When maxPop=0 (no artist has index/LB popularity data), blendedScore
returned raw relevance (0-1), making Score = MB_score directly.
Shannon Hale (MB 83, zero listens) scored 92 after tier adjustment
and ranked #4 — above Shannon Wright (MB 80, 766K real listens but
not in index).
Now blendedScore uses max(maxPop, 100K) as the normalization
denominator. With zero popularity against a 100K reference, the
60% popularity component contributes near-zero, dropping all
zero-pop artists to ~35-40. This ensures unpopular artists can't
dominate through MB text relevance alone when the index lacks data.
yonlu
649e5bde9b