SiriusXM’s Class of 2018 and Future Five Artists to Watch in 2019

This year, SiriusXM discovered quite a few up-and-comers.

by:
Matt Simeone
December 10, 2018
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NASHVILLE, TN – AUGUST 24: Recording Artist Ryan Hurd performs in SiriusXM The Highway’s Nook after Maren Morris announced a private concert for SiriusXM at the McKittrick Hotel in NYC on September 12th during an interview with SiriusXM host Storme Warren at SiriusXM Studios on August 24, 2017 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Jason Davis/Getty Images for SiriusXM)

SiriusXM is helping you discover the world’s future music stars with its “Future Five” artists for 2019 and the “Class of 2018″ lists.

The “Future Five” for 2019 includes five new artists that SiriusXM predicts will break through in 2019, while the “Class of 2018” is comprised of artists that were played first on SiriusXM and subsequently went on to have a major breakthrough year.

Last year, SiriusXM’s selection of the “Future Five” for 2018, featuring Alice Merton, Morgan Evans, Two Feet, Rich The Kid, and Sofi Tukker, all had breakthrough years with number one songs, millions of streams, and performances at major festivals across the nation.

Check out the artists below.

SiriusXM’s Class of 2018

Alice Merton

Since being named a SiriusXM “Future Five” for 2018, Merton’s song “No Roots” went on to reach No. 1 on Triple A in January charts and No. 1 on Alternative charts in February. The song has been streamed 63 million times.

Merton went on to perform at multiple 2018 music festivals and, in February, performed on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.” Her debut EP, “No Roots,” was released in April with her full-length album, “Mint,” due out January 2019.

Morgan Evans

After being named a SiriusXM “Future Five” for 2018, Evans’ song “Kiss Somebody” went on to reach No. 1 on the Country charts in August and has been streamed more than 67 million times to date.

The Highway went on to be the first to commit airplay to “Day Drunk” and has led the nation in airplay since. Morgan’s album “Things That We Drink To” was released on October 12.

Two Feet

After being first in the nation to play his music as an Alt Nation “Critical Cut” in November 2017, SiriusXM named Two Feet a “Future Five” for 2018. His song “I Feel Like I’m Drowning” went on to reach No. 1 on the Alternative Rock chart in July and has received more than 46 million streams.

Alt Nation was the first to commit airplay to his single “Hurt People” and world-debut “Back Of My Mind” prior to the release of his debut full-length album, “A 20 Something F**k,” on October 5.

Rich The Kid

Since being named a SiriusXM “Future Five” for 2018 based on Hip-Hop Nation’s early support of his song “New Freezer,” the channel continued its support of his music by being the first to add “Plug Walk” on February 2 with Shade 45 also committing early support prior to the release of his debut album, “The World Is Yours,” on March 30.

The album has been certified Gold, and “Plug Walk” has gone on to be certified 2x Platinum.

Sofi Tukker

After Alt Nation was the first in the nation to regularly play “Best Friend,” this NYC-based duo was named a SiriusXM “Future Five” for 2018. The song has gone on to be streamed 50 million times, while Alt Nation continued its support by being the first to support “Baby, I’m A Queen” in March.

The band toured extensively in 2018 behind the release of their album, including TV appearances and festival performances. Their album “Treehouse” is now GRAMMY-nominated in the Best Dance/Electronic Album category.

Flipp Dinero

Hip-Hop Nation was the first national platform to play and, in September, commit airplay to “Leave Me Alone.” To date, the channel has played more than twice the amount of spins of any other station in the country, the song has held the No. 1 spot for multiple weeks on the channel’s weekly countdown show, and it is currently in the top 15 on the Urban charts.

“Leave Me Alone” is currently RIAA certified Gold and has been streamed more than 112 million times to date.

Juice Wrld

Hip-Hop Nation was the first outlet in the country to regularly play “Forever.” The song has gone on to be streamed over 965 million times and reached No. 1 on the Rhythmic charts and top 10 on both the Urban and Top 40 charts.

Rex Orange County

“Loving Is Easy” received first national airplay on Alt Nation’s “Advanced Placement” and its first commitment to airplay from SiriusXMU. SiriusXM’s support of the song continued on The Spectrum, and additional support came when both SiriusXMU and Alt Nation were the first two (and only) channels in the country to commit airplay to his song “Sunflower.”

To date, the song has been streamed over 47 million times and sold more than 28k copies.

Bad Wolves

Octane was the first national radio outlet to play “Zombie” and immediately committed airplay to the song. Within two weeks of airplay, the song reached No. 1 on the channel’s weekly countdown show and remained there for eight weeks. The song reached No. 1 on the Active Rock chart in May and also received playlist commitment from SiriusXM Hits 1 and The Pulse.

To date, the song has been streamed 172 million times and has sold over 500k copies.

Morgan Wallen

After leading the nation in support of Morgan Wallen’s 2016 song “The Way I Talk,” The Highway was the first to commit national airplay to “Up Down ft. Florida Georgia Line” in October 2017. The song went on to reach No. 1 on the Country charts and has sold 342k copies to date, while streaming over 184 million times.

The channel continued its support of the artist by adding “Little Rain” in April and “Whiskey Glasses” in October.

SiriusXM’s Future Five for 2019

Alec Benjamin

Not long after playing parking lot shows outside of Shawn Mendes and Troye Sivan concerts and before signing to Atlantic Records, 24-year-old singer/songwriter Alec Benjamin made his national radio debut on SiriusXM Chill in June 2018. His track “Let Me Down Slowly” was featured as a “Chill Trending Track,” SiriusXM’s partnership with YouTube.

Benjamin’s music went on to be streamed over 75 million times. Alec’s SiriusXM exclusive session version of “Let Me Down Slowly” was added to The Coffee House in August, with the original also being added to SiriusXM Hits 1 in October and The Pulse in November before the release of his debut full-length album, “Narrated For You.”

Ice Nine Kills

Ice Nine Kills received the first radio play of their career in early September when Octane world premiered “A Grave Mistake” and featured the song on their weekly new music show, “Test Drive,” prior to it being released. In the following weeks, Octane also identified the song as an “Octane Accelerator” when it was the first national outlet to add the song into rotation.

“A Grave Mistake” went on to have 10,000 downloads and over 1 million streams in four weeks of Octane’s exclusive airplay. Their album, “The Silver Scream” (Fearless Records), sold 16,000 units during release week, the biggest of their career, and “A Grave Mistake” has been on Octane’s “Big Uns” top 15 weekly countdown for more than eight consecutive weeks.

Dominic Fike

The Florida native who recently signed to Columbia Records got his first national airplay on Alt Nation on October 18 when his song “3 Nights” was played on Alt Nation’s new music show, “Advanced Placement,” just days after the release of his “Don’t Forget About Me, Demos (EP).”

Alt Nation went on to be the first to commit to regularly supporting the song on November 20. National sales and streams have increased in each of the weeks since Alt Nation first began exposing the song. Dominic Fike will be releasing more new music in 2019.

Joyner Lucas

Shade 45 and Hip-Hop Nation were the first outlets in America to regularly expose Joyner Lucas through his guest appearance on Eminem’s track “Lucky You.” Hip-Hop Nation world premiered his single “I Love” on October 17 and has since led the country in airplay. The song has received more than 26 million streams since debuting on SiriusXM. Joyner Lucas plans on releasing his album “ADHD” (Atlantic Records) in 2019.

Ryan Hurd

The Highway has supported “Diamonds Or Twine” since the day of its release back in March and has since led the country in support, by a significant margin, with over 1,160 spins. During that time, the song has been streamed more than 11 million times and sold over 30k downloads.

The Highway was the first national platform to commit support to Hurd’s follow-up single, “To a T,” and again has led the nation in spins to date by a significant margin. In 2019, Hurd will perform “Highway Presents” shows in New York City, Chicago, and Nashville.




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