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Essential Artists

Essential Artists #21: From UTILITY to Taylor Swift

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.

Essential Australia-based artists winning at home

To see who’s getting the most backing from a cross-section of Australian tastemakers and crtitics, I track the adds on ~60-70 of the most credible new music playlists in the country and weight the data to highlight any artist with a lower following getting onto these lists at any sort of scale – this highlights newer artists getting backing from major playlisters. The top three performers (and their releases) this week were:

#1

UTILITY – Player (single)

  • Followers: 1.1k
  • # AU Playlists: 6
  • Combined AU playlist reach: 621k

#2

Tilly Fenton – Rearview (single)

  • Followers: 1.2k
  • # AU Playlists: 6
  • Combined AU playlist reach: 627k

#3

Oliver Ashby – Worth It (single)

  • Followers: 42
  • # AU Playlists: 3
  • Combined AU playlist reach: 373k

The top 20 best-performing artists this week are below. Once you’re done making notes of who to check out, we’ll take a look at how the Aussies did abroad this week.

Essential Australia-based artists winning on global playlists

Landing on home turf playlists is one thing, but breaking out into global lists as well is another thing entirely. These are the best-performing Australia-based artists who also made it onto significant international lists this week:

  • Folk Bitch Trio – Razor Love – Spotify Singles (single)
    • Followers: 69.2k
    • # AU Playlists: 5
    • # Global Playlists: 15
    • Combined AU + Global playlist reach: 9.5m
  • RinRin – fever dream (single)
    • Followers: 18,592
    • # AU Playlists: 7
    • # Global Playlists: 8
    • Combined AU + Global playlist reach: 8.8m
  • Maple’s Pet Dinosaur – Big Mouth (single)
    • Followers: 9,377
    • # AU Playlists: 8
    • # Global Playlists: 11
    • Combined AU + Global playlist reach: 7.8m
  • Radio Free Alice – Crying With You (single)
    • Followers: 50.1k
    • # AU Playlists: 7
    • # Global Playlists: 2
    • Combined AU + Global playlist reach: 6.3m
  • Coco Elise – Sadie (single)
    • Followers: 2.4k
    • # AU Playlists: 4
    • # Global Playlists: 3
    • Combined AU + Global playlist reach: 2.6m
  • Nick Ward – Jenny (single)
    • Followers: 9.8k
    • # AU Playlists: 9
    • # Global Playlists: 4
    • Combined AU + Global playlist reach: 2.5m
  • #1 Dads – Hard Questions (single)
    • Followers: 37.9k
    • # AU Playlists: 5
    • # Global Playlists: 2
    • Combined AU + Global playlist reach: 2.4m

Essential global artists – five bets for the future

If you’re looking outside Australia, I also take a look at artists achieving a larger presence on New Music Friday playlists around the world than their followings might initially suggest – these are five artists (and their releases) who are getting international backing before they’ve blown up for real.

NB: a 🇦🇺 flag indicates an Australia-based artist

  • Olga Myko – I Don’t Have Any Problems (single)
    • Followers: 56.1k
    • NMF Ranking: #16
    • # Global NMFs: 24
    • Combined Global NMF playlist reach: 8.8m
  • Rose Gray – Blink Twice (single)
    • Followers: 83.3k
    • NMF Ranking: #19
    • # Global NMFs: 14
    • Combined Global NMF playlist reach: 7.7m
  • Folk Bitch Trio – Razor Love – Spotify Singles (single) 🇦🇺
    • Followers: 69.2
    • NMF Ranking: #21
    • # Global NMFs: 13
    • Combined Global NMF playlist reach: 7.6m
  • FANTA ROSARIO – LA AMENAZA (album)
    • Followers: 68.1k
    • NMF Ranking: #24
    • # Global NMFs: 5
    • Combined Global NMF playlist reach: 7.3m
  • RinRin – fever dream (single) 🇦🇺
    • Followers: 18.6k
    • NMF Ranking: #38
    • # Global NMFs: 7
    • Combined Global NMF playlist reach: 6.4m

Essential global artists – five bets for the future

Finally, these are the artists you already know, the bold-faced names who appeared the most across all New Music Fridays globally. These are artists and their the releases that the most people will be hearing and talking about this week:

  • Taylor Swift – The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore (album)
    • Followers: 164.7m
    • NMF Ranking: #1
    • # Global NMFs: 47
    • Combined Global NMF playlist reach: 17.3m
  • Madonna – Danceteria Afterhours (single)
    • Followers: 9.8m
    • NMF Ranking: #2
    • # Global NMFs: 47
    • Combined Global NMF playlist reach: 17.2m
  • U2 – Silencio (single)
    • Followers: 14.4m
    • NMF Ranking: #3
    • # Global NMFs: 39
    • Combined Global NMF playlist reach: 15.8m
  • Tinashe – Popstar (album)
    • Followers: 3.3m
    • NMF Ranking: #4
    • # Global NMFs: 37
    • Combined Global NMF playlist reach: 13.6m
  • Shawn Mendes – Illuminate (10th Anniversary Edition) (album)
    • Followers: 47.8m
    • NMF Ranking: #5
    • # Global NMFs: 22
    • Combined Global NMF playlist reach: 13.0m

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: Oliver Ashby at The Lord Gladstone, Sydney