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Essential Artists

Essential Artists #19: From Kings Of Leon to Zach Stephenson

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 global 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:

  • Chiara Savasta – Hi, hello (EP)
    • An astonishing result for this Canadian indie-pop artist, coming in as the #6 most-added artist this week to NMFs around the world, gaining a larger reach for her EP than new releases by David Guetta or Ellie Goulding
  • Helena Gao – gao dan dan (album)
    • Just as remarkably – making it a super-rare occasion of where two artists with less than 10k Spotify followers made the top ten – Helena Gao also outperformed some bold-faced names – her work with artists like Zara Larsson gives her baked-on industry cred, but it’s a hell of an achievement, no matter how you cut it
  • Chloe Qisha – Question Of The Day (single)
    • This is Chloe Qisha’s third appearance near the top of this list since May, a big signal of ongoing and significant support for this rising UK neo-R&B artist
  • Sophia Stel – I Do (EP)
    • Sneaking into the top 30 for her second appearance here in two months, Sophie Stel’s bedroom pop continues to attract heavyweight support in NMF markets around the world
  • daine – Product of Profit (P.O.P) (single)
    • A strong Top 40 international performance for this excellent rising Australian pop artist, with spots all round the globe, including the important and influential Global NMF

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:

  • Zach Stephenson – In N Out (single)
    • As singer and primary songwriter in Hockey Dad, Zach Stephenson is a familiar and widely beloved name to Aussie playlisters, and his first solo upload attracted as wide a really strong range of support for this new work
  • Stella Dunai – Move On! (single)
    • An early-stage project getting a larger-than-expected amount of backing, Stella Dunai’s latest attracted the attention of – and gained spots from – a couple of good-sized major lists as well as a range of indie playlists
  • total tommy – Tailgate (single)
    • An outsized performance on the playlists this week from this excellent artist, a big range of both larger and street-level playlisters

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.

Two of the top three domestic artists fared well abroad 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.

  • Zach Stephenson – In N Out (single)
    • Not just sitting pretty at #1 on the domestic list, Zach Stephenson also picked up a notable list of international playlist spots, including one on All New Indie, carrying over 1m followers
  • total tommy – Tailgate (single)
    • #3 on the list at home, total tommy added to her reach this week with a couple of strong global spots, doubling her total combined follower reach to 2m
  • daine – Product of Profit (P.O.P) (single)
    • daine’s fabulous global performance put her in the top 40 most-added artists on NMFs globally (see above), but added to that haul was a sizeable list of other major editorial playlists worldwide, an undeniably loud show of support across the board, and across borders
  • Radio Free Alice – Crying With You (single)
    • RFA confidently – and unsurprisingly – hold onto their slots on the playlists of millions of listeners for the eighth week in a row
  • Sammi Heaney – Guilty (single)
    • This debut upload from last week continues to make waves at home and abroad, notably with triple J giving up a slot on their flagship New Music Hitlist
  • Maple’s Pet Dinosaur – Child’s Play (single)
    • Spotify lists in particular continued to support this young and noisy artist, with repeat spots on major lists in Oz as well as a whopper of a spot on MARROW, which carries over 4m followers on its own
  • Wade Forster – Can Of Worms (single)
    • Wade Forster reappeared for the second time in four weeks, with the new single again attracting solid attention and playlist berths on big lists both down under and around the world
  • Swapmeet – Mount Zero (single)
    • Another hardy pernnial this year, Swapmeet added another week of solid, ongoing backing for last month’s ‘Mount Zero’ album both domestically and internationally
  • Armlock – Half Time (single)
    • Two weeks on the spin for Armlock, with a goodly range of repeat adds on domestic lists and over 2m total combined reach from a handful of strong global adds

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: total tommy at The Commons, Sydney