Spotify’s 6th birthday stats show Aussies are fanatical about home-grown talent

To mark its sixth birthday here, Spotify Australia has released a review of the past six years.

The standout trend is that Australians are becoming more fanatical about their home-grown talent.

Flume and Sia dominated the streaming patterns on Spotify Australia since the global streaming service set up operations in this country.

The Sydney Northern Beaches beatmaker is the most-streamed Australian act, with ‘Never Be Like You’ and ‘Say It’ the Top 2 most-streamed tracks in Spotify Australia’s history.

Sia followed as the second most popular Aussie artist, with ‘Cheap Thrills’ the fifth highest Aussie song streamed.

Spotify reports: “Streams of Australian music [have] increased twentyfold since the launch of Spotify in 2012.

“In Spotify’s first year, Aussies streamed over 55 average Australian lifetimes of local tracks compared to over 1,090 lifetimes in 2017.”

Top 10 Aussie artists streamed globally from 22 May, 2012 to 1 May, 2018

1. Sia
2. AC/DC
3. Flume
4. 5 Seconds of Summer
5. Vance Joy
6. Iggy Azalea
7. Troye Sivan
8. Tame Impala
9. Hillsong United
10. Keith Urban

Top 10 streamed Aussie artists in AU from 22 May, 2012 to 1 May, 2018:

1. Flume
2. Sia
3. Hilltop Hoods
4. Vance Joy
5. Angus & Julia Stone
6. Bliss n Eso
7. RÜFÜS DU SOL
8. Peking Duk
9. Tame Impala
10. Chet Faker

Top 10 streamed Aussie albums in AU from 22 May 2012 to 1 May 2018:         

1. Vance Joy – Dream Your Life Away
2. Flume – Skin
3. Sia – This Is Acting
4. Flume – Flume
5. Hilltop Hoods – Drinking From The Sun, Walking Under Stars Restrung
6. RÜFÜS DU SOL – Bloom
7. Chet Faker – Built On Glass
8. Tame Impala – Currents
9. Starley – Call On Me
10. Hilltop Hoods – Walking Under Stars

Top 10 streamed Aussie tracks in AU from 22 May, 2012 to 1 May, 2018:

1. Flume – ‘Never Be Like You’
2. Flume – ‘Say It’
3. Starley – ‘Call On Me’, Ryan Riback Extended Remix
4. Vance Joy – ‘Riptide’
5. Sia – ‘Cheap Thrills’
6. Hilltop Hoods – ‘1955’
7. Pnau – ‘Chameleon’
8. Illy – ‘Papercuts’ (feat. Vera Blue)
9. Peking Duk – ‘Stranger’
10. Amy Shark – ‘Adore’

Top 10 streamed Aussie female artists in AU from 22 May 2012 to 1 May 2018

1. Sia
2. Tash Sultana
3. Iggy Azalea
4. The Veronicas
5. Vera Blue
6. Amy Shark
7. Meg Mac
8. Jessica Mauboy
9. Missy Higgins
10. Alison Wonderland

Australian users have also prove how linked in they are with global events.

Alicia Sbrugnera, head of shows and editorial at Spotify AUNZ, says: “Music has the power to shape culture, and Australians’ streaming habits are showing just that.

“With history being made daily, the involvement of music to shape these moments will only increase as Spotify continues to grow in Australia.”

Notable events

2012 – Aussies were left stunned at the reunion of iconic girl group Spice Girls at the London Olympics

Streams of the Spice Girls tracks were 3.5x higher (249%) than the week before the opening ceremony, with ‘Wannabe – Radio Edit’ and ‘Spice Up Your Life’ taking the top spots.

2013 – As Baauer’s Harlem Shake took the country by storm, Australians streamed the track the equivalent of scaling Mount Everest 30 times.

2014 – Newtown, Sydney was well and truly put on the map by British band Coldplay hitting the streets to shoot their music video ‘A Sky Full Of Stars’.

Modern rock is one of the Top 10 most popular genres in Australia, so it’s not surprising that Aussie streams of Coldplay increased 10.3% across the country during the making of their music video.

2015 – As the country reacted to Justin Bieber’s photos from his Bora Bora vacation, streams spiked 600% in the last three days of August 2015, a seven-time increase on average listening compared to the previous week.

Victorians had the biggest streaming increase at 776%, compared to the start of August, with the spike coinciding with his first performance of ‘What Do You Mean’ on August 28.

2016 – Australia watched as Barack Obama exited the Oval Office.

Sadness swept the nation with Aussies not ready to let go of a president that wasn’t even theirs. James Arthur’s ‘Say You Won’t Let Go’ was the #2 streamed song on election day.

2017 – #MeToo movement was born

#MeToo created a sense of unity amongst women globally, empowering them more than ever. Aussie streams of female artists in the months following increased by 4.5%.

2018 – Festival FOMO hit hard at Coachella #Beychella.

Beyoncé stunned crowds at Coachella earlier this year with her phenomenal performance, reclaiming the stage after having to pull out a year before because of her pregnancy.

Aussies streamed over nine return trips to Mars of Beyoncé turning Coachella into Beychella.