Build your Signal. Earn your visibility.

00 / Two separate systems

“Signal” and “Rising Artists” are not the same ranking.

EV runs two independent systems that both use real activity, but they measure different things, use different time windows, and never feed each other.

01 / What increases your Signal

Five kinds of activity earn points.

These are the current points earned per eligible event within a rolling 30-day window. Your earned score can rise or fall as activity enters or leaves that window.

Only published, original Signal posts count as posts. Echoes of someone else’s work count as engagement for the original profile, not as a new post for the person Echoing. A follow or reaction you give someone else is never a point on your own score; it only ever helps the profile you engaged with. Casting a vote is different: participating with a genuine opinion, up or down, earns you a point too - just never on your own linked video.

02 / Video votes

Votes are real and signed - genuine loss, not just a floor at zero.

For artist and band Signal only, each net vote a video receives is worth one real point: an upvote is +1, a downvote is -1, and the two combine honestly. A heavily downvoted video can pull an artist's Signal total below zero - it is not floored back up to zero the way it used to be. This is deliberate: the most-liked or most-viewed video is not automatically the strongest signal. A video with a huge view count but a genuinely lukewarm community response should not sit above a smaller video the community actually responded to.

03 / What lowers your Signal

Two kinds of decrease: real loss, and simply aging out.

There is no penalty action anywhere in EV Signal beyond genuine downvotes - no report, no inactivity fee that removes points you already earned for other activity. Your visible score can still fall for these real reasons:

• Your videos receive more downvotes than upvotes. Each net downvote is a real point lost, artists and bands only - see above.
• Activity ages out of the 30-day window. The main reason a score falls without any bad activity: a follow or post from 31 days ago simply stops counting. If nothing new replaces it, your total drops even though nothing was taken away.
• Your profile has no real photo. A flat 20% is held back from your earned total (not the launch boost) until you add one. This is re-checked live, so removing a photo you had takes effect immediately.
• A temporary EV launch boost ends. Unclaimed profiles only: the disclosed +140 to +190 launch points expire automatically after 30 days, on an earlier admin-set date, or the moment the profile is claimed - whichever comes first. This is a real, sudden drop that has nothing to do with your own activity.

Launch visibility / temporary

Unclaimed profiles receive a temporary launch boost.

A real, published, unclaimed artist or professional profile receives a disclosed 140 to 190 additional Signal points (160 by default) for its first 30 days, unless an administrator sets an earlier or later end date. This is a launch boost, not earned audience activity. It is added after the photo adjustment, so a picture still matters for earned points, and it can lift an otherwise negative earned total back up during the launch window. The boost ends automatically, and it ends when its team claims the profile. Eligible profiles can appear on the homepage, Signal and the ranks while the boost is active.

Profile cards with this boost are marked EV launch boost. The 0–100 Signal level and rank include those points. Professional match requirements that refer to a minimum Signal level may therefore include the temporary boost; identity, mutual intent and other match preferences still apply.

04 / Profile identity

A real profile picture makes your full score visible.

A profile without a member-uploaded picture receives 80% of its earned activity points in the Signal ranks. Upload a real picture to restore the full score. Site logos, default silhouettes and Gravatar placeholders do not count as a profile photo.

05 / Your Signal level

The display level is a guide, not a cap.

The ranks order profiles using earned points after the photo adjustment, plus any disclosed temporary launch boost. The 0–100 Signal level compresses total points so it is easy to scan; it is a visual guide, never a broadcast frequency. It rises more slowly as points grow; a level of 50 means 40 total points. The level never replaces total points when determining rank. The ring turns green above the halfway mark (level 51+) and stays red at or below it - a read on where you stand, not on this week's movement. The point-change arrow beside it is separate and always follows direction: green and up for more points than the previous seven days, red and down for fewer, reported as an actual point difference (for example "+12 pts / 7 days"), never a percentage. A separate "rank places" reading, when shown, reports an actual rise or fall in category rank - a profile can earn more points and still fall in rank if others gained faster, so this is never assumed from the point change alone. A profile with no prior-period activity to compare against reads as New rather than a fabricated flat reading. The displayed point difference excludes temporary launch points, which do not count as activity.

Artists and bands share one column in the ranks. Management firms, labels, PR profiles and promotional agencies each have their own. An industry profile's activity is only ranked when its specific role clearly maps to one of those five categories; general industry profiles with no such mapping do not appear on the board. The highest qualifying total leads that category; shorter categories show only their real qualifying profiles.

06 / Rising Artists Top 100

A separate, vote-only board with hard anti-gaming limits.

This board never touches Signal points and is not affected by anything on this page above. It is rebuilt from scratch every week from music video votes alone:

• One vote, up or down, per member per video. Pressing the same button again takes the vote back to no vote.
• An artist needs at least 3 distinct voters that week to qualify at all - a single enthusiastic fan cannot carry an artist onto the board alone.
• Net votes must be positive to qualify. More downvotes than upvotes that week means no board placement, not a negative rank.
• Each member's effect on one artist is capped at ±3 net votes per week no matter how many of that artist's videos they vote on - one person cannot carry an artist to the top alone.
• A voting account must be at least 7 days old for its vote to count toward the board (the vote still shows on the video either way).
• At most 60 votes per member per hour count toward the board, to keep this a person's real opinion rather than a script.

The window resets every 7 days: this week's net votes versus the 7 days before decide both the ranking and its movement arrow.

07 / Discovery and matches

Activity and fit have different jobs.

The board uses Signal points, not frequency. Matches currently use mutual interests, genre, territory, represented artist type, career stage and readiness. Match recommendations also consider recent activity. A board lead does not override someone’s matching preferences or guarantee a match. The Wire itself shows newest posts first.

08 / What never counts, at all

You cannot buy a stronger Signal.

• Purchases, subscriptions, one-on-one profile help and setup fees
• Verification badges, paid placements or staff status
• Profile views, page refreshes, your own reactions, copied posts or activity older than 30 days
• Default avatar images, off-platform follower totals or unverifiable claims

You can use free profile tools, publish meaningful updates, connect with members and share work people genuinely respond to. EV may help build a profile, but that service never adds points by itself.