Spotify Artist Scout – Monthly Listeners, Play Counts, AI Score

New emerging artists worth signing — scored, explained and pitched — in your inbox every week.

⚡ First 25 artists free · 💵 $0.004 per qualified artist · 🤖 $0.01 with AI assessment · ⏱️ demo in seconds

Try it in 30 seconds. Click Try it — the form runs a free demo on 8 sample artists; your first 25 qualified artists are free. We charge only per qualified artist; the Spotify scan (≈ $0.004 per artist, capped) runs on your Apify account. → Presets per niche · What a run costs · What the AI adds · Run it weekly · A&R tracker sheet

⚡ At a glance

What you get	a ranked A&R shortlist: listeners, growth, signing status, socials, a 0–100 scout score, an AI note and pitch line
You provide	1–5 Spotify artists you like — or just your brief ("UK indie, like Wet Leg"), a watchlist or playlists
Output	a ranked sheet — Excel, CSV or Google Sheets — best first, plus an e-mail digest and a report page to forward
Typical run	5 seeds → 100 related artists scanned → ≈ 25 qualified, 1 in 4 (estimate), a few minutes
Cost of that run	$0.60 rules only · $0.90 with the AI ($0.50 source on your account + 25 × $0.004 / 25 × $0.01 here + ≈ $0.15 tokens)
Free tier	first 25 qualified artists per account
Keys / setup	none where your Apify plan includes model access — otherwise your own key; a free Gemini key works
Works with	Schedules, e-mail digest, webhooks, Google Sheets, Slack, Discord, Make / n8n / Zapier, MCP & AI agents

🎯 What this Actor does

A Spotify artist scout for A&R scouting at labels, managers, curators and bookers. It runs Spotify Play Count Scraper (beatanalytics/spotify-play-count-scraper) on your account and turns raw counts into a verdict — we charge only for the artists that pass your filters:

• Discovery — seeds become their "Fans also like" artists; playlists, Viral 50, names or just your brief become artist lists (eduair94/spotify-scraper).
• Growth since your last run — listener snapshots per artist; an artist you have returns only as a growth alert.
• A scout score you can read — band, momentum, growth, cadence, socials, with scoreBreakdown and risk flags.
• Signing status with evidence — independent / signed from the label or the bio, plus the decision-makers (label, management) from the bio in bioFacts.
• AI scouting note and pitch line — career stage, fit to your brief, a 2-sentence note and a first DM.

🎧 Emerging artists by Spotify monthly listeners

Free filters: listener band (1,000–500,000), releasedWithinDays (365), targetCountries, requireSocialLink, minGrowthPct, suppressionList, targetFlags.

🔎 Spotify play count, momentum and risks

Spotify artist analytics per artist: top-10 tracks with streams, topTrackShare, releasesLast180d, riskFlags; followReleases adds the recordLabel and the newest release's streams per day.

🚀 How to use it

1. Click Try it — the form runs the free demo on 8 sample artists as is.
2. Paste 1–5 artists you like into seedArtistUrls, pick a niche in preset, or write only scoutBrief (its markets and named artists become the seeds). Keep enableAi on — your first 25 artists show the AI tier free.
3. Press Start — qualified artists land best first; the Outreach view adds a contact route per pitch.
4. Schedule it weekly (open the saved task → Schedule) with notifyEmail — only new artists and growth alerts are delivered and charged.

📚 Learn more: Step-by-step tutorial — how to scout emerging artists on Spotify with this Actor

🆚 Why this instead of Spotify Play Count Scraper?

	Spotify Play Count Scraper (beatanalytics/spotify-play-count-scraper)	Spotify Artist Scout (us)
Price	$0.004 per URL · 166 users / 30 days	$0.004 per qualified artist, first 25 free
Same 100 artists, all in	$0.40 for 100 unsorted rows of raw counts	100 scanned → ≈ 25 ranked, explained artists: $0.60 rules only · $0.90 with the AI ($0.10 / $0.25 here + $0.50 source you pay either way)
Finding artists	URLs only	seeds → related artists, playlists, Viral 50, names
Growth between runs	none	listener history, growth %, growth alerts
Verdict	raw counts	scout score, risk flags, signing status, AI note + pitch

Rivals next to our card (Store cards, 2026-09-27):

Actor	Per artist	100 usable artists (≈ 400 scanned)	Users / 30 d	They charge for · AI · dedupe
Spotify Artist Scout (us)	$0.004 per qualified	$2.40 rules only · $3.60 with the AI, scan + tokens included	new	qualified, scored artists · AI note · across runs
delectable_incubator/spotify-artists-scraper-low-cost	$0.00249 + start	$1.00 + hand sort	1	every keyword hit · no · no
parseforge/spotify-artists-scraper	$0.0035	$1.40 + hand sort	1	every scanned artist · no · no
nifty.codes/spotify-artistdetails-scraper	$0.002 + $0.005 start	$0.81 + hand sort	21	every scanned artist · no · no
khadinakbar/spotify-artist-scraper	$0.005 + start	$2.00 + hand sort	16	every scanned artist · no · no
s-r/free-spotify-artist-analytics	$0.015	$6.00 + hand sort	10	every scanned artist · no · no

Raw rows cost less; the difference buys discovery, growth, the score and the note instead of a 400-row hand sort; a measured head-to-head is dated 2026-10-15.

💸 Cheaper than a Chartmetric or Soundcharts seat

	Chartmetric Premium	Soundcharts PRO	This Actor, weekly
Price	$150 / month — chartmetric.com/pricing, 2026-09-27	$129 / month — soundcharts.com/pricing, 2026-09-27	≈ $3.60 / month (4 × $0.90 with the AI)
Covers	Spotify, Apple Music, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Shazam, radio	Spotify, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, radio	Spotify + the artist's links; Instagram / TikTok counts dated 2026-11-15

💵 Pricing — what a run really costs

Pay per result: one event per qualified artist, nothing else. No start fee.

Event	When it is charged	Price
free-tier	your first 25 qualified artists on this Actor, in any mode	$0.00
qualified-artist-basic	AI off — metrics, flags, scout score, signing status, rule note and pitch	$0.004
qualified-artist-ai	AI on — plus fit score, reasons, career stage, bio facts, AI note and pitch line	$0.01

One free tier: your first 25 qualified artists are free, whatever the tier.

Never charged by us: artists below minScore or failing a filter, excluded or already received artists (unless a growth alert), sample rows; compute is included. Discovery and the scan are the source Actors' charges, capped.

How that compares — the Actors next to our card in the Store charge a median $0.00425 per scanned artist; $0.004 here is 0.94× that, but only per qualified artist — one replaces ≈ 4 scanned: $0.001 per raw-row equivalent.

Worked example — 5 seeds, AI on: discovery 100 rows ($0.10 at eduair94's $0.001 per row) + source scan of 100 artists ($0.40 at $0.004 per artist, your account) → ≈ 25 qualified (1 in 4, estimate): 25 × $0.01 = $0.25 here + ≈ $0.15 tokens = $0.90, ≈ $0.036 per qualified artist. Rules only: $0.50 + 25 × $0.004 = $0.60. Run 1's 25 artists are free, so it costs the $0.50 source (+ tokens).

AI tier, all in: ≈ $0.016 per artist ($0.01 + ≈ $0.006 tokens for 2 candidates, not yet measured) — 4× the basic price; each AI run reports its tokens in OUTPUT.aiTokens.

🤖 What the AI tier adds

The same sample artist, AI off — metrics, flags, a rule score, a template note and pitch:

{"name": "Maren Holt (sample)", "monthlyListeners": 84200, "listenersGrowthPct": 36.9, "isGrowthAlert": true,
 "signingStatus": "independent", "ruleScore": 89, "score": 89, "tier": "hot",
 "summary": "Maren Holt (sample): 84,200 monthly listeners, 9.25× followers, +36.9 % since the last snapshot, last release 2026-09-12, strongest in London.",
 "generatedText": "Loved “Glasshouse”; your London listeners clearly agree. Open to a quick chat?"}

AI on (qualified-artist-ai, $0.01), against the demo brief "Emerging indie and alt-pop acts with a release in the last 6 months and real momentum in the UK or Ireland, not signed to a major":

{"name": "Maren Holt (sample)", "fitScore": 91, "score": 91, "tier": "hot", "careerStage": "emerging",
 "scoreReasons": ["listenersGrowthPct +36.9 since the last snapshot", "primaryCity London — the brief's UK market"],
 "bioFacts": {"pressOrAwards": [{"value": "BBC Radio 1's Future Artists", "quote": "Her single Glasshouse was picked for BBC Radio 1's Future Artists in 2026."}]},
 "summary": "Self-releasing London alt-pop writer whose monthly listeners grew 36.9% in a week on the back of Glasshouse. Independent, releasing every two months and strongest in London, Manchester and Dublin.",
 "generatedText": "Hi Maren, Glasshouse has been on repeat here, and it is great to see London catching on. We're an indie label in London that signs and develops alt-pop acts - we fund recording and radio plugging. Open to a coffee?"}

A fictional demo artist (isSample: true); your own search gets these fields from anthropic/claude-haiku-4.5. Reading the bio and writing a first DM takes a scout ≈ 7 minutes per artist — ≈ 3 h for 25; each run's digest says so.

Try the AI on any plan: without model access the demo shows labelled sample verdicts (aiModel: "sample") and your first real search gets 5 live AI verdicts on us; then your own key (llmProvider: byok) — a free Gemini key (aistudio.google.com/apikey) assesses a few artists per run, a paid one every artist.

⚙️ Input

{"seedArtistUrls": ["https://open.spotify.com/artist/7Ln80lUS6He07XvHI8qqHH"], "scoutBrief": "Unsigned UK indie acts",
 "yourOffer": "Indie label in London", "targetCountries": ["GB", "IE"], "maxDiscoveryChargeUsd": 0.5}

Flags

Put a flag name into targetFlags (growthAlert works too); an unknown name stops the run with the valid list.

📤 Output

One dataset item per qualified artist — JSON, CSV, Excel or a webhook. Views: Shortlist (best first), Outreach (contact route + pitch line), Momentum & risks (listeners, ratio, growth, cadence, one-hit share).

Output fields

Upsert key for a CRM or Sheet: dedupeKey (id: + the Spotify artist ID, also the cross-run memory key); itemId is its hash.

Two scales: sort a run on score; trend across runs on ruleScore (score follows assessedBy).

Which record to read: OUTPUT is the full run record; RUN_SUMMARY is the same record — funnel, charges, runReport, aiCoverage, aiTokens, seedsFromBrief, sourceError / aiError. DIGEST ("vs last run: qualified 41 → 55") and the client-ready REPORT page sit next to it.

⭐ Found it useful? A review on the Store helps others find it — it takes a minute on the Actor's page.

🔁 Run it weekly

1. Open the saved task and click Schedule after your first real run (OUTPUT.scheduleTaskUrl), with notifyEmail — every run with new artists e-mails you the digest and the trend.
2. Keep dedupeAcrossRuns: true — the next run delivers only new artists and growth alerts (memory per search; one dedupeStoreName per client).
3. slackWebhookUrl / discordWebhookUrl post the digest; webhookUrl or Google Sheets take the rows — start from the A&R tracker sheet (Shortlist columns + your status, upserted on dedupeKey).
4. From run 2, OUTPUT.history and the REPORT show each run's qualified, hot, alerts and median listeners.
5. A scheduled run doubles maxArtistsToScan (unless you set it), inside the spend cap.
6. Rolling discovery: a scheduled run adds up to 5 of the last run's hot / warm artists as seeds (OUTPUT.seedsRolled) — their "Fans also like" is new ground, not a re-read of week 1.

Weekly cost: week 1 of the 5-seed scout ≈ 25 qualified (1 in 4, estimate) = $0.90 with the AI; from week 2 known artists are skipped, rolled seeds bring new ones — ≈ $3.60 a month.

🎯 Try it for your niche

One click: pick it in preset and press Start — your own values win.

Niche	What it looks for	Input
Indie label, UK / Ireland	related artists of a seed + UK / IE Viral 50, 2k–200k listeners, released in 180 days	docs/img/preset-indie-label-uk.json
Playlist curator	the artists of a new-music playlist, 1k–150k listeners, with socials	docs/img/preset-playlist-curator.json
Booking agent / promoter	a watchlist + GB Viral 50, audience in GB, 5k–300k listeners	docs/img/preset-booking-agent.json

🔌 Integrations, automation and API

• Webhook — webhookUrl (auth in webhookHeaders) POSTs {"event": "artist.qualified", "artist": {…}, "runId": "…"} per artist, or one artists.qualified batch per webhookBatchSize artists; failures never fail the run (OUTPUT.webhook.failed).
• Google Sheets / Slack — one click from the Integrations tab.
• HubSpot / Pipedrive — a Make / Zapier "create or update" step on dedupeKey: contact = name + contactRoute, note = summary + generatedText (native push dated 2026-11-30).
• AI agents / MCP — plain typed inputs; the first call {} (or list mode) is free.

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("rich_minds/spotify-artist-scout-ai").call(
    run_input={
        "seedArtistUrls": ["https://open.spotify.com/artist/7Ln80lUS6He07XvHI8qqHH"],
        "scoutBrief": "Unsigned UK indie acts with a release this year",
        "maxQualified": 50,
        "maxDiscoveryChargeUsd": 0.5,  # spend cap for the Spotify scan on your account
    },
    # free first call: run_input={} or {"sourceMode": "list", "itemsList": [<your artist rows>]}
    timeout_secs=3600,  # sized for the AI path with your own key — see "How long does a run take?"
    # build="0.3",  # pin the build your pipeline was tested with (Changelog below); omit for the latest
)
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item["name"], item["score"], item["tier"], item["url"])

Use it from Claude, ChatGPT or any MCP client:

{"mcpServers": {"apify": {"url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?actors=rich_minds/spotify-artist-scout-ai"}}}

Ask: "Run spotify-artist-scout-ai with {} first (free), then scout artists like

Minimal agent input: {"seedArtistUrls": ["https://open.spotify.com/artist/…"], "scoutBrief": "…", "maxQualified": 25, "maxDiscoveryChargeUsd": 0.5} — the rest at its default.

List-mode rows — what a pasted record needs

sourceMode: "list" runs on any Apify plan: paste Spotify Play Count Scraper artist rows (or automation-lab / eduair94 artist_play_counts rows) into itemsList. A row needs name and monthlyListeners.

Run outcomes — what your integration sees

👥 Who is it for?

You are…	You run it to…	Start with
A&R scout at a label, publisher or management	each Monday, the unsigned artists that grew fastest, with why	seeds + targetFlags: ["independent"]
Playlist curator, blog or radio	rising artists like the ones you play	playlistUrls, requireSocialLink
Booking agent or promoter	emerging artists with an audience in your city	viralChartCountries, targetCountries
Music marketing, PR or sync agency	independent artists with momentum to DM	recent_release flag, one dedupeStoreName per client

🧠 How the AI works

• Grounded. Bio facts need a verbatim bio quote; a sentence with a number the input lacks is removed; cold artists get no pitch.
• Your brief. fitScore moves the rule score for your scoutBrief; the pitch names yourOffer only as written.
• Tokens where they matter. The best rule-scored candidates, up to aiCandidateMultiplier × maxQualified.
• Model and fallback. anthropic/claude-haiku-4.5 via Apify's model access or your own key; on a failure the artist keeps its rule score, note and pitch.

🔒 Data, compliance and limits

• Public artist pages only; no login, no fan data, no e-mail guessing. Not affiliated with Spotify.
• Top 10 tracks and top 5 cities only; play counts read 0 below 1,000 streams; growth needs a previous snapshot. Use it within Spotify's terms and the law (GDPR, CCPA).

❓ FAQ

What will my first real search cost? One seed: ≈ 20 related artists = $0.02 discovery + $0.08 scan on your account, capped by maxDiscoveryChargeUsd ($0.50 — five seeds reach it). The qualified artists are free up to 25.

Is this a Spotify Play Count Scraper? It runs beatanalytics/spotify-play-count-scraper ($0.004 per scanned artist, billed by it) and eduair94/spotify-scraper for discovery on your account, then adds filters, history, scoring and AI.

Is this a Chartmetric alternative? For Spotify scouting: Chartmetric Premium is $150 and Soundcharts PRO $129 a month per seat (vendor pages, 2026-09-27); a weekly 5-seed scout here is ≈ $3.60 a month. They cover more platforms.

How do I find unsigned artists? targetFlags: ["independent"] keeps artists on a distributor or their own label, or whose bio says they self-release; signingEvidence shows why. Its precision on 50 artists with known deals (half signed) is dated 2026-10-15; without a label the status is unknown — followReleases reads it.

🧩 More Actors from the same developer

• Instagram Influencer Finder — Check an artist's Instagram engagement and real audience before you DM them.
• YouTube Outlier Videos Finder — Spot the music videos and covers breaking out on YouTube before the charts do.

🆘 Support

Something missing or wrong? Open an issue on the Actor's page or message the developer in the Apify Console — buyers' requests ship first.

📝 Changelog

Newest build first — what changed for you: output, status messages, prices.

• 0.3.2 (2026-09-27) — 2026-09-27.md — M-01.
• 0.3.1 (2026-09-27) — tier field tier (label = same value until 0.4); rolling seeds; preset; time saved.
• 0.2.2 (2026-09-27) — OUTPUT.aiTokens: tokens per AI-assessed artist.
• 0.2.1 (2026-09-27) — your brief alone starts the live scout (OUTPUT.seedsFromBrief); ruleScore in the Shortlist; A&R tracker sheet.
• 0.1.1 (2026-09-27) — first release: discovery, growth alerts, scout score, signing status, AI note and pitch.