Trending Audio & Unsigned Artist Discovery
This proposal builds the trending audio discovery system you described on the call — daily monitoring across the right platforms, signed/unsigned classification, authenticity verification, ready candidates surfaced to your team. We've structured it as two pricing tiers.
The flow you described on the call
Eight steps. We implement all of them.
- 1. Daily scrape across platforms for trending and pre-trending audio
- 2. Detect songs performing well day-over-day
- 3. Identify the song name and the artist
- 4. Drop anyone signed to a major
- 5. Run an authenticity check
- 6. Filter by geography
- 7. Enrich with Spotify data including monthly listeners
- 8. Notify your team to reach out
Underground rap and hip-hop don't break TikTok-first the way mainstream pop does, but the trend signal still catches them on the second wave — before majors typically circle. Both tiers are calibrated to your scene's actual signal patterns.
Every claim in this proposal was verified against AB6's active roster before scoping. We'd rather test than promise.
AB6 has built a respected name in underground rap and hip-hop. The roster carries real industry credibility, the operating structure is multi-divisional, and the EMPIRE distribution relationship gives you direct mainstream reach without giving up creative control. The foundation is strong.
Strengths
- Established roster with real industry credibility. The artists you've signed carry the kind of weight that makes new artists actually want to sign with you. The scene that produced your roster is a tight-knit network — collaborations and word-of-mouth referrals within it run deep.
- Multi-division operating structure. Seven active divisions feeding into each other. AB6 isn't just a label; it's a media company with a label inside it.
- EMPIRE distribution relationship. Direct line to mainstream distribution while keeping creative control over your scene. JV structure gives you the upside without the major-label compromises.
That said, a few things are holding you back.
Limitations
- No proprietary discovery tool. Your competitors have software you don't, and the gap shows in who's getting signed first. You said it yourself on the call.
- Manual scrolling pulls A&R hours away from judgment. The team's most valuable input — taste — gets diluted by hours of scout work that could be automated.
- Scene-fit gap with mainstream tools. Generic discovery tools optimize for pop trajectories. They miss the patterns that produce the artists you'd actually want to sign.
Opportunities
- Predictable A&R pipeline. A daily flow of pre-qualified candidates instead of luck. Your team focuses on judgment and relationships; the system feeds the funnel.
- Signing pipeline shifts from luck to system. Realistic Q1 expectation: candidates surfaced, conversations started, signings within Q2-Q3. The system makes the flow a cadence, not a gamble.
A trending audio discovery engine purpose-built for AB6's scene, not a generic music-discovery tool. Two layers, one pipeline.
Trending Audio Discovery Engine
Layer 1 · The Base Discovery Pipeline
What's running every day
- Platform-native trending signals, captured directly from source feeds rather than reconstructed from brute-force scraping. Lower recurring cost, higher-confidence signal — the platforms have already done the trend math; we capture it.
- Multi-state distribution-status classification. Every candidate routed by where they actually are in the release cycle, with the highest-priority signal (artists trending before they've released to a label) badged for immediate review.
- Cross-platform correlation. Sounds trending on multiple platforms simultaneously flagged as harder to fake. Edge-case detection built in — we discovered one during testing and embedded the mitigation.
Layer 2 · Verification & Brand Protection
The reliability layer
- Multi-source label verification ladder. Cited sources for every signed/unsigned verdict, with explainable reasoning per candidate and manual override always available.
- Multi-signal authenticity scoring. Filters out paid-promo and bot-driven signal patterns, with explainable reasons attached so your team can override case-by-case. Advisory, not blocking — your team makes the final call.
- Discovery account isolation. The monitoring infrastructure runs completely separated from AB6's real social presence. All platform-fragility risk stays contained to throwaway infrastructure. Your label's brand stays untouchable, no matter what changes upstream.
The Outcome
Your A&R team stops scrolling and starts signing. A daily flow of pre-qualified candidates lands in your CRM with full context — performance signals, label-status verdict with reasoning, authenticity score with reasons. Signing momentum stops being luck and starts being a system.
3-6 weeks from kickoff to fully tuned system. Each phase ends with something concrete — not a status update.
System aligned to your scene
Week 1 · all tiers
What you have at the end of this week: a calibrated system that knows what to look for. We've turned your A&R taste into the system's signal definitions, provisioned the infrastructure under AB6 accounts, and prepared the discovery surface to start scanning the right kind of content.
Candidates start landing
Weeks 2-3 · all tiers
What you have at the end of this phase: a daily flow of qualified candidates. The discovery pipeline is running every day. Already-signed artists are filtered out. Paid-promo and bot-driven signal is filtered out. Your team starts seeing what the system thinks is worth a closer look.
Your A&R team gets the right tool
Weeks 4-5 · Recommended only
What you have at the end of this phase: a custom dashboard your team actually wants to open. Per-candidate decision time drops from the friction of generic boards to seconds, which is what determines whether the system stays in active use 60-90 days from now.
System dialed to your judgment
Weeks 4-6 depending on tier
What you have at the end of this phase: a system tuned to your team's actual A&R taste, not our defaults. Thresholds, filters, and weighting reflect what your team has been pursuing and passing during soft launch — the system runs on its own from here.
Two tiers, same backend pipeline, different interfaces. Pricing in USD.
The full backend pipeline. Qualifying candidates land as new rows on a dedicated Monday board we design and hand over. Your team works inside the tool you already use.
- Daily multi-platform discovery with cross-platform correlation
- Distribution-status classification, label verification ladder, authenticity scoring
- Scene-tuned filters calibrated against AB6's active roster
- Isolated monitoring infrastructure under Node-managed identities
- Dedicated Monday board with CRM notifications and daily digest
- Post-launch tuning window
Recommended
Everything in Essential, plus a customizable interface that turns the raw discovery feed into an intelligence layer your team actually wants to open every morning. Ranked candidates, trending tracks, artists about to break, and real-time analytics — all in one surface, calibrated to your A&R taste.
- Live discovery feed
- Per-candidate deep-dive with full velocity history and context
- Trending tracks view — sounds climbing right now, before they peak
- Searchable archive
Operating cost (pass-through, paid by AB6)
The system runs on infrastructure billed directly to AB6 by the service providers — no markup. Cost ranges below are estimates based on the live tests we ran during scoping; real usage sharpens to actuals in month one. Start lean and scale based on results — tier changes are configuration, not rebuilds.
Starting — ~25-35 actionable candidates per day
~$155-175/mo
Standard — ~50-65 candidates per day
~$215-235/mo
Aggressive — ~80-100 candidates per day
~$280-310/mo
Validate at Starting tier for the first 30 days. If a single artist surfaced leads to a real outreach, the recurring has paid for itself many times over — that's when we move up. If nothing's clicking, we re-tune the filters at the same cost or scale down while we investigate. You're never locked in.
We build it right, or we fix it.
30 days of post-launch support at no cost. If anything we built breaks, we fix it. No exceptions.
You approve every milestone.
Nothing moves forward without your written sign-off. If a deliverable doesn't match what we promised, we revise it until it does.
No surprises.
2 revision rounds per deliverable included. Timeline and scope locked once we start.
Ready to move forward? Here's how we get started.
01
Review & reply
Look through this proposal. Reply with your tier and post-launch retainer preference. Questions or pricing pushback — reply directly, we'd rather adjust now than ship the wrong system.
02
Deposit invoice
50% deposit on Upwork milestone start. Payment confirms the start date and locks in the timeline.
03
Account provisioning
We send a checklist for the infrastructure accounts. All under AB6 ownership, billed direct, you own everything.
04
Kickoff call
60-90 minutes within 48 hours of deposit. Scene reference list, Monday board column preferences, genre allowlist, CRM workflow. We come with research-driven defaults; you sharpen.
05
Build begins
Work starts immediately after kickoff. Weekly written updates Monday mornings. Bi-weekly Loom demos when there's visible progress. Final walkthrough before handoff.