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Essential Artists

Essential Artists #20: From Miley Cyrus to Oliver Ashby

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:

  • Larissa Lambert – Yearning (album)
    • Strong Australian representation abroad this week, with Larissa Lambert’s latest LP bagging more reach from New Music Fridays around the world than any other artist with <100k followers, and putting her squarely in the top 30 of all artists
  • Ahadadream – P ★ K I (album)
    • Reclaiming one of the most disgusting racist perjoratives in the English language, rising UK garage DJ Ahadadream spread the word far and wide this week, with playlist adds carrying a total combined follower reach of over 6m, edging into the top 40 for highest NMF reach
  • aron! – Too Close For Running (album)
    • aron!’s indie bedroom-jazz had been tickling the socials pink, and this album ticked the boxes for a wide range of large international NMFs
  • Zulia – BIRKIN (single)
    • Zulia’s previous work with Bad Bunny and Christina Aguilera built him a sterling rep in the industry, but the solo stuff is flying out the door all on its own – it was an understandably strong showing across South America for this release but with a critical global NMF spot there too to spread his Spanish-language pop across the world
  • 2charm – making out (single)
    • Australia’s future stars had a ripper week, with 2charm also making it to the top end of NMF exposure, with this hyper-sharp – and extremely horny – pop act gaining NMF spots from Denmark to India, and a valuable place on the global NMF to boot

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:

  • Oliver Ashby – Worth It (single)
    • Oliver Ashby might still only carry Spotify followers in the double figures, but (in encouraging news for emerging independent artists) that didn’t stop two of Spotify’s larger Australian playlists doling out playlist spots this week – it’s because of that disproportionate difference between the size of the following and the scale of the playlist placements that Ashby has (for the third time!) taken the number one spot this week for best-performing emerging artist on Aussie playlists
  • BIG NOTER – SONGS IN THE KEY OF WRESTLING (album)
    • With the noisy release of the album, rapper Briggs brings this cycle to a close, but with the broad and warm welcome this project has received, we can only hope for a raucous second round
  • Margo Mann – The Worth Of It (album)
    • A truly lovely series of releases has seen Margo Mann pick up love from all sorts of places, and (as with Oliver Ashby above) some spots on playlists like Open Skies sand Tapestry, that are bigger than you’d necessarily expect an artist at this stage to be appearing on – fingers crossed the support continues, Mann makes wonderful sounds

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.

BIG NOTER also got some internation attention, 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.

  • BIG NOTER – SONGS IN THE KEY OF WRESTLING (album)
    • As well as appearing at #2 in the domestic list (above), BIG NOTER also threw themselves into All New Rock this week, adding another 1m or so sets of ears for this album
  • Larissa Lambert – Yearning (album)
    • Larissa Lambert’s having a great week – not only making it to the top end of most-added artists across the global New Music Fridays, there was also tons of support at home in Oz, including a spot on the mighty Hot Hits Australia and Breaking Hits
  • 2charm – making out (single)
    • Another Aussie act patting themselves squarely on the back this week, 2charm nailed it across the NMFs, but also picked up props from the NME and All New Pop, as well as a notably strong showing domestically
  • C.O.F.F.I.N – Out In Oslo (album)
    • C.O.F.F.I.N have been building up to the release of the album, and it landed with a suitably noisy clatter this week, gaining widespread love on home turf, but with added hefty support from global genre lists like All New Punk, All New Rock, and Fresh Finds Rock (as well – brilliantly – as a NMF spot in, obviously, Norway)
  • Yes Boone – Nosebleeds (single)
    • Yes Boone got a (rare!) week-of-release spot from triple J’s flagship playlist at home, bolstered by berths on both Front Left and New Dance Beats for added international reach
  • Coco Elise – Sadie (single)
    • Coco Elise picked up relatively few spots in number, but made up for it in quality, with both Indie Arrivals and Tapestry opening up the books for them in Oz, and with the mighty >1m-follower All New Indie giving them some global heft too
  • The Buoys – Stay Up to Date On Politics (single)
    • The latest release in the run-up to the ‘Concrete Cowboy’ album on Oct 23, The Buoys are on sharply sparling form as ever, earning them slots from a hatful of lists at home as well as from both All New Rock and Front Left globally
  • Windwaker – dna (EP)
    • Windwaker make their third monthly appearance, adding to top-end showing in both July and August, representing heavy music both at home in Oz and on global lists like All New Metal and All New Rock

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: BIG NOTER at The Chippo, Sydney