About the Company
The client is a streaming platform for DJ mixes, radio shows, and podcasts. As part of its reporting to rights holders, the company runs a quarterly manual study on random 30-second audio samples from uploads to determine which record labels and major label groups own the music being streamed. The work directly supports statistically accurate label-usage reporting, making this a research-driven role with clear downstream impact.
About the Role
This role is a fit for someone who enjoys careful research, pattern-matching, and making sound judgments from imperfect information. Analysts work through batches of audio samples in a web dashboard, identifying tracks, tracing label ownership, and determining whether a release ultimately sits under a major label group such as Universal, Sony, Warner, Merlin, The Orchard, or Believe/TuneCore. The work rewards accuracy, source discipline, and strong written reasoning: every submission must include notes and citations showing exactly how the conclusion was reached. If you’re comfortable working independently and know when to leave a sample unresolved rather than guess, this role offers clear expectations and measurable quality standards.
What you will do
Analysts work through a queue of samples in a web dashboard, one at a time. Each sample involves three steps:
- Identify the artist and track title. Listen to the full 30-second clip and identify the track playing for the majority of it. Tools: Shazam (Chrome extension), plus the Gracenote audio fingerprint and the Juno / user tracklists shown alongside each sample. Cross-check the match on Spotify or Apple Music.
- Identify the owner / licensor. Find the record label or distributor the music flows through — usually from Spotify credits or the Apple Music album page, then Discogs, Wikipedia or Beatport.
- Identify the major label group. Research whether that label sits under Universal, Sony, Warner, Merlin, The Orchard or Believe/TuneCore. This is the judgement-heavy part: sub-label, distribution and acquisition histories all matter, and an apparently independent label is often a division of a major. Each sample is submitted with artist, title, label, a result category (including ‘talk / no music’ and ‘cannot identify’ outcomes) and notes citing every source used. Source citation is mandatory — it is how we audit the work.
Requirements
- Strong written English and confident, self-directed desk research — tracing a label to its parent company is most of the skill.
- Comfortable working independently through a web dashboard with minimal supervision.
- Broad music familiarity (electronic, house, disco, hip-hop, world) is helpful but not essential.
- Needs Chrome, Shazam, and ideally a Spotify and/or Apple Music account.
- Unresolved samples are recorded as such rather than guessed — a wrong label is worse than a blank one.
Ways of working
- Work is assigned in batches through our dashboard; each analyst needs an account that we enable.
- Analysts must not review or duplicate each other’s results; they may share label research sources.
- Training is a written instruction document (v.22, fully illustrated) plus a walkthrough with the team.
- Studies run quarterly; batch volumes vary by quarter and are confirmed ahead of each study.
- We review each analyst on two measures: samples completed per hour, and the accuracy of those results against our own checks.