How Splendour Influenced Australia’s Streaming Stats

Credit: Bianca Holderness

Following a three-year, COVID-19 induced hiatus, Splendour In The Grass finally returned to North Byron Bay Parklands last month.

There was mud, sweat and tears, and sadly the event was cancelled for one of its three main days. It’s been over a week since the last of Splendour’s punters departed the festival grounds. Today we're looking at how the event has influenced streaming data across Australia, thanks to Chartmetric. 

The Cancelled Headliner

On the afternoon of Friday 22nd July, the news officially dropped that Splendour would not be hosting performances on its main stages for the day. It’s fair to say that Gorillaz fans didn’t feel good when that news broke. On July 17th, the Sunday before Splendour In The Grass, Australians accounted for 1,020,347 of the band’s monthly listeners on Spotify. On July 31st, they made up 1,110,859 of Gorillaz’s monthly listeners - an increase of approximately 8.5%. 

While Gorillaz's Byron Bay set was canceled, their sold out sideshows across Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne went ahead, and they opened a pop-up shop in Sydney over the weekend. That boost in Aussie listeners could be put down to a combination of factors, including FOMO from Splendour punters and excitement from their fellow Gorillaz fans, interstate. 

The Hottest 100 Sweethearts 

Glass Animals’ relationship with Australia has been long term, long distance and eventful. The English band were finally reunited with their Australian fans on July 23rd, when Splendour’s festivities resumed, in full force. 

As frontman Dave Bayley recalled on stage, the release of Glass Animals’ album ‘Dreamland’ was delayed due to COVID-19, but the record still achieved massive success in Australia, and their chart-topping single ‘Heat Waves’ took out the number 1 spot for triple J’s Hottest 100 2020.

From July 17th to July 31st, Glass Animals’ Australian Monthly Listeners grew by approximately 2.7%. Aussies made up 2,558,060 of their monthly listeners on July 17th and 2,628,245 on July 31st. Now, Australians make up 7.38% of the band's monthly listeners on Spotify.

Glass Animals also performed at side shows in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne, and made an appearance at Adelaide’s Spin Off Festival. During their trip down under, the UK band also received a helping hand from triple j. They performed in studio for Like A Version, covering Destiny’s Child’s ‘Say My Name’ and performing a stripped-back version of ‘Heatwaves’. At the time of writing, the full performance of Destiny’s Child’s ‘Say My Name’ has approximately 167,000 views on YouTube. Bayley also appeared on Channel 10’s The Project, and in the months leading up to Splendour, he spoke to Syndey Morning Herald, Rolling Stone Australia and GQ Australia. 

The Debut That Could Have Been

Glass Animals weren’t the only Like A Version performers plucked from the Splendour lineup. British duo Wet Leg took to the triple j studio on Friday 22nd July with their rendition of The Chats’ Smoko’ and a performance of their own track ‘Ur Mum’. While there were plenty of wet legs to be seen at Splendour, thanks to the extreme weather conditions in Byron, unfortunately Wet Leg’s Splendour debut was intended for Friday, so it didn’t go ahead. However, their side shows in Melbourne and Sydney did happen and they managed to reach plenty of Aussie ears. 

At the time of writing, Wet Leg’s ‘Smoko’ cover has approximately 190,000 views on YouTube. Their Australian monthly listeners count grew from 192,687 to 197,837 from July 17th to July 31st. That’s an increase of 2.6%. In the lead up to the festival, and following their debut album release, Wet Leg spoke with FBi Radio, Tone Deaf, ABC Radio, Rolling Stone Australia and more to connect with their Australian audience. 

Splendour In The Grass 2022 looks set to go down in history. Despite a tumultuous few days, music lovers across Australia seem to have opened their arms and ears to music from around the world, whether they got to hear it in person, over the radio, or online. 

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