Music discovery app Shazam has announced a new monthly initiative to highlight young talent on the rise, aptly titled Shazam Next To Know.
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For the opening class, the app's curation team has chosen a group of 10 artists from various genres whom they feel are ready to make major strides in 2018. Moving forward, each month will see four new artists get the spotlight treatment.
The inaugural class of Next To Know artists are GRAMMY-nominated dance/electronic duo Sofi Tukker, singer/songwriter Jessie Reyez, rapper/producer blackbear, Noregian pop singer Sigrid, K-Pop's de facto U.S. ambassadors BTS, alt-pop singer/songwriter Billie Eilis, English performer Tom Walker, soundcloud rapper Lil Pump, Christian rapper NF, and country singer/songwriter Devin Dawson.
Strong picks all around, many of the artists in the inaugural class are already making major moves up the Billboard charts, with Lil Pump's "Gucci Gang" charting No. 3 on the Hot 100, BTS' "Mic Drop" nabbing K-Pop's first-ever Top 40 U.S. ranking, and Sofi Tukker's Best Friend" getting a huge placement in a new iPhone X commercial.
Opening up on the decision to move forward with the new initiative, Shazam's global head of content Julian Marshall said, "In previous years, our data has helped highlight household names way ahead of them breaking into the mainstream. However, we've seen a change in how quickly an artist can break and we want to reflect that, too. That's why, every month, we will update 'Next to Know' with four artists who are about to break out."
