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Little Room for Australian Artists in Spotify’s End-of-Year Charts

Foreign artists have once again dominated Australians’ musical choices, with Taylor Swift the most streamed artist in this country for the third year in a row and Bad Bunny the most streamed globally for the fourth time.

The top five artists in Australia, according to Spotify’s annual Wrapped report, were Taylor Swift, Drake, Morgan Wallen, The Weeknd and Billie Eilish.

The most-streamed track between January 1 and the mid-November cut-off for tallying was Ordinary, from American Alex Warren, who emerged on TikTok as a member of the Hype House collective in 2019. The song was also an ARIA chart-topper, and hit the No.1 spot in 30 countries, and sat atop the Billboard Hot 100 for 10 consecutive weeks.

The top 10 list of “most discovered artists” – artists being streamed by Spotify users for the first time in 2025 – was dominated by acts from the US (sombr, Alex Warren, Ravyn Lenae, Doechii), Britain (Chrystal, Lola Young, Olivia Dean), and Korea, with the animated musical K-Pop Demon Hunters providing two entrants in HUNTR/X and Saja Boys.

ROSÉ, who was born in New Zealand and migrated to Australia as a seven-year-old before moving to Korea, where her parents are from, at 15 to join K-Pop outfit Blackpink, was the only artist with an Australian connection on the top 10 most discovered list.

The results add weight to the findings of a research paper released by the Australia Institute last week, Reversing the Decline in Australian Music, in which it was asserted that “streaming platforms have turned discovery into a global contest in which Australian artists singing in English are competing with the vast American catalogue”.

The paper’s authors claimed “the presence of Australian artists has been declining, both in terms of the total number of artists, and the number of streams” and that “Australia is now the global poster child for what ‘market failure’ looks like in recorded music”.

While the five most-streamed songs in Australia this year were released in 2024 or 2025, only one of the five most-streamed Australian songs – Sonny Fodera’s Somedays – fell within that timeframe. Kid Laroi’s Nights Like This was released in 2023, Vance Joy’s Riptide (the most-streamed Australian song of the year) came out in 2013, The Temper Trap’s Sweet Disposition was released in 2008 and Crowded House’s Don’t Dream It’s Over – the second most-streamed Australian track of the year – dates to 1986.

The issue, says Ben Watts, Spotify’s head of music for Australia and New Zealand, is how crowded the playing field is on streaming platforms.

“Yes, Australian artists are competing with international artists, but they’re also competing with the history of music, because the audience essentially has the choice of most music that was ever released,” says Watts.

How to make Australian music more visible while still serving subscribers what they want to hear is, he adds, something “we’re constantly talking, as an industry, about. We all want Australian music to continue to grow, both locally and internationally, but how that happens, there’s a lot of discussion about. And it will continue, because we’re all looking for the same thing, which is to grow Australian music.”

If discovery of new Australian music remains a problem, streaming platforms such as Spotify have been a boon for heritage acts. INXS sat at No.5 on the local album chart with the 1987 album Kick, while AC/DC were at No.4 with Back In Black, which came out in 1980 and is the second-highest selling album of all time.

AC/DC’s Power Up world tour, which hit Australia last month, saw a surge of interest in the band’s back catalogue, with five tracks hitting the top 10 throwback songs chart (for music released before 2000): Thunderstruck (#1), Highway to Hell (#2), Back in Black (#3), You Shook Me All Night Long (#5) and T.N.T. (#8).

The Wiggles were the most-streamed Australian act of 2025, followed by The Kid LAROi and AC/DC. Tame Impala made the top 10 for the first time, as did Royel Otis, Dom Dolla and Spacey Jane, while CYRIL was the most-discovered local artist of the year.

The podcast charts were similarly dominated by foreign content, with The Joe Rogan Experience at No.1. The most streamed Australian podcast was Casefile True Crime, with Hamish & Andy at No.2.

Top Artists (as streamed on Spotify in Australia)

1. Taylor Swift
2. Drake
3. Morgan Wallen
4. The Weeknd
5. Billie Eilish

Top Australian Artists

1. The Wiggles
2. The Kid LAROI
3. AC/DC
4. Hilltop Hoods
5. Tame Impala (Top Local Artist List debut)
6. RÜFÜS DU SOL
7. Royel Otis (Top Local Artist List debut)
8. Sia (Top Local Artist List debut)
9. Dom Dolla (Top Local Artist List debut)
10. Spacey Jane (Top Local Artist List debut)

Top Songs

1. Ordinary by Alex Warren
2. That’s So True by Gracie Abrams
3. BIRDS OF A FEATHER by Billie Eilish
4. back to friends by sombr
5. APT. by ROSÉ & Bruno Mars

Top Australian Songs

1. Riptide by Vance Joy
2. Don’t Dream It’s Over by Crowded House
3. Somedays by Sonny Fodera
4. NIGHTS LIKE THIS by The Kid LAROI
5. Sweet Disposition by The Temper Trap

First published by Sydney Morning Herald. Read original here