Epic news metal fans, our family is getting bigger
Heavy metal was named the fastest-growing music genre in the world in 2018, arrocding to yearly statistics from TuneCore.
Company CEO Scott Ackerman said in a statement that heavy metal saw a 154 percent increase in streams last year, making it by far and away the fastest growing genre. See full results below.
Heavy metal – 154% increase J-Pop – 133% increase R&B/Soul – 68% increase K-Pop – 58% increase World music – 57% increase Instrumental – 42% increase
In addition to genres, TuneCore also measured overall streaming growth worldwide, with all continents seeing massive gains in 2018. See those results below:
Africa – 146% growth Asia – 52% growth Oceania – 38% growth Europe – 35% growth South America – 32% growth North America – 31% growth
The New York-based company provides digital music distribution, publishing and licensing service to independent artists, allowing them to keep 100 percent of what they earn from digital streams worldwide. Most importantly, TuneCore allows artists to spread their music to over 150 digital stores and streaming services including the likes of Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon and Google Play.
The company seems to know what they're doing, as their artists earned US$83 million in the first quarter of 2019 - a 21 percent increase from 2018.
With many metal artists like Slipknot and Tool expected to release new music in 2019, the popularity of heavy metal shows no sign of slowing.
