Spotify shows users which artists they discovered before they were big

Spotify gives music fans their grab for bragging rights and amateur A&R skills.

Its latest web app ‘Found Them First' crunches the data to allow its 75 million active users and 20 million subscribers in 58 countries to find out which artists they discovered before they hit the big time.

The microsite reveals the artists (after they link their Spotify account) via a scan of their records. It then identifies which of them were in the first 15% of listeners, and shares a playlist of the tracks they were early to. That is, someone who has streamed an artist at least five times in a month,

The “breakout artists" listed are those with 20 million streams accumulatively and a growth rate of 2000% between January 2013 and June 2015.

The app supplies snippets of artists they “discovered” and compiles a playlist of them to show off to friends.

Some of the artists like James Bay, Vance Joy, Sheppard and Years & Years have even recorded thank-you videos for those who helped push them into the mainstream.

“We love creating fresh ways for people to interact with music,” explained Spotify’s VP of Creative and Brand Strategy, Jackie Jantos.

“Users are rewarded for listening early on, and earn some bragging rights. Of course, if you haven't discovered any new artists early on, and want to, Spotify can help you with that!”

While Spotify’s rationale is a bit of fun bragging rights, such data could help its partner record labels, publishers and artist managers target “cutting edge” fans for other acts. Whether a fan will start demanding a commission or a cut of royalties remains to be seen.

Meantime, Spotify teamed with Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Corp. to provide personalised playlists to match users' facial expressions. It’s part of HTC’s latest campaign for the Desire 626 entry-level smartphone. Customers use it to post a selfie (smiling! angry! anxious! psychotic!) and get a playlist to match their mood at http://spotify-htc.com.