FOR LABELS & DISTRIBUTORS

Market share starts with finding artists first .

Every breakout signed eventually was someone unsigned six months earlier. Labels and distros that win the next decade are watching the signals while everyone else waits for the obvious.

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Who it is for

Label A&R, distro partnership teams, and services hunters.

Label A&R, distributor partnership teams, and services groups evaluating which developing artists to back, sign, or upstream. Same job as scouts, bigger checkbooks and longer timelines.

The problem

The conversation has already started.

Every breakout signed in the last two years was already in label DMs and group chats months before the announcement. By the time you hear an artist’s name from someone, three other A&R reps have heard it too. The advantage is being the first to bring the name up, not the last to react to it.

What BTD tracks

The signals that matter for this role.

UGC growth

TikTok and Instagram video counts. Real users, not bots.

Catalog depth

One song or a body of work. The signal that separates a fluke from a career.

Social velocity

Post frequency and consistency. Whether the artist actually shows up.

Streaming changes

Daily Spotify streams and monthly listener swings.

Discovery signals

New audiences, new geos. Where this artist sits in the wider trend cycle.

The method

Machines do the watching. I do the listening.

AI Agents · 24/7

The data layer.

AI agents scroll TikTok daily, the FYP and hundreds of hashtags, surfacing artists with unusual movement. The output is a triaged feed of candidates, not a firehose.

Chad Hillard · Manual

The taste layer.

I add the human read: taste, ceiling, story, and timing. The dashboard shows what is moving. I tell you whether the artist behind it is actually the bet.

Sample signal report

Here is what early looks like for you.

Jerri arrived on the radar at 2,574 followers and 2K Spotify streams. By the time a label conversation made sense, the data showed every dollar of the swing in real time.

Jerri

Hit our radar Jan 28, 2026 · 82-day window · Independent

Loop streams

2K→9.6M

Monthly listeners

254K→764K

TikTok UGC

2.3K→140K

Instagram UGC

752→18K

For a label, this is the difference between leading the room and bidding against it. The earlier you see the curve, the more room you have at the table.

Get the shortlist before the room.

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