About TigerLily
Where Culture Dictates the Artist.
Named after Natalie Merchant's chart breaking album (1995), TigerLily is a cultural vertical dedicated to forecasting the orientation of the music industry in real time based on the shifting tides of the cultural sphere around the artists. We believe that cultural changes influence an artist's rise, longevity, and environmental niche. Our specialty is observing these trends in order to identify archetypal gaps in the industrial market, naming the role being filled by existing mainstream and indie musicians, then synthesizing that information to determine an artist's trajectory in the current landscape.
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We do not review artists and we do not critique their work.
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TigerLily's purpose is only to evaluate whether an artist's brand, aesthetic, and musical identity is cohesive enough to fill a structural role in the industry that would contribute to their success. We achieve this using a unique framework that utilizes Narrative Signal Reading and Cultural Context Mapping.
Our Framework: Eco-Cultural Niche (ECN)
TigerLily's proprietary forecasting framework is shaped by ecological and sociocultural fundamentals applied to the system of the music industry that incorporates two crucial metrics:
Narrative Signal Reading
Music tells a story, but what about the artist?
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Charts, streams, and numerical industry metrics are important for evaluating monetary conversion potential from artist representation, but charts alone do not tell you anything about an artist's cultural longevity or provide the necessary information to accurately assess the benefits of long-term resource and financial investment. That's why TigerLily does not forecast based on charts, we forecast based on story.
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A pertinent predictor of an artist's longevity in the music industry is the collective narrative their persona, sound, and musician arc tells the public about what niche they are filling within the genre they're releasing music in. Our framework evaluates the cohesiveness between an artist's:
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Identity
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Public Presentation​
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Genre Soundscape
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Musical Production
To predict their trajectory in the industry as well as if their narrative positions them for longevity or burnout. This facet of our framework is inherently anti-algorithm; algorithms predict trends, virality, and moments. It cannot predict or create culture however it can evaluate product consumption on a short-term scale. But consumption is not what gives an artist staying power, culture does.​
Cultural Context Mapping
Art does not exist in a vacuum. While it is possible for an artist's management in conjunction with the artistic product being released to inform and shape culture, in many such cases this isn't the reality for musicians in the contemporary age.
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Culture has always been fluid but significant technological advancements in the past twenty years have shifted the paradigm from pop stars and rock musicians influencing the era, to the era deciding whether it will allow the artists to influence it. Algorithmic virality is absolutely obtainable if the artist is producing work that is aligned with the mainstream, but what about artists whose talent exceeds the mold?
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When assessing an artist's trajectory and longevity in the industry our framework maps their narrative against what's thematically prevalent in:
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Fashion
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Film
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Internet Subcultures
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Political Climate
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Regional Identity
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Generational Mood
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Then synthesizes that information to not only project where they're headed in the business, but deliver actionable consulting information on how to increase their cohesiveness to inhabit a gap in the industry to widen their platform.
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Sometimes Talent Isn't Unsustainable for the Era, It's Just Early.
Which is why we observe the trends of the past and present, so you can plan for your artist's next big break.
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