http://blog.village.fm/blog/2016/10/18/the-new-gatekeepers-how-streaming-platforms-are-taking-over-music

"Now labels have effectively become data companies, looking to the streaming platforms to find the new hot artists. Instead of sending A&R teams out to discover new acts, they monitor things like listens, adds, and skips across platforms to see which artists are worth signing. The power the streaming platforms have should be clear- they own the path to both getting signed and getting heard. Effectively, they’re already more powerful than the labels ever were, becoming the new gatekeepers for consumers and for artists."