6MO Report for H2 2021: Breakthrough Music Artists and Tracks
In our sixth edition of 6MO, our semi-annual report on music industry trends, we take a look back at the second half of 2021 (H2 2021, July 1-Dec. 31) to try to get a sense of the future of the music business, uncovering the world’s breakthrough artists and tracks on music streaming platforms and social media.
Breakthrough Music From the Last 6 Months of 2021
Unsurprisingly, TikTok continues to break music (new and old!), generating growth for tracks and artists across digital channels. TikTok played a part in the growth of all 10 of the artists who climbed highest in Chartmetric Artist Rank and 7 out of 10 of the artists who gained the most Spotify Monthly Listeners. Overall, artists who experienced the most growth on digital channels in H2 2021 are from Asia, Latin America, and TikTok.
Stars are bright enough already. Whether it’s the meteoric rise of Toronto-based RnB artist RealestK and his TikTok-driven single “WFM”, Curtis Roach going viral yet again on TikTok with "COMMA$ (feat. Whyandotte)", or Kaleb Di Masi and Alan Gomez’s “Matatan” dominating the Spotify charts in Latin America, we turn up the brightness on the artists and tracks who had the most momentum going into 2022.