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WHAT YOU HAVE ACCESS TO
Live scouting dashboard with daily data
7-day exclusive access to every new find
Weekly picks and monthly roundup emails
TikTok, Spotify & Instagram tracking
Proprietary social score (0–100, updated daily)
Email alerts on every new artist approval
Artists Watching —
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Artist Streams Daily 14D Trend TikTok Instagram UGC Added
Artist Intel

What’s this?

Before The Data reaches out to artists individually so members can understand the real context before deciding who is worth contacting.

Direct outreachArtist-sourced
We contact artists directly and gather context on who is around them, how their team is set up, and what kind of partners they are open to.
Deal contextRecording, distro, publishing
We ask where they stand on recording, distribution, publishing, management, funding, collaborators, and other team needs.
Creative contextPlans and inspiration
We capture what is inspiring them, what they are building next, and where they want help, so the profile has more than just data points.
How alerts work

How the math works.

Before The Data compares each artist against their own recent baseline and their follower-size tier. Alerts fire when the move is large enough to clear the current model’s signal floor and unlikely to be normal noise.

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Instagram
TikTok
Spotify
Spotify streams
Followers
UGCUser generated content
Size tiers

Every artist is sized by combined TikTok and Instagram followers. Bigger artists need bigger moves to trigger an alert.

EmergingUnder 25K
Rising25K to 100K
Breaking100K to 250K
Established250K+
Streaming Spike Spotify streams
Fires at 3× last week’s pace (4× Rising, 5× Breaking+), or a jump of 5K+ streams a day (15K, 40K, 100K by size).
We calculate recent Spotify stream velocity, compare it to the artist’s prior baseline, and then apply the artist’s follower-size tier. Emerging artists can trigger on smaller absolute moves; larger artists need a larger stream move to clear the floor.
Follower Spike TikTok or Instagram
Fires at 3× to 5× last week’s pace, or a jump of 1K+ followers a day (2.5K, 5K, 10K by size).
We compare recent follower growth against the artist’s follower-size tier. TikTok follower alerts require both an absolute gain and a percentage lift. Instagram follower alerts use the same tiered floor system for meaningful audience movement.
Momentum Building Streams, followers or UGC
Daily growth at 2× the pace from two weeks ago for 3 days straight, or 1.5× for 7 days.
Catches steady climbs that a one-day spike check would miss. Each day has to keep pace, and the artist needs at least 500 new streams or followers a day (5 new videos for UGC). One per artist every 14 days.
Small Artist Breakout Under 50K followers
Streams or followers triple in 7 days, with 2,500+ more streams or 500+ more followers.
For smaller artists, the model watches for early moves across listeners, followers, streams, and UGC. A breakout alert fires when the artist clears an early-stage floor or shows a sharp baseline jump that is meaningful for their size.
UGCUGC Accelerating TikTok or Instagram UGC
We track song-level TikTok and Instagram UGC counts and compare the current creation pace against the prior pace. The alert fires when fan-created content is accelerating enough to clear the artist’s tiered UGC floor.
Cross-Platform Spike Multiple signals
This fires when more than one independent signal clears its floor in the same short window — for example Spotify movement plus TikTok, Instagram, or UGC movement. It is weighted higher because the momentum is being confirmed in more than one place.
TikTok Post Moving TikTok post metrics
We compare a post’s views, likes, comments, shares, and saves with the artist’s own recent TikTok posts at a similar age. A post must have a usable recent baseline and clear enough separation from that baseline to rule out normal variation. No single public metric creates the alert by itself.
Instagram Post Moving Instagram post metrics
We compare the post with the artist’s own recent Instagram posts at a similar age, using only the public metrics the platform makes available. The model looks for a material lift across the available view and engagement signals, not a one-off change in a single number.
Release Alerts Release detection
One alert is created per new drop. Albums and EPs are treated as one release alert, not one alert per song. The tracks stay attached to the release so the system can keep watching them after launch.
Track Promotion Weekly release recheck
After a release alert, dormant tracks are rechecked weekly. If one track later clears the same signal floors used by the current alert model — streams, TikTok UGC, or Instagram UGC — it is promoted into full tracking, and that promotion fires an alert.
Signings Label credits
Fires when a label signing is confirmed from release credits and checked by our team. A single deal covers one song only, so the artist stays unsigned and keeps being tracked.
Artist Intel Direct from the artist
Shows when an artist has shared direct context with us: deal, distribution, team or release plans.
Artist labels

Separate from alerts, every artist carries one weekly label. Tap any label on the dashboard to see what it means.

How you receive them
Every alert respects your per-artist preference. Set each artist to Email alerts or Muted. Profile alerts always remain visible on the artist profile; Email alerts also follow the artist automatically.

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The Scout Network

Every artist here is tracked back to the scout who flagged them first.

BTD has a network of hand-picked early-listeners (we call them scouts) scattered across the world. They submit artists they think we should be watching. Chad personally reviews every submission. The first scout to flag an artist that we accept gets credit — permanent, public, attached to that artist forever on the dashboard.

Scouts get paid $50 per accepted submission. No caps. The credit you see on each artist page tells you who saw it first.

Want to be a scout? Apply here. Want to learn more? Read about the network.