How your HustleScore works

What lifts your score.

Your HustleScore is a single 0–100 rating of your momentum on IMS — like a player rating in a video game. Here’s exactly what moves it.

Your rating

0 → 100

Everyone starts at 40 (Rookie) — you’re never at zero. From there your score climbs as you grow the areas below. The more of each you fill in, the higher you go — and a song that’s hot right now can spike you even higher.

What goes into the score

Six things that build it — plus one that can spike it

The first six each count for a share of your score — subscribers the most, tips the least. The last one, Heat, is a temporary surge bonus: get a song hot this week and it can vault you up the board, no matter how small you are.

Subscribers

counts for ~35%

Paid backers — the biggest signal on IMS.

Every fan who backs you monthly lifts this the most. It tops out around 20 backers — past that, the other areas carry you higher.

·This is the single most important thing you can grow.
·Share your IMS profile with the audience you already have.

Catalog

counts for ~26%

Your body of work.

More music means more score. Every track and every album you put up adds points — and it keeps climbing with no ceiling.

·Albums count for more than single tracks.
·There's no cap here, so keep releasing.

Engagement

counts for ~18%

Likes and plays from listeners.

Likes and plays add up over time. Plays count on a curve, so steady, real listening matters more than a single viral spike.

·Genuine, repeat listeners move this more than a one-time rush.
·Likes help too, up to a point.

Momentum

counts for ~9%

What you've done in the last 7 days.

Fresh activity — a new release, a new backer, new listens — gives you a recent boost. Go quiet and it fades, so it rewards staying active.

·Resets if there's a full week of no activity.
·A small, regular cadence beats long silences.

Heat

🔥 surge bonus

Hot right now — a song catching fire this week.

If your listens this week jump well past last week's, Heat kicks in — a temporary surge bonus stacked on top of everything else. It's measured against your own recent pace, so a smaller artist with a track blowing up can shoot to the very top of the board, even past bigger names. It cools as the spike levels off.

·This is how an underdog with a hot song can hit #1 for a moment.
·It's a spike, not a foundation — it fades as the surge settles, so steady building still wins the long game.

Profile

counts for ~9%

A complete, finished profile.

Fill out your bio, photo, genre, hometown, and payout setup. A fully completed profile earns full marks here — it's the easiest score to max out.

·Five things to fill in: bio, photo, genre, hometown, payouts.
·You can finish this in a few minutes.

Tips

counts for ~3%

Direct support from your supporters.

Tips fans send you through IMS count here.

·Tips sent outside IMS (CashApp, Venmo, Zelle, PayPal) can't be counted yet.
·Small slice of the score, but every bit of real support helps.

The tier ladder

Where your score lands you

90+

Legend

80+

Superstar

70+

Star

55+

Starter

45+

Building

40+

Rookie

What the little numbers mean

The weekly % change

How much your score has moved in the last 7 days — up or down.

Your streak

How many weeks in a row you’ve stayed active — releasing, getting listens, or gaining backers.

Your rank

Where you stand against every other artist on IMS, highest score first.

The rising flame

Shows up when you’re climbing fast — and burns brightest when Heat kicks in and a song of yours is surging right now.

How often it updates

Your score refreshes nightly as new activity comes in — new backers, new releases, new listens, new tips. Keep showing up and watch it climb.

One more thing, for the record: some of our founders are artists too, so you may spot a member of the IMS team on the Hustleboard. They’re scored by the exact same formula as everyone else — no thumb on the scale.

HustleScore is an engagement metric — not an investment product.