Music is more global than ever, with the rise of streaming uniting listeners across borders and around the world. For new artists, just reaching audiences close to home can be a daunting challenge. Yet many of today's most successful new artists seem to organically acquire audiences from countries far and wide, gaining mainstream status faster as a result.
It’s been a few years now since the debut of Chartmetric’s Trigger Cities series in 2019. If you’re new here, don’t fret! There are about a million and one things that have changed since then — a worldwide pandemic, economic turmoil, and political strife just to name a few. But these events, and a general reversal in globalization in many industries, have barely impacted the role of trigger cities in helping new artists to become established.
Imagine tossing a rock into a pond and watching the ripples expand outward. Think of the epicenter as representing an influential music market, usually tied to a specific city. When audiences engage with an artist through social functionality — such as sharing a track with friends or posting it to Instagram — those ripples spread, bringing in new fans. In turn, these organic interactions increase the likelihood that algorithms will promote artists and grow the audience even further. When this engagement happens across multiple countries, it ensures the artist is not limited to just one region.
Trigger cities share many common characteristics including diverse music tastes (going beyond just the domestic repertoire), a high rate of music streaming adoption, and large, dense populations. That being said, these cities behave differently depending on their region. Trigger cities in Latin America and Asia typically have younger median ages and bigger populations relative to those in the U.S. and Europe. Most of the former also have less developed local music industries, although these have grown more rapidly in recent years.
There are also critical cultural differences. For example, listeners in Latin American and Asian trigger cities tend to share music more freely and frequently on social media with friends compared to their counterparts in the U.S. and Europe. In turn, users are more likely to re-share content from their friends, not necessarily because they also enjoy that music, but because they like their friends.
Emerging artists often build audiences in many trigger cities, but it’s primarily listeners in Latin America and Asia who propel their careers forward. In our interconnected world, the sharing and re-sharing of content can quickly spread the discovery of an artist to new places. Fans in these regions often serve as a springboard for international expansion, catching the attention of A&R executives. Though breaking into these markets is challenging, the influence of fans outside Western markets is frequently underestimated.
Chartmetric’s 30 identified trigger cities are sized by their city population and colored by their tiers, where Tier 1 represents more influential trigger cities. Click on a city to read more about what makes it important in the global music scene, or switch to the table view to see all the cities at once.
Historically, the music industry has focussed on developing audiences in high-revenue North American and European markets plus Japan, South Korea, and Australia. However, data indicates that the consumption of music and social behavior is often more dynamic in high-population centers elsewhere with a younger populace. Non-Western metropolitan hubs are consistently on the lists of the top cities of breakout artists on Chartmetric. The trigger cities concept was developed to gain a better understanding of oft-overlooked music ecosystems through the power of data.
To identify these trigger cities, we examined new artists whose careers have skyrocketed to global superstar status. Our team developed a list of artists who met certain criteria as of July 1, 2024: their first release was sometime within the past four years, they ranked within the top 5,000 artists on Chartmetric, and their YouTube audience was not dominated by a specific country (ensuring that these artists were not just regional breakouts, but true global stars). We pulled each artist’s top 50 cities on Spotify by monthly listeners, and compiled the 30 that appeared most frequently to create our final list of trigger cities. These cities were then divided into four tiers, with the most commonly appearing (therefore most influential cities) appearing in tier one, and the next most common in tier two, and so on.
.webp)
Latin America plays a massive role in the music industry, home to more trigger cities than any other region examined. Historically, consumption in these regions has been dominated by local music, with American and European artists also being well-represented, particularly for rock and alternative acts. Local stars have rarely enjoyed international success, except during the late 1990s and early 2000s. This was until the rise of Reggaeton and Latin trap, which has become a global phenomenon and is influencing music production nearly everywhere.
Trigger cities here have very large populations and exhibit high levels of music streaming and social media usage, creating fertile ground for the spread of new music. Consumers share content widely, and the use of the Spanish language across the majority of the region further contributes to the rapid growth of artists who are able to organically acquire audiences in the region, irrespective of their home market or native language.
Ayra Starr is one artist who has successfully capitalized on this trend, contributing to the growing popularity of Afrobeats in Latin America. Her recent collaboration with reggaeton artist Rauw Alejandro, 'Santa,' has garnered over 310 million streams on Spotify and 82 million views on YouTube, reaching No. 36 on the global YouTube charts just a month after its release. Collaborations like this and efforts to connect with Latin markets have triggered Starr’s career, as a significant portion of her audience is now based in cities such as Santiago, Lima, and Bogotá.
Asia is the second biggest hub of trigger cities. However, the influence of India appears to be declining, despite the rapid growth in streaming in the country — likely as a result of the increase in protectionism in the Indian marketplace during the past half decade. This is seen in the restrictions placed on international media companies operating in India that have led to local music in India growing at a far faster pace. As such, Asian trigger cities are heavily concentrated in Southeast Asia in countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines, as well as in East Asia. Notably, the median age of people in Southeast Asian trigger cities is far younger than European and North American trigger cities.
Similar to Latin markets, consumers appear to readily share content shared by their friends, rather than simply sharing what they personally like. Additionally, pop music has surged in recent years, coupled with a significant decline in non-local hip-hop.
Phonk music, a subgenre of electronic music, has also seen significant success in Asia. Several artists, such as S3BZS, INTERWORLD, and Dxrk ダーク, have emerged as notable figures in our study, with many finding the majority of their audience in Asian trigger cities. For instance, nearly 42% of S3BZS’s audience is based in Asia, despite his home city being in Argentina. A similar pattern can be observed with INTERWORLD, whose top two countries by Spotify listenership are India and Indonesia, respectively.
Northern European trigger cities have large populations, although lower than many of those in Latin America and Asia, coupled with high levels of streaming adoption. They’re also home to some of the world’s most influential record labels and music companies. While many European countries are considered to be strong music markets, the less social nature of online behavior in the region and more traditional approaches to media promotion result in more insularity. Listeners in these countries are a little less likely to willingly re-share or be supportive of their friends’ tastes in music — individuals have a tendency to “gatekeep” music and be dismissive of preferences unlike their own.
Madrid, Barcelona, and Istanbul are notable exceptions. Music tastes, language, and social behavior in Spain have far more in common with Latin America than with Northern Europe, while Istanbul more closely resembles trigger cities in Asia.
As one of 2024’s most notable breakout stars, Benson Boone is an artist finding success around Northern European trigger cities. All three Northern European cities appear in the top 10 for Boone by Spotify monthly listeners, led by London at around 800 thousand. His breakout hit, “Beautiful Things,” debuted at No. 1 in several countries on the YouTube charts, including Ireland, Denmark, Austria, and the United Kingdom.
Trigger cities and music markets in the U.S. share much in common with European trigger cities, as described above, but with a few notable exceptions. The U.S. is home to large diaspora populations from Asia and Latin America, regions with substantial concentrations of trigger cities, resulting in highly global music consumption tastes as music from across the world is brought to the country. Additionally, the U.S. is ahead of Europe in terms of social adoption, and has more diverse musical styles.
As far as emerging artists go, Royel Otis is one that’s seen incredible growth throughout U.S. trigger cities. Hailing all the way from Australia, the indie-rock duo has penetrated a significant amount of American music markets thanks to the success of covers like “Linger” by The Cranberries and “Murder on the Dance Floor” by Sophie Ellis-Bextor. Out of their top 50 cities by Spotify monthly listeners, 25 of these hail from the U.S., with trigger markets L.A., New York City, and Chicago at the forefront. Radio has also played a substantial role in Royel Otis’ breakout, as a majority of airplay occurs in U.S. cities.
Oceania’s trigger cities are both in Australia — Melbourne and Sydney. These megacities are highly urbanized and contain extremely high population densities. This is largely due to the country's vast, inhospitable landscape that has forced most people towards city centers near the coasts. Despite strong cultural and societal links with the U.K., they behave slightly more like Southeast Asian trigger cities in certain ways, given the growing Southeast Asian diaspora in Australia.
Thanks to the large portion of Asian listeners in the region, K-pop groups can identify key trigger markets in Australia. Groups like FIFTY FIFTY, LE SSERAFIM, and ENHYPEN all have Australia listed among their top 10 countries by Spotify audience. K-pop groups also find success on the charts, with FIFTY FIFTY’s most-charted location across all platforms being Australia.
While the core trigger cities concept revolves around organic growth, prioritizing social media marketing efforts in trigger cities can help get an artist's foot in the door. This can include influencer partnerships, localized ads, and campaigns on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Another strategy is creating content that resonates with the cultural and musical preferences of these regions, such as using local languages, collaborating with regional artists, or tapping into popular local trends.
It’s important to work with streaming platforms to get songs featured in regional playlists popular in trigger cities, especially those in Latin America and Southeast Asia, as being added to these playlists can trigger algorithmic promotion and organic sharing. This not only includes editorial playlists, but also those generated by users, independent curators, and even local radio stations.
A&Rs need to be aware when an artist starts to build audience engagement in trigger cities. Distributors and editors at labels are often focused on identifying local artists, rather than artists from elsewhere who might also be organically attracting audiences in the city.
Use data platforms like Chartmetric to monitor streaming trends and social media activity in trigger cities, which allow you to identify which cities are seeing the most organic growth so you can focus your efforts there.
Chartmetric is the all-in-one platform for artists and music industry professionals, providing comprehensive streaming, social, and audience data for everyone to create successful careers in music. Chartmetric’s Artist Plan is the perfect choice for up-and-coming artists looking to grow their audience, starting at just $5 per month with a yearly sign-up. For more advanced needs, the Premium Plan is your go-to solution, providing deeper data analysis and broader industry trends to strategize your next big move effectively, available for $140 per month.
Onesheet revolutionizes one of the most essential tasks of any company in music, creating beautiful onesheets, now in just one click! Each onesheet created on Onesheet is a unique media-rich webpage containing the most impactful and up-to-date insights about an artist. Across our Lite, Pro, and Enterprise tiers, find the plan that works for you and get started today at onesheet.club.
To learn more about music, check out our publication, How Music Charts, which uses data to tell stories about the music industry and empower artists with the tools and knowledge they need to succeed. Subscribe to get updates when we post new articles!
Above all, Chartmetric envisions a music industry that values a level playing field and strives to give an equal voice to all people. Alongside the data in this report, deeper insights on gender and pronoun data can be found via Chartmetric’s Make Music Equal initiative, which includes hundreds of thousands of musical acts from all across the world. You can download it for free under the Creative Commons license and learn more about our approach by reading our methodology. If you have any feedback or constructive criticism about this ongoing project, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at equity@chartmetric.com — we want this effort to be as inclusive and sensitive as possible!
The Chartmetric Learning Hub provides comprehensive resources to master Chartmetric’s analytics and tools, aimed at individuals looking to master music industry data. It includes a structured guide, study materials, video tutorials, and a glossary for music data, all designed to prepare users for a certification exam. With its curriculum recognized by leading global music education institutions, the hub is an invaluable resource for gaining expertise in music data analytics.
