Last week, file sharers around the world saw fit to crown Kendrick Lamar the most popular music artist for the second month in a row. How do local preferences for music differ from worldwide rankings, especially in culturally diverse India? Well, as for Kendrick Lamar, P2P users in India felt he was better suited to the eighth slot in the music artist charts.
WHERE DO INDIAN PREFERENCES OVERLAP WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD?
Sitting pretty on their unthreatened throne, we find long-time chart-topper Major Lazer, who seems to hold a special place in the hearts of Indian file sharers as well as among their global counterparts. In 2016, for example, Major Lazer ranked first among the world’s most popular music artists. Thanks to the activity of 2,062,756 Indian Major Lazer addicts, who comprise 15.4% of the worldwide fan base, the electronic music band was the clear No. 1 in India for that year as well. BrvndonP made runner-up with almost the half number of file sharers. On the monthly chart in May 2017, Major Lazer snagged the top spot as well by attracting 78,613 P2P users in India. That being said, some other popular artists have been checking into India’s top 10 that we never saw in 2016, like Linkin Park (rank 2) or Ed Sheeran (rank 3). Still, none of them came close to the number of file sharers Major Lazer was moving.
BrvndonP, Coldplay, Justin Bieber and The Chainsmokers took some respectable places among the top 10 in 2016 and in May, indicating some long-term popularity among Indian P2P users.
DESPITE GLARING DIFFERENCES, SOME THINGS STAY THE SAME BETWEEN THE WORLD AND INDIA
Looking at the worldwide top music artists for 2016, you notice a large share of file sharers are based in India. So it’s not surprising that some artists show up in both charts, such as BrvndonP, Drake, Justin Bieber and Coldplay. As expected, Indian artists like Santhosh Narayanan and D. Imman show their faces among regional top ranks. Some other names missing from worldwide charts that snuck on to Indian ones? U.S. music artists such as Sia, The Chainsmokers and Saudade were among Indian file sharers’ favorites, strengthening the share of American players on Indian music artist charts.
INDIA SHAKES UP THE TOP MUSIC ARTISTS RANKING FOR MAY 2017
When held up to the yearly comparison, the monthly charts reveal more differences between the Indian and the world's top music artist list. The most readily apparent inconsistency is the absence of trending worldwide top 10 members in the Indian chart for May 2017. The artists Drake, Metallica, Pink Floyd, Gorillaz, The Weeknd and Armin van Buuren, who all held top 10 worldwide spots, were pushed further down the list in India. Only Ed Sheeran, Kendrick Lamar and Linkin Park managed to storm the top 10 charts in India as well, the latter likely due to their first pop album release “One More Light” on May 19, 2017. Another interesting divergence: American synthpop band Future Islands has joined the dominating crowd of U.S. music artists hanging out in May’s top 10 for India.
WHERE ARE MAY’S POPULAR INDIAN MUSIC ARTISTS?
The top list for May might at first glance seem to be a mistake: After all, for a list charting Indian file sharers, where are all the Indian music artists? But your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you, no Indian music artists made it into the top 10 for their home country’s ranking! For them, you’ll have to travel a bit further down the list, where the popular Indian music artist and film soundtrack composer A. R. Rahman is camped out at spot 16 with 10,250 P2P users and 2016’s top 10 member Santhosh Narayanan only made it as far as 41 with 6,490 fans sharing his music. The Indian singer and owner of 2016’s 10th place, D. Imman, however, dropped down to spot 72.
If you want to find out who were world's most sought-after singers, click here for the top music artists in 2017!
Source: TECXIPIO
Definition: The rankings are based on the number of unique file sharers: How many peers shared at least one file of the respective music artist in May 2017, respectively 2016?