Hiatus Kaiyote, Tkay Maidza, George Maple make Spotify’s Artists To Watch list

Spotify Australia’s annual Top Artists To Watch list has arrived with emerging exports like Hiatus Kaiyote, Tkay Maidza and Troye Sivan tipped to break next year.

The list was compiled by the streaming service’s in-house music experts who used streaming figures,monitored local acts throughout the year and collated data from the Spotify Viral Charts.

"We use our data to analyse and determineviralitythroughout the year, which helps us selectthe artists to be included," Spotify Label & Artist Relations Executive, Marcus Thainetold TMN."Narrowing the list from an editorial point of view comes down to whether we think they will resonate in the next year –generally we look for forward-thinking and progressive music, which has the ability to crossover and engage a wide audience – no easy feat! The global spotlight is on Australian music thanks to big 2014 for Aussie artists, and we look forward to seeing many local acts breakthrough on the local and international stage in 2015."

2014 marks the first year Spotify Australia has curated a local-specific list, however last year New Zealand brother-sister duo Broods made the global artist list. Broodshave gone on to see their debut LP Evergreen chart at #5 on the ARIA chart, #1 in NZ, #45 in the US, and supported six-time Grammy nominee Sam Smith on his American jaunt. Today they announced a 22-date North American headline tour in support of the album.

In September Spotify’s Director of Economics Will Page told TMN he listened to Hiatus Kaiyote on his trip to Australia from the UK and acts like Erykah Badu, Dirty Projectors, Prince, Questlove and Tune-Yards have all sung the Melbourne quartet’s praises. Locally, the band is topping community radio charts and just starting the ride of their December 2-released EP, By Fire. Internationally they have a Grammy nominee under their belt – for Best R&B Performance for their song Nakamarra ft. Q-tip – and are locked in for a handful of showcases at next year’s SXSW festival in Texas.

Future Classic signing George Maple released debut EP Vacant Space last week. Its first single Talk, Talk has clocked over 2.1 million listens on SoundCloud since release.

D.D Dumbo aka Oliver Hugh Perry signed to English label 4AD (home to The National, Bon Iver, Pixies and Grimes) in June, for the world excluding Australia and NZ. He toured with 4AD label mates Tune-Yards through June and in October performed at Pitchfork Music Festival in Paris. Reviews of his performance spread across the interwebs with bloggers praising his awkward stage presence and instrument oddities.

One rather embryonic inclusion is Masonair, the Sydney three-piece released their first track Hold Me Down in January through Chvrches' label Goodbye Records; the clip had been viewed over seven million times on YouTube.

See the full list for Spotify Australia 2015:

· Troye Sivan
· Tkay Maidza
· Movement
· Banoffee
· Klo
· Chela
· Hiatus Kaiyote
· D.D. Dumbo
· Oscar Key Sung
· Mansionair
· George Maple

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