How Alum+ works

The short version

Alum+ finds your alumni and laureates across the web (performances, appointments, prizes, recordings, and other career milestones) and turns what it finds into organised records, so you don't have to track any of it by hand.

It searches on just a name and instrument, runs an initial records search when you set up or update your directory, and keeps searching on its own after that.

Records are AI-generated, so give them a quick check before you act on them.

Where do records come from?

Every record is discovered automatically by our AI research; no one enters them by hand. Alum+ searches public sources such as artist websites, venue calendars, and other media sources, and writes up what it finds as a record on that artist's profile.

A few things worth knowing about how the search works:

• It doesn't cover social media. Activity that lives only on Instagram, Facebook, or similar isn't picked up (only public web pages are).
• It isn't limited to English. Alum+ finds information published in other languages too, and writes every record in English regardless of the source language.
• It searches on only two things: full name and primary instrument. Any other details you keep in the directory are for your own reference; they don't affect what Alum+ finds. That's why a name and an instrument are the only details every profile needs.

Are records accurate?

Alum+ gets the large majority of records right, but since they're gathered and written up by AI from public information, they can occasionally make a mistake (such as an incorrect date, or the wrong person where two artists share a name). Before you act on a record, it's worth verifying the news at its source. Each record has at least one attached source, making it easy to click and confirm it. See Trusting your records for how to verify and interpret what you find.

How does Alum+ search the web?

Alum+ builds up your records in two stages: an initial records search when you set up your directory, then ongoing background searches after that.

• When you first build your directory, an admin starts your initial records search, which runs once across everyone (see Getting started).
• After that, Alum+ keeps searching on its own and optimises its efforts: artists that are more likely to have news are checked more often, and quieter profiles are checked less often.
• You don't schedule anything; it runs in the background.

How often will I hear about new records?

We search the web for fresh activity about once a week, so there's usually a new batch of records at the start of every week.

• New records appear in the Activity feed as soon as they're found.
• Plus, you will receive a Monday Morning Briefing email, which rounds up the latest news, upcoming events, major highlights, and artist birthdays, so you get a regular summary without logging in.