Spotify Is Growing The Australian Music Industry While We All Become Beliebers

Spotify turns four in Australia this week, and along with the news the streaming service is actually helping to grow the Australian music industry, as a birthday present to all of us we now know exactly what we’ve been listening to all these years.

And it’s not just broad nationwide numbers either — there are breakdowns of genre, artist and playlists right down to the suburb you live in.

Hint: Y’all love Justin Beiber.

Since May 2012, we’ve streamed 1,626 lifetimes worth of music. That’s the equivalent time it would take for a person to circumnavigate Australia on foot, 400,000 times. Every day alone, 1.8 lifetimes worth of music is streamed across the country.

Putting this into context: last month, the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) announced local music revenue growth was up 5 per cent in 2015 — the first upwards trend the industry has experienced since 2012 — much of which has been attributed to the uptake of streaming.

“Spotify Australia’s fourth birthday feels particularly special this year, with recent news from ARIA confirming local music revenue growth is up for the first time in three years,”
said Kate Vale, Managing Director of Spotify Australia and New Zealand.

“It’s a huge win for the industry and local artists alike. As we enter our fifth year in Australia, we’re more committed than ever to seeing the Australian music industry grow.”

As for our most streamed artists — it turns out we are a nation of Beliebers. While Ed Sheeran ruled our airwaves in 2015, the release of Justin Bieber’s Purpose has seen him take the crown as Australia’s Most Streamed Artist.

Incredibly, four of Bieber’s tracks appear in Australia’s Top Ten Streamed Tracks including What Do You Mean, Sorry, Love Yourself and Where Are Ü Now.

As for local artists, Sia, Hilltop Hoods and Flume dominate. Sia topped the list as Australia’s Most Streamed Aussie Artist, closely followed by hip hop duo Hilltop Hoods who charged up the list thanks to the release of their 2016 album, Drinking From The Sun, Walking Under Stars Restrung.

Flume took out third place, but remains unchallenged with his self-titled 2012 album retaining the crown as Australia’s Most Streamed Aussie Album.

Newcomer Troye Sivan debuted this year at eleventh in the list of Australia’s Most Streamed Aussie Artists, just pipping Iggy Azalea to the post. Local rockers The Rubens also made the cut, coming in at sixteenth.

Topping the list as Australia’s Most Streamed “Legacy” Artist (artists who rose to fame in the 60s, 70s or 80s) is Fleetwood Mac in a landslide victory (Get it? Landslide? I’ll see myself out). They were followed by David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, Bob Marley & The Wailers and INXS.

This year, Spotify also revealed which regions have the most eclectic music taste (based on number of genres streamed within a particular area).

It’s official: Melbourne has the most eclectic music taste of all. Melbournites listened to a total of 751 different genres, just beating Sydney (714 genres), Brisbane (692 genres), Perth (653 genres) and Adelaide (499 genres).

Ashfield in Sydney’s Inner West and Glen Iris in south-east Melbourne are Australia’s most eclectic suburbs, listening to a total of 354 genres and 325 genres respectively.

Of the “Proudest” Aussie regions — those with the highest streams of gay pride-inspired playlists — Brisbane had the highest streams of pride playlists, followed by Sydney and Perth. Melbourne came in fourth.

North Melbourne, Richmond and Mulgrave are Melbourne’s proudest suburbs (by music taste), while Ryde, Bexley and Eastwood lead the charge in Sydney. Rocklea, Sunnybank and Newstead topped Brisbane’s list, while Elizabeth and Northgate were top in Adelaide. Scarborough, Leeming and Rockingham streamed the most pride playlists in Perth.

Topping the list of proudest regional cities was the Gold Coast, followed by Cairns, Tweed Heads and Geelong, while Penguin in TAS, Peachester in QLD and Carters Ridge in QLD were Australia’s proudest regional towns.

Lady Gaga’s Born This Way came out tops as our most popular pride anthem. It was the most commonly found track across the pride-themed playlists analysed.

Spotify has also surfaced the artists that are most unique to particular areas of the country in relative terms (i.e. are disproportionately common to that area only).

New South Wales and Victoria are most likely to throw their support behind the local music scene, with Aussie up-and-comers Banoffee, Masketta Fall and George Maple all topping the Most Distinctive Artists list.

Pop-punk rockers The Story So Far and Neck Deep were streamed at an unusually high rate in South Australia, while country starts Kenny Chesney and Slim Dusty proved to be disproportionately popular in Queensland.

Aussie rockers AC/DC are most loved by Western Australia whereas Victoria stream the most The Beatles and Shannon Noll over any other state per capita.

Here are the final lists of what we are listening to as a nation. Man, I feel old right now.

Australia’s Top Streamed Artists Of All Time

Australia’s Top Streamed Aussie Artists Of All Time

Australia’s Top Streamed Tracks Of All Time

Australia’s Top Streamed Aussie Tracks Of All Time

Do these lists look familiar to you? My playlists consist almost entirely of 90s Grunge and I feel super out of the loop right now. Tell me what you listen to in the comments!


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