20 New Country Artists Spotlighted By Spotify

As part of its Spotify Spotlight playlist series, the hotly contested music streaming service has released the Spotlight on Country, a playlist of 20 new artists it projects will be hottest next year in the genre.

Major label and independent artists make up the list, including UMG Nashville’s Clare Dunn, Canaan Smith and Mickey Guyton; Mo Pitney (Curb); Kelsea Ballerini (Black River); Old Dominion; Sony Music’s Logan Mize and Steven Lee Olsen; Big Loud Mountain’s Chris Lane and Dallas Smith; and Caitlyn Smith (Cornman Music).

According to Spotify, the lists have been based on new global artists who had a strong showing on Spotify’s viral charts throughout the year, and who Spotify have been working with and supporting over recent months. Just over 16k have followed the 2015 playlist. Over 700k follow a separate Top 100 Country Tracks playlist, updated weekly by Spotify.

Spotify reports it is available in 58 markets with over 12.5 million paying subscribers and over 50 million users active on the ad-supported service in the past 30 days.