Music Data Company Viberate Finds That Early Music Discovery Happens on SoundCloud

New York, Wednesday, February 28 - According to a survey by Viberate, a music data company, creating Viberate Analytics – one of the largest music analytics tools for industry professionals - early music discovery is most likely found on SoundCloud.

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.

The research included 125 music industry professionals. 77.7% of them were label managers or A&Rs, and the rest were mostly artist managers, booking agents, digital marketers, or distributors. The most, 24.7%, come from the USA, 8.6% from Germany, 6.5% from the UK and Brazil respectively, and 5.4% from France.  While Spotify, YouTube, and SoundCloud data are rated most important for talent discovery, data indicated that early discovery most likely happens on SoundCloud. 

The news comes in the wake of the 66th Annual Grammy Awards, in which 6 out of 8 Best New Artist nominees are also SoundCloud Next Pro artists (7 out of 10 Best New Artist 2023 Grammy nominees are also SoundCloud Next Pro artists). 2024 Best New Artist nominee and SoundCloud Next Pro artist Fred Again.. uploaded his first track on SoundCloud in 2019 and communicated with fans via SoundCloud comments to directly connect with and utilize fan feedback.  Fred Again.. worked with SoundCloud earlier this year to tell the story of his astronomical rise to global stardom - watch the video here.  Additionally, the majority of Grammy-nominated artists began their journey on SoundCloud, with global stars such as Billie Eilish declaring “SoundCloud is the only reason I’m anything. 100%” and Doja Cat stating “I always knew I wanted to entertain people my whole life, I just didn't know exactly how I was going to do it until I was 16 and everything blossomed on SoundCloud.” 

As the only destination at scale to facilitate direct relationships between artists and fans, SoundCloud is uniquely positioned to innovate, create, and push forward new discovery, monetization, and fandom models for the betterment of artists and the industry.  SoundCloud artists continue to shape and define music and pop culture worldwide and tastemakers within the industry continue to look to SoundCloud to identify what’s next in music. As recently noted by HITS Daily Double “...one of the trailblazers in the streaming space and a prominent factor in A&R research—is now dedicated to unlocking the future of fandom. Acts that got their earliest exposure on SoundCloud include Billie Eilish, Lil Nas X, Post Malone, and Ice Spice.”

SoundCloud is what’s next in music. 

About SoundCloud

SoundCloud empowers artists and fans to connect and share through music. Founded in 2007, SoundCloud is an artist-first platform empowering artists to build and grow their careers by providing them with the most progressive tools, services, and resources. With over 375 million tracks from 40 million artists, the future of music is SoundCloud.

About Viberate Analytics

Viberate Analytics unites talent discovery, artist monitoring, campaign planning, and reporting in one customizable platform. It includes comprehensive features for industry professionals: music charts, artist analytics, playlist insights, benchmarking and reporting tools, etc.