Sony Music has signed onto Artist Growth’s novel approach to data that fills a void in the music industry. Artist Growth is a cloud-based tool for web and mobile that allows touring artists to track finances, merchandise and royalties. The company’s month-old AG Accel repurposes that data to further Artist Growth users’ careers. Data has increasingly become a part of the A&R process. Labels now have a wealth of information at their fingertips: number of plays on various streaming services, social media followers, the interest of Shazam users, and, of course, sales at physical and digital retail. It’s possible to track changes in a range of metrics when a song is added to radio or an artist plays on television. The trick is figuring out which metrics hold the most value…