Music Business Insider reports that streaming giant Spotify was granted a patent for what amounts to talent scouting software.

The grant, awarded to Spotify on March 1st, states that Spotify has created a “system and method for breaking artist prediction in a media content environment.” In other words, Spotify has developed software to help them predict the next up-and-coming artists. Industry professionals have been quick to point that it is basically software that could replace A&Rs.

Spotify’s software works by assigning listeners who stream new content as “early adopters” and then analyzes their listening patterns to help them come up with accurate predictions. The patent states that the data is collected without the member’s knowledge, saying that early adopters “need not have any knowledge that they are an early adopter, as the media server responds by streaming the requested media content, as it responds to all users.”

The patent authors go on to explain that an artist can be deemed “breaking” if “the popularity of the artist exceeds a minimum playback threshold while having experienced growth in popularity that exceeds a minimum growth threshold.”