Emerging Aussie acts to benefit from new Spotify global hub

Newcomer Australian acts are set to benefit from Spotify’s latest initiative – a global hub for its six-month-old emerging artists program RADAR.

RADAR’s initial aim was to increase the profile of its 115 artists from 22 territories it chose for the program through extra marketing, playlist inclusions and curating by Spotify editors.

According to RADAR, its inaugural class of 2020 went on to collectively generate 2 billion streams, 100 million listening hours, 112 million listeners and a 64% jump in fans.

It resulted in breakthroughs for merci, mercy (Australia), Alaina Castillo (US), Young T and Bugsey (UK), Lous and The Yakuza (France), Zoe Wees (Germany), and Rina Sawayama (Japan).

The new global hub will focus more on the acts, with a mixture of playlists, new releases and exclusive content featuring RADAR artists.

It has also introduced new playlists for France, Canada, US country and US Latin.

Spotify said its move complements the trend by music fans around the world who no longer just listen to acts singing in their home languages – the international rise of K-Pop being one such example.

Ned Monahan, Spotify’s head of global hits, said: “The launch of the Global Radar Hub is the perfect illustration of how our editorial teams collaborate to build up-and-coming artists from all over the world.

“We hope this will be an easy new way for fans to discover artists from outside of their home countries and for artists to begin to develop a global fanbase.”

Spotify users will be alerted to the RADAR hub through banner ads on the Spotify homepage, pop-up notifications and out-of-home advertising.

Australia and New Zealand are listed in the same category for this and future years.

19-year old Sydney-based electro pop singer songwriter merci, mercy who is signed to Liberation Records, has 175,279 Spotify monthly listeners.

She was picked for RADAR on the strength of her track ‘Fucked Myself Up’ and said at the time: “It leaves me in a constant state of empowerment, humbleness, and excitement.

“It confirms for me that my dreams are indeed coming true. I feel validated in the most wondrous of ways.”

Two shows in NSW to launch her debut EP no thank you, no thanks in mid-October sold out immediately with a third added.

The New Zealand choice is rapper, producer, multi-instrumentalist and audio engineer Chaii.

Born in Iran, she moved to New Zealand as a 11-year old and learned to speak English by rapping along to Eminem.