result, using the service as a talent scouting tool can feel like looking for a needle in a haystack at times.
Spotify is aware of this, and is working on a solution.
Spotify has developed technology that predicts which "relatively unknown" artists on its platform will "break" in the near future, according to MBW.
Spotify has created a "system and method for breaking artist prediction in a media content environment," according to a new US patent granted on Tuesday (March 1) and obtained by MBW.
Spotify’s new invention works by determining “one or more early adopters” from its user base and then collecting data from their listening patterns.
The system can then predict which artists are more likely to break based on the listening patterns of these early adopters.
The patent explains: “A user who requested playback of media content from a plurality of breaking artists is determined and assigned the role of early adopter.
“The breaking artist prediction logic can thereafter predict future breaking artists based on further playback requests from an early adopter interacting with their media device via the software application.
A user who has been designated as an early adopter by Spotify "need not be aware that they are an early adopter, as the media server replies by streaming the requested media content, as it does for other users," according to the company.
It's A&R, but the listeners are the ones who do all the work. They are doing so even though they "need not have any information."
