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What's Moving the Viral 50 Right Now

Songs Are Still Breaking Artists — But the Top Is Getting Crowded

Songs are absolutely still going viral and propelling artists forward. But something has shifted at the top of the Viral 50: it's getting more dominated by established names. That's part of why some people feel weird about it. TikTok is still generating tons of new fans for emerging artists — that part hasn't changed — but the very top of the chart looks different than it used to.

The other big thing worth noting this week: for all three of the artists we're going to look at, the main account is not the thing doing the work. Last time we did this kind of breakdown, a lot of the heavy lifting was happening on the artist's own profile. That's less true now, and it says something about where the landscape is.

Temper City — "Self Aware"

Temper City is a DIY band and "Self Aware" is their first song, now sitting at number one on the Viral 50 with around 6 million plays. As I always have to say — people expect half a billion plays, but the number one on the Viral 50 is often in the low millions.

Six million is actually a lot for a number one, especially for an artist with no back catalog. A million-plus monthly listeners from a standing start is a big deal. I've seen lower than that hit number one plenty of times.

Very simple profile picture, nothing fancy. I'll be honest — this dude looks like he just left telemarketing for the day. And that's fine, because Spotify is not really caring about your big editorials these days. If they're going to blow you up and promote you, they're caring about whether the song is doing well.

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