Most Playlisted This Year
Over 2024, the playlists I track – a selection of about 40 of the most credible new music playlists in Australia – added over 13,000 different tracks by nearly 8,000 artists. Across the year through, these are the artists who made it onto the most of those playlists, the ones who got the most widespread backing.
For anyone knew to this, I track over 40 credible new music playlists who all update regularly and who all focus on newly-released music by mostly Australian artists. No, it doesn’t track *everything* – that would be bonkers, and probably not that useful. What it does give me though is a bloody great database of what Aussie playlisters and tastemakers are backing at any given point – playlist spots are finite, and playlisters don’t always agree on stuff, so if an artist is appearing on multiple lists then (for me), that’s a signal of strong backing from people who should know a bit about it.
This year end roundup looks back over the whole of 2024, and takes a look at who topped the list overall. Yes, there are limitations to this! The score I mainly go on is the range of playlists that an artist appeared on – this is called the ‘P3 score’ below, and means Percentage of Possible Playlists. Our winner this year appeared on over half of the lists I track, and – again just for me – that’s saying something really positive about the breadth of backing for that artist, and a signal you wouldn’t necessarily see from monthlies alone.
Speaking of the winners though – here’s the podium for 2024:
🥇annie hamilton
🥈Asha Jeffries, Elsy Wameyo, total tommy
🥉Amyl and The Sniffers, King Stingray, Phoebe Go, dust
Above is just a screenshot of the top end – you can see the full, scrollable list here
🍟 Takeouts:
- Even though I added 14 more playlists to the tracking pool, the output of tracks and artists didn’t change dramatically despite adding more sources – this gives me some confidence that the base data is pretty representative.
- The number of more emerging artists on the podium is notable – Amyl and The Sniffers and King Stingray are the only two artists out of eight in the top three with more than 10k followers
- annie hamilton‘s support this year for her “stop and smell the lightning” album was spectacular, with multiple adds for her releases appearing on top-tier lists, including Home & Hosed, Double J, and four appearances on New Music Friday AU & NZ. There is *enormous* goodwill out there for this excellent artist.
- Asha Jefferies is this year’s silent assassin. This year saw a handful of tracks as well as the “Ego Ride” album (including a deluxe version later in the year), all of which did well on their own. They were all growers though – the more playlisters heard them, the more they liked them. Despite not topping the podium in any given week (nor really appearing as most playlisted on a monthly or quarterly level), come the end of the year, Asha Jefferies ended up one of the most listed artists of the year. Outlasting the moment of release is a pretty strong signal of quality.
- King Stingray (who topped the list in 2022) and Amyl and The Sniffers absolutely stormed the lists this year with two absolutely cracking albums. It’s not a surprise to see either of them at the top end, but it’s satisfying to see artists retain support as they grow too.
- Phoebe Go, Elsy Wameyo, and dust all did phenomenally well too, especially for artists still building their careers. None of them were a flash in the pan, with all three receiving consistent and broad support across both major and independent playlists. That’s a strong statement of support for all three of these artists as they go into 2025.
- total tommy though has to be the main story this year. With the very first upload from the project coming in February of this year, from the off this project attracted – for a brand new act – frenzied support. Appearing in the top three of the most playlisted for six different weeks, with four of those being in the #1 slot, the range and depth of backing from new music playlisters in Australia has been astonishing. If you didn’t catch the excitement artist in 2024, it’s a safe bet there’ll be bags more in the year to come.
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📸 Photo: Annie Hamilton at Shark Bar, May 2024
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