Austen delivers a haunting electronic pop sound in her latest track Anthem. Think a darker Ellie Goulding. She was named in triple j unearthed’s Top 40 Most Played Artists last year and ‘Artist to Watch‘ by Pilerats. The Australian artist debuted with the single ‘Faded’ which clocked over 500,000 Spotify streams and has shared the stage with The Kite String Tangle, Nicole Millar, KLP, and Running Touch. Check out her performance at Curious Music Festival in Brisbane on 3/30.

Alice Pisano dropped a new emotional piano ballad Lost You In The Crowd. Alice says, “It’s about being in love with a person that runs hot and cold. You don’t know where they stand, if they’re into you or not. Some days they are warm and sweet, other days they are cold and distant, almost like a stranger in the crowd”. Born in Italy, Alice moved to London to pursue music. Before you listen to the new release I would start with her debut single Celebrate Life which quickly clocked a million views on Spotify streams after landing on playlists ‘Soft Pop Hit’ and ‘Mellow Morning’. Not bad for a new artist.

Yacht Punk, a 4 piece alternative rock act releases the uptempo New Wave Denier. Think The Strokes meets Arctic Monkeys. The band worked with producer Matt Wignall’s (Cold War Kids) and Will Brierre (The Killers). The band’s previous single “Need a Reason” was featured on Spotify’s New Noise and Fresh Finds playlists. When asked in a recent interview, “Why should people listen to Yacht Punk?” – the lead singer notes, “If said people are loving popular music right now, they probably shouldn’t.” Give it a listen.

From UK synth pop to red state alternative rock, we reached out to the 10 artists who are on our playlists, climbing the charts, and shattering instagram. This month: Brooklyn’s electro duo Fly By Midnight, UK indie pop Caezar, LA pop act VOILÀ, North Carolina’s rock act Lowborn, Nate Head, Cleveland’s Recess, South Africa’s Leandro, Canada’s Krowns, indie sensation Fil Bo Riva, and New Mexico’s local radio darling Maiya.

Fly By Midnight are making with waves with the new track You Belong. Formed by former MTV’s Dream Bigger reality star and multi-instrumentalist, Justin Bryte, and producer- songwriter Slavo, the duo has been dropping singles garnering music label interest. Releasing their music via AWAL, the duo just dropped their debut album with the latest single You Belong landing on Spotify’s New Music Friday, Apple Music’s Breaking Pop & A-List Pop, and Soundcloud’s Fresh Pressed. CONTINUE READING

Although Emo Rap has been around for a long time, analysts say the genre had an explosive year. Emo Rap is a subgenre of hip hop that blends lyrical themes of emo music. Emo rap is also called SoundCloud Rap. Who are these SoundCloud rappers? Well they would be Lil Pump, Lil Peep, Lil Xan, Future, Juice WRLD, and Migos. 

In fact, it was Jarad “Juice WRLD” Higgins that was Spotify’s “breakout artist of the year”. But can a Spotify breakout artist compete in the mainstream? 

Popular charting rappers like J. Cole, Russ, and Eminem have become dissenters while criticizing the scene as mumble rap.  

“Emo rap grew 292 percent in 2018 over last year,” wrote Spotify’s trends expert Shanon Cook in an email. “According to our data, emo rap’s share of listening started increasing in the fall of 2017, but really took off in 2018.”

Erika Montes who works at Soundcloud, said that early artists created the genre using influences from Atlanta’s Trap scene, emo, punk and beats reminiscent of the 90s.

Critics of the genre claims it glorifies drug use. Drugs like opioids, heroin, and fentanyl have been linked to the scene. But then again, those same drugs were linked to the 90’s grunge scene that killed off many rockers. 

The emo rap scene appeals to a community who are searching for something real. Will it dominate mainstream? Probably not. SoundCloud rappers are to rebellious for the mainstream. How long will it last? Nobody knows. The emo rock scene that birthed artists like My Chemical Romance and Fallout Boy lasted for 8 years. Many of the emo bands were embraced by top 40 radio. The SoundCloud rappers are probably to edgy to enjoy the same worldwide appeal, but they are big enough to be trolled by Eminem.