Where do A&R and Music Execs go to discover new artists and music?

The chorus of voices telling artists how to “get discovered” would have you believe that A&R and other music execs spend countless hours scouring social media and digging through data to discover new music.

That may be one path, but it’s also true that A&R and other music execs spend a lot of time actually listening to new music and a survey of industry pros by Vinrate shows where.

63.2% of 125 respondents listen to streaming services for artist discovery daily and 29.6% weekly.

On the other hand, fewer utilize streaming data for artist discovery daily (38.4%) and 33.6% weekly.

Those same pros ranked Spotify as the most significant source of artist discovery data among the streaming services, with YouTube (#2), SoundCloud (#3), Apple Music (#4), and Amazon Music (#5).

Read the full Vibrate survey here.

Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a Berklee College Of Music professor.