The Musinique Article Drafting Workflow: From Raw Artist Data to Published Substack
Week 4 — Musinique Article Drafting Workflow Volunteer: Nixon L. Type: Workflow
PROBLEM THIS SOLVES
New Musinique volunteers face a consistent challenge: they have access to rich artist data across multiple platforms, but no clear path from that raw data to a published, readable Substack article that communicates Musinique’s value to real audiences. This workflow closes that gap.
WHO THIS IS FOR
New Humanitarians.ai OPT volunteers joining the Musinique project
Anyone tasked with producing Musinique Substack content
Volunteers who have the data but don’t know how to structure it for Claude or for Substack
THE WORKFLOW
Step 1 — Study the Format Before You Touch the Data Read 3–5 previous Musinique Substack articles before doing anything else. Identify: What is the article trying to convey? What data does it use and what does it leave out? What is the tone — who is the reader? What story does it tell, and where does the data appear in that story? This step is not optional. Skipping it produces generic output that has to be rebuilt from scratch.
Step 2 — Gather Artist Data from Spotify Search the artist on Spotify and collect:
Monthly listeners
Listener location breakdown
Discography (albums, singles, release history)
Playlists the artist appears on
Step 3 — Gather Metrics from Artist.tools Pull the following from Artist.tools for the same artist:
Monthly listeners
Location of listeners
Estimated revenue
Discography
Total streams
Total playlist appearances
High-risk playlist appearances
Playlist follower reach (sum)
Listeners from playlists
Estimated percentage of listeners from playlists
Playlist history
Biography and metadata
Note: Finding accurate metadata outside these two platforms requires additional research time. Budget for it. Do not skip it — metadata grounds the story.
Step 4 — Structure Your Data Before Opening Claude Do not dump raw data into Claude. Organize it first:
Artist name, genre, career stage
Key metrics in order of narrative relevance
Playlist history highlights
Any anomalies or interesting patterns in the data
Biography summary
Then open Claude with the Musinique prompt instructions as your base. Paste your structured data. Ask Claude: “What additional information would strengthen this article?” Fill those gaps before requesting a draft.
Step 5 — Request the First Draft With the Musinique prompt instructions active and your structured data in place, request the draft. Expect the first output to be too generic. This is normal. Do not approve it.
Step 6 — Iterate for Substack Voice The first draft will likely be flat and data-heavy. Give Claude the following corrections:
Reference the wording and format of the previous Musinique articles you studied in Step 1
Instruct Claude to lead with a story, not with data
Ask for second-person or conversational tone where appropriate
Remove any bullet-point-heavy sections that read like a report
Review the revised draft against: tone, accuracy of data, story coherence, and whether it communicates Musinique’s value clearly to an indie artist reader.
Step 7 — Final Approval Checklist Before publishing, confirm:
Tone matches Musinique Substack voice
Data is accurate and sourced correctly
Article leads with a story, not a data dump
Musinique’s value is clearly communicated
No AI-generic phrasing remains
You can stand behind every claim in the article
Step 8 — Publish Publish to the Musinique Substack. Submit the URL to your weekly report.
KNOWN GAPS & HONEST NOTES
Estimated listeners from playlists is the metric most likely to be misunderstood. At time of writing, this metric is not yet fully understood by the author. Use it carefully and flag it for your PM if uncertain.
Metadata sourcing outside Spotify and Artist.tools requires unplanned research time. Budget an extra 30–60 minutes per artist for this step.
Claude tone iteration almost always requires at least two rounds. Plan for it.
WHAT THIS ENABLES
Any Musinique volunteer can follow this workflow to produce a research-grounded, correctly voiced Substack article in one week. It also serves as a quality checklist — if any step is skipped, the output will show it.