They may not have a crystal ball, but the folks at Spotify do have the next best thing: heaps and heaps of hot, fresh listener data.
By crunching the numbers to see who's trending among its 50 million + users, talking to record labels, and exercising a little old-school editorial judgment, they came up with a list of 18 new artists poised to make a splash in the coming year.
Johannes Helje
This is the second time Spotify has created a list of so-called "Spotlight" artists. Last year, the streaming service went all-in on the electro-gothic FKA Twigs, pop universalist Betty Who, Irish soul troubadour Hozier, genteel rapper G-Eazy, and edgy pop-import Tove Lo (pictured), among others.
Here's who's next up, according to Spotify.
Pell
PellYeahLLC
Børns
Interscope.
Raury
Raury
The Bohicas
Domino Records.
Mikky Ekko
RCA
Seinabo Sey
Universal
Houndmouth
Rough Trade Records
Ezra Vine
Parlophone
Kim Cesarion
Sony Music Entertainment
MisterWives
Shervin Lanez / Republic Records
James Bay
Republic Records
Ryn Weaver
Interscope Records
George Ezra
Sony Music Entertainment.
Young Fathers
Big Dada
Catfish and the Bottlemen
Communion Records
MLKMN
Machete Music.
Francesco Yates
Jimmy Fontaine / Atlantic Records
AURORA
Glassnote Records.
