The explosion of music streaming platforms in recent years has made it easier than ever for unsigned artists to release their work. While such a breadth of accessible music has broadened our musical landscape, the amount of choice can be overwhelming, and great new artists can be drowned out in a sea of noise. Tradiio, a music discovery app, is hoping to fix that, by helping the cream of emerging talent to the attain recognition they deserve.

The app invites users to become amateur A&R reps, scouting out the best of the emerging talent signed up to Tradiio. On sign-up, users receieve a stash of virtual coins, which can be ‘invested’ in their favorite tracks. The tally of coins each artist receives feeds into the Tradiio chart, giving an effective, crowdsourced ranking of the best emerging talent. According to Alvaro Gomez, CEO and co-founder of Tradiio, “Universal Music Portugal selects artists from Tradiio’s top 50 to distribute worldwide. No other streaming service offers the artist opportunities like this”.

As well as providing a great platform for new artists to get discovered, Tradiio offers listeners a fun, gamified experience. Coins can be earned by investing early in rising stars, and then cashed out when they hit the charts. Users can only be invested in ten songs at any one time, which means choices must be well thought out. For the shrewdest investors there are real world rewards, such as tickets to London’s Field Day festival, as well as credibility from peers. For artists, too, there are great opportunities, such as festival slots, label deals, access to studio time and video production packages.

The app provides a direct link between artists and their listeners; are there other ways of using technology to bring fans closer to their heroes?