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Essential Artists

Essential Artists #11: From Gracie Abrams to Swapmeet

This week’s data-driven roundup of artists killing it around the world and in Australia this week

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Start next week right by getting across the biggest and the hottest new music around – as usual, I’ve taken a look at which artists are bagging the most spots (especially those punching above their weight) on both the best Australian playlists and on New Music Fridays around the world.

Don’t forget there are two dashboards you can play with via the site if you want to get into the raw data behind it, one for Australia and one for the New Music Friday stuff.

These are the artists who caught my eye this week:

1. The top five global superstars with new releases

2. Five artists punching above their weight around the world this week:

  • Swapmeet – Mount Zero (album)
  • Rose Gray – Club To Your Arms / Just Be Bodies (EP)
  • FABIAN – LINEAS PARALELAS (single)
  • Logic1000 – All In For You (feat. KUČKA) (single)
  • panicbaby – i hate Berlin!! (single)

3. In terms of Australian artists, these are the acts (& their releases) seeing playlisters at home and abroad making bets that they’ll be taking it to the next level soon:

You want to know why they’re on my list this week? Let’s find out!

The artists killing it on New Music Friday playlists around the world this week

First of all, these are the big five – these are the artists you’ll probably be hearing the most about this week. This is the ‘well, duh’ section – you’re supposed to know they’ve all got new stuff out, but if you don’t, these are the near-unanimous picks for Biggest Beasts this week.

The releases that put them on the top of the pile this week:

Anyway, New Music Fridays are always dominated by the bold-faced names – but if you look hard enough you can spot the up-and-comers too.

These are five artists (and their releases) that I’ve spotted being disproportionately supported around the world compared to their size, the acts being given hyper-valuable playlist real estate *before* they’ve blown up for real.

The releases – and the support – that made them standouts this week:

  • Swapmeet – Mount Zero (album)
    • Swapmeet not only scored big on global playlists for an artist at their stage in the journey, they scored big for any artist at any stage. 16 market’s worth of New Music Friday featured their tracks, along with roughly the same amount of other, non-NMF, equally influential lists around the world.
  • Rose Gray – Club To Your Arms / Just Be Bodies (EP)
    • The former BRIT school pupil is building on her well-received debut album from last year (and the subsequent BRIT Award Critics Choice nomination with a new track and some big support from a hefty 17 NMFs, including the Global version.
  • FABIAN – LINEAS PARALELAS (single)
    • This very much still-emerging Peruvian-American singer scored huge across Latin America this week, with all six of the South American mega-lists grabbing the new track, with a Global spot added just for good measure
  • Logic1000 – All In For You (feat. KUČKA) (single)
    • Ex-pat Aussie – now based in Berlin – teams up with a fellow Australian in the shape of KUČKA to score some strong backing across the world, including a big spot on the Global NMF.
  • panicbaby – i hate Berlin!! (single)
    • Despite her place-based heartbreak being firmly located in one city, the track was picked up heavily across Europe and on the Global NMF too, ensuring that the Berlin sad times are spread far and wide

The artists killing it on the best new music playlists in Australia (and globally) this week

Back here in Oz though, we want to know who’s getting the most attention from a broader, Australia-only cross-section of tastemakers and crtitics. To do that, I track the adds on around 60-70 of the most credible new music playlists in Oz – as with the breakout global acts above, any artist with a lower following that gets onto these lists at any sort of scale is doing extremely well indeed.

First of all, let’s take a look at the artists who punched above their weight the most this week, and bagged more spots across more high-quality editorial playlists than an artist of their size would normally get.

These three landed at the top of the list with their latest releases:

  • Oliver Ashby – Annabella (single)
    • Oliver Ashby is at the top of my list because the relative size of the artist vs the scale of the spots added – less than a hundred Spotify followers, but with two of the bigger local spots available on both NMF AU & NZ, and Tapestry, giving this young project 650k opportunities to be heard this week
  • Swapmeet – Mount Zero (album)
    • Even with over 10k Spotify followers, this is a remarkable performance from Swapmeet, and a testamant to the breadth of support on their home turf – particularly notable is the twin win of being on both triple J’s New Music Hitlist and New Music Friday AU & NZ in the same week, which happens extremely rarely indeed
  • Ruby Rodgers – Sixteen (single)
    • This young, multi-talented singer might not have the years of her peers, but plenty of tastemakers consisered her more than equal to the task this week, with a wide range of both major and indie lists giving the new single the nod

Outside of this top three, it was another strong week of releases from emerging artists. Looking down the top 20 there are some great new acts getting the support they rightfully deserve.

Once you’re done making notes of who to check out, we’ll take a look at how the Aussies did abroad this week.

OK, so – getting backing from the new music playlists in Australia is hard enough to do, but breaking out into international markets is another level entirely.

These are the artists and releases putting Aussie artists on the radar both at home and abroad this week:

  • Swapmeet – Mount Zero (album)
    • We’ve already seen how Swapmeet swept NMFs around the world and the playlists at home but it’s on the other global mega lists where even more impact is being generated. As well as nods from NME, NPR, and major Spotify genre lists, the Adelaide band also scored spots on around half a dozen playlists which carry over 1m followers, for a total of well over 20m opportunities to be heard by a worldwide audience. What a week for them.
  • Ruby Rodgers – Sixteen (single)
    • As well as landing at #3 on the domestic best-performing table this week, Ruby Rodgers also bagged a couple of spots on playlists in other markets, greeen shoots of breaking out beyond Australia.
  • daine – Love Love (Love Love) (single)
    • A few weeks ago I noted that daine was having more attention paid to her abroad than in Oz, but that’s slowly changing – there are definitely more lists picking up new releases at home, but the bulk of the enthusiasm still lives globally, with no less than four >1m-follower playlists picking up her new single.
  • Oliver Cronin – Lost On The Way To Paradise (EP)
    • Building a whopping TikTok following by taking his audience deep behind the scenes into his process, playlisters already know there’s audience here – even so, this is a strong showing on native shores and a truly impressive one on a global scale.
  • Ocean Sleeper – My Forever Drug (single)
    • It’s rare to see heavy acts appear so prominently but with good domestic backing and notable support across Asia, this Gippsland metalcore outfit are more than holding their own against more mainstream tastes.
  • 1300 – ILLSAMGONGGONG (album)
    • The alt-hop Korean-Australians have long been popular at home, but the broad backing for their debut album across Asia keeps them on the map across the whole region.
  • Day We Ran – Naked At Your Door (EP)
    • Growing at a rapid clip in Australia, Day We Ran are also picking up solid endorsements abroad, with a good mix of global spots backing up the performance at home.
  • Carla Wehbe – Broke Your Heart (single)
    • Great to see Carla Wehbe doing so well this week, a firm favourite round here, and with new fans liable to join in the fun from around the world after a really strong list of NMFs picked up the new one.
  • DIBZ – Intense (single)
    • DIBZ may have only picked up a few Australian editorial spots, but since three of them were the three biggest hip-hop lists in the country, it’s the quality that matters here – a few spots outside the border also suggest breakout potential for this early-stage project.

And that’s your lot this week, the artists that popped on the playlists, punched above their weight, and pushed out into global lists.

If you’re into raw data, then there are two new dashboards you can play with on the site for the Australia and the New Music Friday data.

Go and discover something new and amazing 🤘

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Photo: Swapmeet at Tumbalong Park, Sydney