Music Tastes of a Nation: MySpace reveals Top 20
Minuit
Music Tastes of a Nation
MySpace reveals the Top 20 most popular artists across the North and South Islands to reveal which artists Kiwis are really listening to…
[EMBARGO: Sunday 6th September 2009] MySpace today unveiled New Zealand’s Top 20 most popular artists across the North and South Islands. Clocking up over 100,000 visits between them, the MySpace Top 20 lists reveal for the first time the most popular artist profiles in each isle over the last three months, to provide an organic barometer of the artists currently being sought out by Kiwis.
Unsigned and local artists were the toast of New Zealand listening last quarter; with 19 of the South Island’s MySpace Top 20 Kiwi acts, and 17 of the North Island’s list Kiwi artists. With only three international acts - Taylor Swift, Michael Jackson and The Darlings - appearing across both Islands’ lists, the MySpace Top 20s reveal a nation with distinctly patriotic music tastes and an alternative take on contemporary listening trends:
Sick Section
South Island MySpace Top 20
5 Minuit
8 Six60
10 Sick Section
11 Haylar
12 Tightlipped
13 Our Fallen
14 The Checks
15 Tim Finn
16 The Bats
17 Gin Wigmore
20 Chris Matthews & Robot Monkey Orchestra
Sick Section
North
Island MySpace Top 20
1 Sick Section
2 Minuit
11 MedicTune
13 The Checks
14 Svartalvheim
15 Frayden
Despite the
dominance of independent and local acts in The MySpace
Top 20 this quarter, local and international superstars
including; Lady Gaga, Flight of the Chonchords, The
Veronicas, Miley Cyrus, Paramore and Savage, peppered the
Top 50 list of the same period.
“It’s great to see
such a massive chunk of the MySpace Top 20 lists taken up by
local artists,” said the NZ Music Commission’s Steve
Newall “and even more impressive that they span such a
wide range of genres and levels of exposure. There really is
a staggering amount of great music of different kinds
finding its way into New Zealanders’ ears”.
As
Susan Carlton, Head of Business Development MySpace New
Zealand explains; “A compilation of the artists that
around half a million Kiwi fans are seeking out each month,
these MySpace Top 20 lists from the last
quarter provide a genuine indication of which artists
are most popular now. As more Kiwi’s move online to
discover and share music, it’s becoming increasingly
apparent that measuring an artist’s popularity by album
sales alone is defunct.”
Over the quarter, Kiwi MySpace users listened to over 35,000 hours worth of music on MySpace, a staggering playlist when you consider this would take more than 4 years to listen to. With over five million artists connecting with around 30 million fans on MySpace Music globally, music has been a primary bloodline of MySpace since its inception, offering established and emerging artists a free platform to showcase and promote their work.
This popularity is only set to grow following the launch of MySpace Music in New Zealand. Set to launch later this year, the newly created joint venture with the major, indie and unsigned artist communities, MySpace Music will revolutionise how Kiwis discover, buy and share their music online.
ends