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High June’s “Paper Lanterns” is the slow-burn indie record of the fall
Links to SpotifyYesterday
Find the next breakout before anyone else
Spot artists and tracks on the rise, see who’s backing them and what’s driving their growth, and check their playlist history before you make an offer.
As preached by
Scouting on Surface Numbers
Where hype is easy to fake
Real growth and bought growth look the same
A streaming spike can be fans or bots, and the numbers alone won’t say which.
You can’t see where listeners come from
Fans, user playlists or Spotify’s editors: from the outside, every audience looks the same.
Re-releases make a catalog look bigger
The same song out three times splits its numbers and hides how it really did.
Your shortlist lives in five places
Notes in one app, links in another, and no record of what changed since you looked.
Everything a Scout Needs
From the first signal to the signing meeting
- Search
Find who’s rising this week
Search artists by fastest-growing listeners and tracks by fastest-growing Shazams and TikToks.
- Playlist Analytics
See who Spotify is backing
Every editorial playlist an artist’s tracks have landed, release by release, with the adds and removals over time.
- Spotify Analytics
See where listeners come from
How much of an artist’s audience comes from playlists, as an estimate, beside their monthly listeners.
- Track Analytics
Signals beyond streams
Shazams and TikTok videos for every track, tracked over time next to streams.
- Artist Analytics
Read the release strategy
Canonical versions and re-releases grouped by ISRC, each song’s release history, and which releases broke out.
- Press Tracking
Who’s already writing about them
Every article and blog that mentions an artist, how well known each site is, and who links back.
- Bot Detection
Their playlist history
Every high-risk playlist an artist’s tracks have landed on, and when.
Your Scouting Week, Handled
From a hunch to a shortlist you can defend
Monday
Find who’s rising this week.
Sort artists by fastest-growing listeners, and tracks by fastest-growing Shazams and TikToks.
- Listener growth over 7 days, popularity over 14
- Filter by genre, top country and size
- Artists already in your folders hidden
Tuesday
Check the signals behind the streams.
Streams alone can be bought. Shazams and TikToks rising with them are much harder to fake.
- Shazam and TikTok counts, tracked over time
- Estimated listeners from playlists
- Playlist reach beside monthly listeners
Wednesday
See who Spotify is backing.
Every editorial playlist an artist’s tracks have landed, release by release, with every add and removal since.
- Daily editorial adds and removals
- Which releases landed editorial support
- Full playlist history, editorials only
Thursday
Read the release strategy.
Tracks are grouped by ISRC, so re-releases stop inflating the catalog and you see how each song really did.
- Canonical versions and re-releases marked
- Where each song debuted, and came out again
- Breakout: how big each release got for its moment
Friday
Look at the playlist history.
Every high-risk playlist their tracks have landed on, and when. Exposure isn’t a verdict, but it’s a question to ask early.
- High-risk playlist adds over time
- Each flagged playlist, dated
- An alert if anything new lands
Saturday
See the press, then shortlist.
See who’s writing about them and who links back, then save them to a folder with your notes.
- Editorial highlights and major sites first
- A private note on every artist
- A daily, weekly or monthly digest of changes
Questions From A&R
Plainly answered
Can I tell if an artist’s growth is real?
You can see the signals behind it: how much of their audience comes from playlists (an estimate), which high-risk playlists their tracks have landed on, and whether Shazams and TikToks are moving with the streams. Growth that shows up everywhere is much harder to fake.
Can I see an artist’s editorial history?
Yes. Every Spotify editorial playlist an artist’s tracks have been added to or removed from, day by day and release by release, so you can see whether their releases land editorial support.
Does a high-risk playlist mean the artist bought streams?
No. Botted playlists add tracks without an artist’s knowledge all the time. artist.tools shows the exposure and when it happened, so you can ask the right questions, not jump to conclusions.
How do you tell an original release from a re-release?
Tracks are grouped by ISRC, with one version marked canonical and the rest as re-releases, plus each song’s release history: where it debuted and where it came out again.
Can I find tracks by Shazams and TikToks?
Yes. Track search sorts by the fastest-growing Shazams and TikToks over 7 days, and an artist’s track list can be filtered by both.
Can I keep notes and shortlists?
Yes. Save artists and tracks into folders, add a private note to each, and get a daily, weekly or monthly email with the biggest changes across your folders.
Look Up Any Artist Before You Sign
- Free to start
- No credit card
- Unlimited artists