"We are falling behind on streaming," warns a nonprofit fan site devoted to ­pushing music by the South Korean boy band BTS up the Billboard charts, ­explaining that "Shazam data [is] sent to radio ­stations to determine which song the public is into. Hence, we need to get as many Shazams in as possible for radio plays!" But the site, BTSXUSA.com, ­cautions that "Shazam is not the same as ­streaming," and just because a few radio ­stations have added BTS tracks to their ­rotations, "that is not an indication to slack off on requesting." Amelie Chambord, a superfan and government employee in her 40s who lives in Los Angeles, is one of eight social media managers who works for the site, ­volunteering her free time after seeing BTS ­perform at the 2014 Korean Culture Convention (K-CON) in L.A. to help the group go mainstream.

"Other fan bases were ­encouraging streaming and sales of albums, but only a few accounts were brave enough to tap on radio ­promotions," says Chambord. "We want to see them break records and write history." READ MORE Fans Hit the Net Hard in Celebration of BTS' Billboard Cover Story The site is one of a growing number of fan-operated platforms mobilizing fellow fanatics to take actions that can boost ­artists' ­revenue -- and record labels are taking notice. The platforms range from fan sites to "update accounts" on Twitter manned by ­volunteers around the world that not only encourage ­streaming and Shazaming but also might alert fans to which hotel their ­favorite artist is ­staying at, what he or she ordered at Starbucks or exactly what time the artist's sound check begins. There are update accounts for every major act, which ­proliferate as ­artists expand their fan bases ­overseas. BTS, for example, has @ BTSNewsBrasil, @ BTS_Europe and @ BTSxCalifornia ­working around the clock to keep fans ­current. Fan-run Instagram accounts also compete fiercely for likes from the artists themselves -- though, with ­limited linking ­abilities, Instagrammers can't drive as much streaming. Many fans operate these sites and accounts for free, but reap a range of other ­benefits, from ­hands-on youth ­marketing ­experience and online social status to the knowledge that they've had a role in their favorite artist's success. "It's what I love to do -- I ­dedicate myself almost 24 hours a day, and it's like my job," says John Anjos, a 19-year-old musician and ballet dancer who started @ BTS_Daily a year ago in Brazil. With a half-million followers, he relies on marketing partnerships to make money but says that he dreams of working in the music industry.For labels, quietly providing update accounts with artist news can also be a more authentic-­seeming way to message fans.

"Keeping tabs on these accounts is essential," says Michael D. Goodman Jr., a digital ­marketing consultant and social media manager at RCA Records. "In most cases, they do a better job of promoting than those on the inside. I've found that including these types of accounts on new releases and premieres often obtains more reach than the artist posting about it themselves." READ MORE BTS Speaks Out In Seoul: The K-Pop Megastars Get Candid About Representing a New Generation The Beyoncé-focused Twitter account @TheBeyHiveTeam, for example, had "very close ties to the music industry," a ­representative told Billboard after breaking the news on Twitter in November 2017 that the singer would ­feature on Eminem's single "Walk on Water." (The Twitter account has since been deactivated; the ­representative, reached through Facebook, declined to provide ­further details.) The people operating fan-army platforms range from teenage ­superfans to middle-aged moms. Rachel, a 43-year-old mother of two teenagers in Sydney, who declined to share her last name, is one of 15 people behind the Twitter account @LouisT91Updates, which provides news on former One Direction member Louis Tomlinson. They demand at least five hours of work a day from each teammate, and when Tomlinson is on the road, "it is not unusual for team members to work for more than 24 hours straight or to take leave from their paying jobs to cover activities," explained Rachel in an email to Billboard, noting that they receive hundreds of ­applications each time they tweet about an ­opening for an unpaid position on the team. (The vetting process includes ­interviews, trial periods and ­practice ­tweeting on a fake account.) Rachel, now a ­business consultant, says she applied three years ago after ­attending concerts with her One Direction-obsessed teenaged ­children, in part to explore a new career in social media marketing.