Australians Stream Half Billion Videos, But Local Acts Snubbed

Just as the Music Network’s Hot 100 poll revealed that commercial radio’s most heard songs of the year showed a disastrous lack of Australian talent, and Spotify’s Top 20 most streamed artists & albums was predominantly internationally focussed; another year-end list reveals that it is international, mainstream acts that continue to dominate the digital realm.

A new list of the most streamed music videos of 2012 has been compiled by MCM Media’s Digital Entertainment Network from 57 music entertainment websites – such as Vevo, Take 40 Australia, The Hot Hits, and the ARIA Charts – shows that Australia’s most streamed video of the year belongs not to an Australian artist but a Canadian one.

Pop sensation Carly Rae Jepsen, and her inescapable ‘Call My Maybe’ crowns a list in which Australian artists barely get a look in, the video for her hit was streamed 8.3 million times. Not bad considering the results show that Australians watched 557,796,825 video streams between January 1 to November 30.

Jepsen beat out English-Irish boy band One Direction to the top spot by more than a million streams, with the five teen hearthrobs’ ‘One Thing’ clocking in at more than 7 million views. There’s no reason for them to sob over getting silver though, as they occupy two more slots on the list, with ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ at #3 and ‘Live While We’re Young’ at #7 – trailing just behind the only Aussie act in the Top 10.

Guy Sebastian was the only Australian act to score a place on the list at the #6 slot with his Lupe Fiasco-featuring ‘Battle Scars’, which was streamed over 2.8 million times locally.The results show that Australians watched 557,796,825 video streams between January 1 to November 30.

The rest of the list is filled out with pop acts like Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift, rapper Lil Wayne, and Labrinth and Tine Tempah’s team-up, ‘Earthquake’.

Interestingly, Gotye’s all-conquering ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ is missing from the list, despite smashing world records all year, and yesterday named the highest-selling single in America by Billboard, after its body-paint video clip already earned the status of one of the most watched YouTube videos of all time (currently sitting at over 350+ million views), but not in Gotye’s own country it would seem.

Another glaring omission is YouTube sensation and forthcoming Future Music act PSY, and his record-breaking ‘Gangnam Style’ don’t make an appearance in the Top 10, because the South Korean performer posted the video – which is currently sitting at over 970 million views – to his own YouTube channel, and not through Vevo.

The popular music video website is clearly a strong source of entertainment for Australians, with its individual Top 10 most streamed list, and that of the combined data from MCM Media showing a correlation that’s difficult to ignore.

Vevo CEO Rio Caraeff has previously noted the importance of his company’s online presence in providing users with a free source of music and entertainment, even stating late October that: “I believe the future is access, not ownership, not iTunes as it is today.”

While the most streamed music list shows that music and video streaming is gaining significant popularity as a primary -and more importantly convenient – source for people, it’s focus is very much on international acts rather than local ones.

TOP TEN STREAMED MUSIC VIDEOS (Jan 1 – Nov 30)