Out With The Old, In With The New // Data Mining & Talent Discovery: If there is one thing that always changes, it’s the process of discovering new artists, both for consumers and music executives. With instant data access, the role of A&R is changing. Yes, everybody is drunk on data but that has become a serious challenge to the older A&R executive getting paid hefty figures to drum up hit songs and artists. Data driven artists like Ant Saunders, Arizona Zervas and REI AMI who all scored label deal changes the game. Spotify is more than ever in the artist discovery business and they get the credit for jumpstarting artists whether its Arizona, Tones and I, and let’s throw in Lewis Capaldi. Yes, Capaldi achieved massive success via radio but it was the playlists that gave ‘Bruises’ life, eventually giving birth to ‘Someone You Loved’. Right now, it’s all eyes on Spotify. Of course, the video-sharing social sites like Tok Tok deserves some credit for laying the groundwork for Lil Nas X and other tracks. One thing is for sure. Music and social sites will continue to co-exist with each other.  Names Making Noise: Dua Saleh, maye, Lee Cole, Nina Chuba, and Kelsy Karter.

There is nothing not to like about the track Calypso by Little India. The video is also a fantastic piece of art, even though I’m not sure what I watched. They perfectly blend retro rock, r&b, and disco-pop – Think MGMT meets Empire of the Sun. The Vancouver based indie band has toured Canada and the UK performing at festivals and have supported Kodaline & Cold War Kids. They have clocked over 7 million streams on Spotify in an array of continents. The band plans to roll out a new song every 6 weeks or so for the next year along with music videos.

The 25 year old Hatty Keane dropped the video for her track Digital Love. You’ll want to put your phone down and check out the video, unless you’re watching the video via your phone. Produced by Luca Perrin, the video looks at today’s digital age, revealing the loss art of communication. The Michael King repped artist has tastemaker support from the likes of Spotify, Clash Magazine, Buzz Music and Celebmix.  She’s on 14+ Spotify playlists including Buzz Music. Moreover, she was flown to Israel by Forbes Magazine to perform at their biggest event of the year.

The Billboard Album Charts will finally take in account YouTube Plays. Starting January 3, 2020, Billboard will starting factoring in YouTube streams along with music video plays from Apple Music, TIDAL, and VEVO. Even with the popularity of DSP’s like Spotify and Apple, Youtube is still widely popular as on online streaming service capturing 55 percent of online music streamers.

Indie-pop artist Juliette Goglia dropped her new single “Empathy” which comes off of her upcoming debut EP, I’m Not Sweet. I don’t know, but the melody is similar to a Christmas song, when I think of it, I’ll let you know. The Los Angeles based artist California had roles in TV shows such as Hannah Montana, Scandal, Easy A, and Two and a Half Men. The new forthcoming EP centers around betrayal, battling depression and anxiety. Currently on tour with Postmodern Jukebox, Juliette’s cover of “Teenage Dream” through the group garnered 450K streams on Spotify and 530K views on YouTube.