That was the directive SK Sharma was given in 2016, when he was hired as chief analytics and AI officer by Ingrooves Music Group, which provides global music distribution and marketing to indie artists. “The idea is,” he says, “in a very crowded music marketplace, how can we make certain kinds of content, particularly with respect to indie artists, stand out.” Making use of consumer data is “the crux of our business,” says Sharma, “and that’s what necessitates using predictive analytics and really being able to judiciously use the information that we have.”
For Sharma, that meant starting from scratch, assembling a team of data scientists and building an AI pipeline. Sharma and his team then created a “smart audience platform” that puts ads touting an artist’s latest release in front of listeners who are most likely to engage with that artist.