The Hottest Australian Artists Playing SXSW Sydney 2024

In the lead up to SXSW Sydney, it can be hard to keep track of who’s playing, and who should be on your shortlist of artists to check out. Based on some dorky data, this might help narrow it down a bit.

As you may have noticed, I spend a fair bit of time keeping an eye on Australian artists, so I’ve gone through the data I’ve collected over the last year and have pulled out some of the ones playing SXSW Sydney who stand out.

Each act here is mentioned on the basis of either raw follower growth (ie they’re getting audiences excited) or appearances on the best Australian new playlists that I track (ie they’re getting the nod of approval from tastemakers and critics).

Don’t forget, you can search through who’s playing SXSW Sydney by country, genre, and Spotify followers using the dashboard I built here. If you’re looking to find the next big Aussie music thing at SXSW Sydney though, this will help.

I’ll be updating this each time an artist announcement drops. Latest updates:

11th Aug: Darcie Haven, Maina Doe, Rowena Wise, The Buoys, total tommy, Ayesha Madon, Gregor McMurray, ixaras, SAHXL, The Grogans, smol fish, DIVEBAR YOUTH, Full Flower Moon Band, J-MILLA x Yung Milla, Joan & The Giants, Kitschen Boy, RINSE
22nd Aug: DON WEST

Hottest Australian Artists Overall

Criteria: These artists appear in multiple categories below ie are are fast-growing and well-backed by critics. Scroll down to their entries in the separate categories for the specific data points.

Darcie Haven

Why so hot? Darcie Haven is still fairly early in the journey, but the pace has accelerated in the last year, with a big leap in followers, and earning places on a really wide selection of the biggest & best new music playlists in Australia.

Maina Doe

Why so hot? Well over doubling her audience and appearing on nearly half of the playlists I track in twelve months makes it a notable year for an artist with one foot firmly on the accelerator.

Rowena Wise

Why so hot? Bubbling under with strong playlist backing and solid audience growth, Rowena Wise has been picking up momentum this year. Watchful-eye time.

The Buoys

Why so hot? Massive personal faves around here, The Buoys are to my mind one of the very best bands in Australia right now. The last twelve months has seen them release a fabulous debut album (‘Lustre’) which fuelled a rapid increase in Spotify followers, as well as remarkable playlist support. Mandatory.

total tommy

Why so hot? total tommy is, for me, up there with the very hottest emerging artists to check out at the whole of SXSW Sydney. Her first track was only uploaded at the start of the year, but since then there has been nothing but constant attention paid by critics and audiences. All the alarms on this artist are flashing bright, bright red. Another for the must-see list.

Fastest-Growing Australian Acts (5-100k Spotify Followers)

Criteria: Over 100% follower growth in the last year or more than 5k followers added

Ayesha Madon

Spotify followers: currently sitting at just over 9k, up over 5k since only March 2024, more than doubling her audience

DON WEST

Spotify followers: An absolutely blistering explosion of interest has seen this soul artist pick up over 10k followers since just *March* this year, growing his audience by more than five times its size. To be fair, ‘Small Change‘ absolutely rips.

Gregor McMurray

Spotify followers: a large and fast increase in followers since Nov 2023, growing his audience nearly ten-fold to push up to the 1ok mark.

ixaras

Spotify followers: With incredibly fast audience growth, this unnervingly talented teen from Queensland has burst out of the gates from a standing start, picking up ~7k Spotify followers at a remarkable clip.

SAHXL

Spotify followers: From 3k followers a year ago to over 15k now, this artist has increased his audience by over five times, an impressive streak.

The Buoys

Spotify followers: ~5k followers havejoined in the fun since just November last year to take their overall number to north of 15k.

The Grogans

Spotify followers: The Grogans’ steady growth over the last twelve months has been remarkably consistent, with the band now enjoying over 50k followers, an increase of 15k in a year.

Fastest-Growing Emerging Australian Artists (<5k Spotify Followers)

Criteria: Greater than 100% growth, >1k followers added