Aussie Music Festivals Drive Global "Ripple Effect" Online

Global music streaming service Spotify has revealed that Australian music festivals are among the most influential in the world when it comes to turning people onto music, with local favourites Future Music Festival and Laneway Festival said to be setting trends in streaming figures at home and abroad.

By analysing streams of headline acts two weeks either side of 14 of the world’s biggest festivals, Spotify has found “the festival and headliner with the widest reach and the biggest impact on streams”, identifying what it calls the festival ripple effect.

Future Music is said to be responsible for giving (very) Happy singer Pharrell Williams, who headlined the festival in 2014, a 90% bump in streams across the globe, and a whopping 102% rise in Australia alone.

Williams and fellow Future Music Festival 2014 headliners Deadmau5 and Phoenix saw a 70% average increase in numbers in Australia, and Spotify even reports a 56% average spike in streams for those artists as far away as the UK.

In terms of global influence, that analysis places Future Music Festival second only to — what else? — Glastonbury Festival, with the UK behemoth’s headliners Kasabian, Metallica and Arcade Fire seeing a 57% increase in the UK and a 60% bump in the US.

Laneway Festival, already known to Australian festivalgoers as an event with its finger on the pulse, also helped influence numbers for its bill-topping acts. CHVRCHES shot up 101% and Haim 65% in Australia during the month surrounding their Laneway performances.

Although this is just a small snapshot of Australian festival life and global streaming trends in general, Spotify VP of Global Communications Angela Watts says this proves “a clear link between festivals and global streaming behaviour this year”.

You can check out our Australian festival’s mighty efforts, and a nifty Spotify infograph, below.

Photos: Future Music Festival 2014 – RNA Showgrounds, Brisbane 01/03/014

Top 10 Most Globally Streamed festival Headliners

1. Pharrell Williams -Future Music Festival
2. Deadmau5 – Future Music Festival
3. James Blake
4. The Offspring – Ruisrock
5. M.I.A. – Hove Festival
6. Stevie Wonder – Roskilde
7. Phoenix – Ruisrock and Future Music Festival
8. Outkast – Coachella and Way Out West
9. Arctic Monkeys – Roskilde and Les Vieilles Charrues
10. Imagine Dragons – Hove Festival

Top 10 Festivals According to Global Impact On Streams

1. Glastonbury, UK
2. Future Music Festival, Australia
3. Way Out West, Sweden
4. Les Vieilles Charrues, France
5. Coachella, US
6. Hove Festival, Norway
7. Laneway Festival, Australia
8. Rock Am Ring, Germany
9. Roskilde, Denmark
10. Bilbao BBK Live, Spain