For a decade, Meddling has provided the default data tools for modern A&R coverage. Expanding to provide non-data driven A&R, Meddling is launching a free listing service that provides automatically detected artist signings and label departures along with the ability to report changes in deal status to its nearly 300 verified A&Rs across over 30 record labels. 

Making deal flow available to everyone is another step in Meddling’s effort to democratize A&R. “As independent market share continues to explode, I want Meddling to be helpful to all segments of the industry without compromising on the premium data platform,” explains Meddling founder and CEO Travis Rosenblatt. “By launching a free deal flow service, I hope more people can get an idea of how leveraging data can save them time at all rungs of the ladder.”

Meddling’s Listing Service tracks the label affiliation of artists as they change between releases  based on copyright changes. Anyone may also submit a report of a change manually that can be visible to just them, the public, or just Meddling subscribed A&Rs. 

Since 2015, Meddling has provided fully customizable and automated analysis of global music consumption in real time. Based on their own A&R investment criteria, Meddling users are quickly alerted to emerging artists before they would have discovered them otherwise. A leading catalyst for the industry’s adoption of digital tools for A&R, Meddling is once again transforming artist discovery with its new listing service. 

“My hope is that with the Meddling Listing Service providing deal flow, you’ll only take music lawyers out to lunch if you actually want to,” says Rosenblatt. 

About Meddling
At the forefront of A&R, Meddling delivers indispensable data and tools to help subscribers turn knowledge into action. Meddling brings together real-time data on global music markets, cutting edge technology like deep learning metadata compilers, powerful analytics, communications tools, and tracking capabilities to ensure comprehensive A&R research.

Meddling, the artist discovery platform for record labels, is unveiling a new version of its service built specifically for music publishers to discover songwriters.

“There are more than 20 unpublished songwriters in the US Top 100 right now,” says Travis Rosenblatt, founder and CEO of Meddling. “Publishers have not yet had access to the same set of tools to discover songwriters that labels have been using for years to find new artists. There is a huge opportunity here for frontline publishing A&R.”

Since 2015, Meddling has been an indispensable tool for some of the music industry’s biggest companies. By providing fully customizable, automated analysis of real-time international music consumption, Meddling users are quickly alerted to emerging artists specific to their A&R investment thesis.

Five years in the making, Meddling for Publishers uses a learning layer that intelligently fills in partial or missing publishing data that allows these same discovery and tracking tools to automatically surface unpublished songwriters.

The seemingly simple question of who wrote a song is oftentimes a near impossible question to answer, particularly for new releases. Instead of slogging through a maze of acronyms (DSP credits, MDX, ICE, CIS-NET, ASCAP/BMI, HFA/MLC), publishers can now use Meddling’s automated system to rapidly surface trending unpublished songwriters and filter them by geography, genre(s), and prolificacy.

In addition to songwriter discovery for signing purposes, publishers can also view trending published writers to be ahead of the curve when setting up co-writes, sessions, and camps. PROs can also view data by unaffiliated songwriters for a competitive edge in early signings (that isn’t just throwing money around that belongs to other songwriters).

Meddling for Publishers is currently being tested by several prominent independent publishers, including Concord, APG, Downtown, Riptide, Ultra, and Nettwerk.

"Travis and Meddling are always driving innovation in the marriage of music and data,” says Mike Caren, APG CEO. “Meddling for Publishers furthers this and opens the door for publishers to get quick and easy visibility of available songwriters."

About Meddling

At the forefront of A&R, Meddling delivers indispensable data and tools to help subscribers turn knowledge into action. Meddling brings together real-time data on global music markets, cutting edge technology like deep learning metadata compilers, powerful analytics, communications tools, and tracking capabilities to ensure total digital A&R coverage.

Publishers interested in access can contact Travis at smartpub@meddling.co 

Made by and for A&R professionals, Meddling provides streamlined artist discovery for a suddenly digital-only process

Since 2015, A&R platform Meddling has been an indispensable tool for some of the music industry’s biggest companies. By providing fully customizable, automated analysis of real-time international music consumption, Meddling users are quickly alerted to emerging artists specific to their A&R investment thesis. Due to a sudden and almost complete lack of alternatives, the once maligned process of data mining for talent has gone mainstream across traditional label A&R, publishing, management, agencies, law firms, and concert promoters.

Though many of Meddling’s clients, including Republic, Columbia, and Kobalt, have been users for years, nearly twice as many have joined in the last 12 months. “For the first four or five years,” says founder Travis Rosenblatt, “I figured that everybody who was going to be using it was already: that there wasn’t any room to scale.” A year of cancelled concerts, dinners, and meetings has forced the initially hesitant to realize the value of digital A&R coverage. “Overnight, everyone had to figure out how to do A&R from home.”

While also in use by both major and indie label radio promotion, streaming/sales, and marketing departments, Meddling is purpose-built for A&R. Pending a finalized data partnership, Meddling also has a learning layer that can intelligently “glue” together partial publishing data to automatically surface unpublished songwriters. Over his decade in the business, Rosenblatt has worked in some of the industry’s most influential A&R departments, where he learned, and subsequently built, precisely the discovery and communication tools they need to do their jobs efficiently.

Meddling does not attempt to replace good taste or a clear vision for an artist’s future. Rosenblatt taught himself how to code just to build Meddling and notes that he’s in it for the art: “I started booking concerts in college: LCD Soundsystem on their way to MSG, Dirty Projectors, Matt & Kim, Passion Pit, Dan Deacon, Phantogram...and I’m very proud of the fights I had trying to sign talented artists back in my A&R days. I love music, I love finding new music, and I love the idea of being able to help further an artist’s career.” This excitement has been a powerful motivation for Rosenblatt in driving the music industry forward with Meddling and direct publishing royalty collection platform Signal, another of Rosenblatt’s companies and startup in Techstars’ 2019 Music accelerator.

After years of reluctance, the industry has massively accelerated its adoption of digital A&R coverage. Meddling makes it fast and simple. “The number of new artists has exploded in recent years,” Rosenblatt reflects. “The number of hours in your day has not.”

About Meddling

At the forefront of A&R, Meddling delivers indispensable data and tools to help subscribers turn knowledge into action. Meddling brings together real-time data on global music markets, cutting edge technology like deep learning metadata compilers, powerful analytics, communications tools, and tracking capabilities to ensure total digital A&R coverage.