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Essential Artists

Essential Artists #16: From Sam Smith to Miss Kaninna

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:

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:

  • Sam Smith – Hazel Eyes (album)
  • Fontaines D.C. – Marianne (single)
  • beabadoobee – Memories (single)
  • STELLA LEFTY – Long Way Home (album)
    • It’s worth noting just how impressive this is btw – back in May, this artist popped up as one to watch, but this week she’s cracked the top five most-added artists on NMFs globally, while carrying around 290k followers. It’s really rare to see that (>90% of the time, the top ten only attracts 1m+-follower artists). Hell of an album release week for this artist.
  • Rex Orange County – Indecision (feat Daniel Casesar) (single)

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:

  • Cara Delevingne – Crazy, Baby (single)
    • I know, it’s hardly fair to call this artist ‘emerging’, and the backing is hardly a surprise, but it’s still a LOT of ears to get into this week for this latest release for someone with such a relatively low Spotify following
  • Effie – .com (single)
    • Despite being one of the quintessential faces of the South Korean “sad girls” scene, Effie’s latest broke out of Asia and into NMFs across Europe and South America
  • Cenobia – Swallowed By The World (single)
    • This Australian heavy electronic artist may keep their identity relatively anonymous, but still gained plenty of attention this week, with NMF spots carrying over 9m total combined followers
  • jigitz – 50 ballerinas (album)
    • In his 2nd appearance this month, this time marking the album release, jigitz improved his haul of NMF spots, from 9 three weeks ago, to a whopping 16 this time around
  • Westside Cowboy – It Goes On (album)
    • This hotly-tipped Manchester-based post-punk and indie band may only have picked up seven NMF slots this week, but they were some of the very creamiest of the crop, including both a home turf UK slot (1m followers) and a berth on the Global NMF (4.6m followers)

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 the country. 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 domestically 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 my list with their latest releases:

  • Miss Kaninna – BLACKPRINT (EP)
    • A longtime favourite of Aussie playlisters, the EP release this week barely touched the sides as it slotted into a broad range of both street-level and major playlists across the country
  • REDD. – better (single)
    • Improving on their previous-best third slot, REDD. took the silver medal this week, with ‘better’ proving to be a suitably infectious follow-up to ‘life’, and gaining some notable strong backing from Spotify’s big AU lists in particular
  • The Tullamarines – Flight Path (single)
    • Aussie indie kids came out in force to back up The Tullamarines this week, with a strong showing among the independent playlisters and a solid backing from Spotify’s editors

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.

In an impressive (and not all that common) display, all of the local top three artists landed international exposure too, so I’ll start with them – but these are the artists and releases putting Aussie artists on the radar both at home and abroad this week.

  • Miss Kaninna – BLACKPRINT (EP)
    • Topped the list at home, but also added a spot from the NME this week, a healthy green shoot of international interest
  • REDD. – better (single)
    • This is REDD.’s fourth appearances here in seven weeks, building momentum steadily – a strong performance in Australia was supported by two whopper spots globally on both GLOW and the new alt, both of which carry >1m follwers
  • The Tullamarines – Flight Path (single)
    • Long a favourite of mine, it was particularly pleasing to see The Tullamarines bag a few international slots to add to their haul on home soil
  • Radio Free Alice – Kick in the Shins (single)
    • This makes it five straight weeks of RFA appearing on this list (as well as nine out of the last twelve), and still including slots on two >1m+ follower global lists
  • Adam Newling – The Bloody Unknown (album)
    • With his third appearance here since July, Adam Newling gets to celebrate the launch of his (excellent) new album with a swell of Australian support and spots on both All New Rock and Front Left to add global exposure
  • Windwaker – do or die (EP)
    • Their second appearance in two months, this heavy outfit once again broke the 2m mark in total combined followers among the playlists supporting them at home and abroad
  • Sex Mask – Sex Mask (EP)
    • Sex Mask’s self-titled EP ticked the boxes for a healthy collection of playlist editors, with playlist spots representing 1m combined listeners in Australia matched by another 1.3m around the world
  • Bugs – Heaven (single)
    • The third in a weekly run of releases leading up to next week’s ‘Head Noise’ album drop, support went up a notch this week to put our beloved Bugs among the best-performing Australian artists this week
  • The Buoys – Alone In Vegas (single)
    • Last seen here in June, the magnificent Buoys continue to attract strong backing domestically, but with a hefty tailwind internationally too, giving them a combined total-follower reach of over 1.5m this week
  • The Grogans – Reasons (single)
    • With the first music of a new album cycle, The Grogans immediately picked up some steam, with the sort of backing you’d expect in Australia supported with an All New Rock slot globally for good measure

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: REDD. at Chuck Trailer’s, Sydney