TMN Data Dive: Marshmello’s rise from obscurity to supremacy

Who is Marshmello? While you may have noticed his emblematic oversized mask splashedover in-vogue festival posters and popular streaming playlists, our collective radars have all been turbulently triggered by this mysterious character’s baptism into the realms of commercial radio.

It all started back in mid-August with breakout hit ‘Silence’. In collaboration with 19-year-old industry sensation Khalid, thesingle debuted with over a million Spotify streams globally on its first day. Arguably a hit from the onset, ‘Silence’ still had plenty of room to grow. Fast forward to now, the track is peaking at #6 on Spotify’s Australia chart, while also being the ninth most streamed song in the world.

A handful of stations made initial jumps on the track as 2Day FM, Hit105 and Hit107 set the commercial domino effect into full swing. Not long after, the Nova network raised their hand in support followed by both Sydney and Melbourne KIIS stations.

By the end of October, ‘Silence’ was being copiously spun across Australia and was nearing the 200 million stream mark, whilst also cracking the Top 20 on the ARIA Singles Chart. The release of Marshmello’s follow up single ‘Wolves’ – a collab with charts heavyweightSelena Gomez– served to propel ‘Silence’into the stratosphere and sealed the deal for this covert character.

Shazams for both tracks spiked in late October through to the early stages of November. One notable spike coincided with the release of the official music video on October 21.A few days later,we see Shazam engagement for ‘Silence’take off as ‘Wolves’ preeminently rose to the surface.

Exactly a week after ‘Wolves’’ first recorded Shazam in Australia on October 26, ‘Silence’ more than doubled its amount of daily Shazams from 1057 to 2162, reaching its peak two days later at 2286 daily Shazams. It wasn’t a one-way street either. The ‘you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’ principlewas playing out for Marshmello as ‘Wolves’’ run into commercial radio was cushioned and ultimately accelerated by its predecessor ‘Silence’.

Almost every commercial station instantly added ‘Wolves’ to its playlist on full rotation seeing Marshmello claim his first ever #1 Most Added To Radio crown that same week. The latest TMN Hot 100 sees ‘Wolves’ and ‘Silence’ placing at #10 and #21, respectively. Together they jumped 59 frames up the chart, an unprecedented stat for two tracks already nestled in the Top 50 the week before.

Combined spins for both tracks rose by over 200% from 409 to 827 in the space of onlyone week as Nova 100, Nova 919 and Nova 969, in particular, threw their collective weight behind ’Wolves’. Meanwhile, ’Silence’ was cruising comfortably under the radar accumulating spins across the majority of commercial stations as its big brother was growing at an exponential rate.

Marshmello has managed to make a huge impression on the industry in a relatively small amount of time, and he’s here to stay. ‘Silence’ and ‘Wolves’ have been given plenty of room to dominate over the summer period, and this definitely bodes well for Marshmello’s next single on his release cycle.The question now stands – who will feature alongside Marshmello on his next big hit?