Since 2018, UMEK has produced eight #1 tracks and 46 tracks that charted among Beatport’s Top 100. His label, 1605, launched 13 years ago, is also among the Top 10 labels on Beatport, signing rising talent such as Cosmic Boys, Space 92, and Teenage Mutants.

It’s one of the biggest comebacks any techno artist and label have made in recent years. How did they do it? By combining their 30-year industry experience and talent with data science – something that most of the music industry still sleeps on.

“Let’s get one thing straight: you can’t get to no. 1 without talent and hard work. Data will never replace that,” explains UMEK, then laughs: “But it’s such a great secret weapon to have. My guys at Viberate made me a real stats geek, so while some people are browsing Facebook each day, I’m out there looking at charts and comparing trends. It’s awesome!”

Below is a video that shows how UMEK’s performance started rising once a data-driven approach was introduced.

1605’s decision-making process is powered by Viberate, a research and music analytics platform co-founded by UMEK. Their Viberate analytics offer simple yet much-needed metrics for artists and labels: performance on social media and music streaming channels, insights into audiences and genre trends, detailed Beatport analytics, and even how artists are connected with one another.

UMEK concludes: “I believe that having the right information is one of the most important factors for making it in the industry. And I’d love to help make that accessible to as many other artists as possible. We went as far as organizing free webinars to teach everyone how they can use the data themselves.”

You can join the next webinar on Tuesday, 22 December 2020, when UMEK and his manager Vasja Veber will demonstrate how to use Beatport analytics to up your Beatport game. More details here.