Transparency
How VP comes up with your recommendations
How Virtual Publicist turns your Spotify, bio, genres and audience into a recommendation — the signals it reads, the intelligence it builds, and the playlists, journalists, brands, labels and opportunities it matches you against. No legal language.
Why did VP recommend this playlist?
Because your profile — your Spotify, your bio, your genres and your audience — overlapped with the playlists that fit your sound and stage right now. VP does not pick names at random or rank by who paid the most. It builds a fingerprint of where your music actually lives, then finds the people and places that already sit nearby on the industry map.
The flow
From your profile to a recommendation
Four signals go in. VP turns them into one artist fingerprint, then matches that fingerprint against seven categories of the music industry.
Your Spotify
SignalStreams, monthly listeners, top markets and the momentum behind your last releases.
VP derives Where your audience actually is, which tracks are carrying weight right now, and whether a release is rising, flat or fading — not just how many streams it has.
Your Bio
SignalThe story you publish about yourself — your own words and the words written about you.
VP derives Your identity, subgenres, influences and mood, so VP can tell the difference between two artists who share a genre but not a sound.
Your Genres
SignalThe genres you claim plus the adjacent territory VP derives from your sound and audience.
VP derives A primary and an adjacent set of genres, which widens or narrows the field of matches without forcing you into one box.
Your Audience
SignalYour listeners — where they are, and who else they listen to.
VP derives Overlap with other artists' audiences — the closest sign of who you could realistically reach next, beyond raw follower counts.
- VP Intelligence
Your artist fingerprint
The four signals are merged into one living profile — not a label, not a single genre, but a fingerprint of where your music actually sits on the industry map and who it already touches.
- Finds matching
Seven categories of the industry
- PlaylistsWhich editorial and independent playlists fit your sound and stage right now.
- JournalistsWhich writers cover your genre, your region, or artists similar to you.
- BrandsWhich brand partnerships align with your audience and the story in your bio.
- LabelsWhich labels work your genre and size, and where you'd be a real roster fit.
- CreatorsWhich creators and curators reach listeners who already overlap with yours.
- SyncWhich sync and licensing briefs your mood, tempo and themes suit.
- OpportunitiesWhich open calls, submissions and briefs are live and match your stage.
What 'matching' actually means
The honest version, so the recommendation is never a black box.
Matching is overlap, not sorting. VP does not rank every playlist or journalist in the world and hand you a leaderboard. It takes your fingerprint and asks, of the people and places already on the industry map: who already touches the sound, the audience and the stage this artist is at? Those overlaps become your recommendations.
That is why two artists in the same genre can get different lists — their audiences and momentum point at different neighbours on the map. And it is why a recommendation always comes with the signals that produced it: you can see, next to any match, which of your signals overlapped. Nothing is hidden behind a score you cannot unpack.
What the engine will not do
Stated as limits, not fine print.
- VP recommends from the profile you give it. Missing signals mean narrower matches, not invented ones — it will tell you what to connect rather than guess.
- A recommendation is a fit, not a guarantee. It says who is worth your time; the pitch and the relationship are still yours to earn.
- Ranking is never for sale. No label, playlist or person can pay to appear higher in your results, and the engine has no paid-placement input.
The questions artists ask first
Answered plainly. The long form is in the AI Transparency policy.
Does VP just match genres?
No. Genre is one of four signals. Two artists can share a genre and get very different recommendations because their audiences, momentum and story point elsewhere. Genre opens the door; the other signals decide who walks through it.
Why did VP recommend this playlist?
Because your profile — your streams, bio, genres and audience — overlapped with the playlists that fit your sound and stage. Open any recommendation in the product and the matching signals are shown next to it, not hidden.
What happens if I only connect Spotify?
VP works with what it has. A single source still produces matches, but they are narrower. The profile page shows which signals are missing and which connections would widen the field, so the choice is yours.
Can a playlist or label pay to be recommended to me?
No. Ranking has no paid input. The full formal terms are in the AI Transparency policy, but the short version is: recommendations reflect fit, never money.
Trust
Recommendations you can actually trace back to your own data
This page is the plain-language version. The full, formal account of how Virtual Publicist uses AI — models, data handling, retention and your controls — lives in the AI Transparency policy.