Obama’s Yearly Playlists Shine Spotlight on Independent Artists
“Music is everybody’s possession.
It’s only publishers who think people own it.”
-John Lennon
It’s been about a month since Barack Obama released his favorite music list of 2019. This tradition began during his presidency after the White House joined Spotify in 2015 and has continued yearly ever since. His past lists have shown his phenomenal taste in music and have given music enthusiasts, Obama-lovers, and everyone in between a massive array of songs and artists to check out.
His lists are extensive and feature a variety of artists ranging from the well-known to independent/underground artists. They also include multiple genres and even music from different eras. Honestly, that’s the beauty of Obama’s yearly lists. They’re so diverse, there’s something for everyone. To have Obama’s co-sign, even as a well-known artist, is an incredible honor. This kind of recognition places a highlight on every artist listed, which has helped expand their fan bases and has contributed to their overall success.
His 2019 favorite music list consisted of 35 songs, some of which were included on his summer 2019 playlist.
In the past, Obama’s lists have positively affected the popularity of the songs and artists featured on it. Just this past summer, all 44 songs on his summer playlist received an increase in either sales or streams in the weeks following. In this day and age where streams, views, and posts are crucial to an artist’s mainstream success, this boost is vital. For underground and independent artists, it’s even more imperative for expanding their reach to a bigger audience.
Rema is an example of how recognition from Obama can propel underground and indie artists into prominence. After his song “Iron Man” featured on Obama’s summer playlist, it experienced a massive boost in streams. As a result, other songs of his also experienced a boost due to his audience and fan base expanding. By the end of the year, 5 of his songs had over 1 million streams on Spotify. His highest ranking song “Dumbei’ has over 14 million streams currently. After “Iron Man” was featured on Obama’s 2019 favorites playlist, the streams for that song spiked 212% in the following week after being re-mentioned.
This same trend happened to Angélique Kidjo’s song “La Vida Es Un Carnaval”, which spiked 2700% in streams during the first 48 hours of being mentioned on Obama’s 2019 list.
*boost in streams a week after Obama’s 2019 Favorites list was released
Another group of artists who have seen an impressive jump in streams and recognition is the artists of “Raleighwood Hills” LesTheGenius, Sonny Miles, and Jaxson Free.
Being Raleigh-based and active in Raleigh’s music scene, I’ve known of these three artists for some time now. Landing on Obama’s favorite music list as independent and local artists is a remarkable feat, especially when the song hadn’t received any special promo and wasn’t on any Spotify lists beforehand.
A couple weeks ago, I had the incredible pleasure of speaking with Les, Sonny, and Jaxson so I could gain more insight into how independent artists on Obama’s lists are affected by his recognition.
I began by asking them how it initially felt when they received the news they had made the list.
“It was surprising,” began Jaxson. “None of us knew how or why Obama chose us. But it felt pretty good knowing that out of all the songs he listened to and liked last year, ours was one of his favorites. He loved our song enough to put it on his favorite music list with so many big-name artists.”
“It was a great sense of validation,” added Sonny. “Especially since all three of us had been grinding all year in some capacity.”
Since being featured on Obama’s list, they mentioned the recognition has already brought changes to their careers. Just like artists Rema and Kidjo, they’ve had the same trend following Obama’s recognition with seeing boosts in streams for “Raleighwood” and their solo work as well.
“More people are paying attention to us now. We started seeing spikes in our followers and our numbers [streams] immediately after being put on the list,” Jaxson began.
Les followed up by giving some stats on Raleighwood’s numbers. “The song doubled what it did the past three months in two weeks. Streams have gone up by almost 2000%. By the end of the week, the video will have around 10K views, and we’ll probably hit 100K in streams.”
Les was not too far off on his predictions. Since speaking with the guys, Raleighwood has now reached a little over 100K in streams. Their video on YouTube now has over 12,000 views. Many of the newer comments underneath the video speak to how users discovered the song because of Obama.
As someone who’s seen these three artists work incredibly hard for their successes in Raleigh’s music scene, I asked them to speak more about the challenges that come with getting their music and content out as local and independent artists.
They all chuckled because they’ve had this conversation with each other before.
“Last year was a struggle for all of us,” Les began, “We used to have conversations in the dorm, like ‘how are we gonna get our stuff out there?’ ‘How are we gonna get on these playlists?’ The hardest thing is getting music out further than your scene, but there is no straight answer to the right way to do that. You gotta figure out what route works for you, continue pushing, and get your music out.”
“For me, the hardest part is not overthinking,” stated Jaxson, “You’ll have something to release and you’ll sit on it for a while because you’re wondering ‘who’s gonna like this?’” Jaxson spoke more about how self-doubt, worrying about numbers, and artist comparisons can leave someone unwilling to release their content. However, he ended his statement by offering this piece of advice.
“Sometimes you just gotta say fuck it and drop it,” he laughed. “If the music is good and the product is there, your audience will find you. I mean, freaking Obama found us.”
Sonny agreed with Les and Jaxson and proceeded to add on to their comments. “I also think a challenge is remaining consistent when releasing content. Life has a way of derailing you at times, especially since the older we become, the more responsibility we get. It’s about finding a way to not allow life to prevent you from getting things out.”
The guys continued sharing their knowledge, speaking on what advice they’d give to fellow artists who wanted to get into the industry. Their answers were more than inspirational.
“Find what interests you and become obsessed with it to the point you’re doing it every single day,” Jaxson stated.
“Don’t let numbers affect the love you have for your music. Always believe in what you’re making and push it like it’s the greatest thing you’ve ever created,” Les added. The guys ended their advice by saying the music isn’t the only aspect an artist should focus on. There should be full effort placed into taking time to study every aspect of the music-making process, from choosing the right cover art to making sure the mix and masters correct. They really emphasized taking the time to become a master in what you do.
“You don’t have to blow up tomorrow. Enjoy the ride, make friends, and continue pushing one another,” Les finished.
Community support is crucial on the local level because it’s how artists gain their initial fan base. Since the guys are heavily immersed in Raleigh’s music/art communities, I wanted to know how they felt the community could better support local and independent artists. Jaxson, Sonny, and Les echoed each other in answers, but it all boiled down to sharing, liking, and posting music/content, coming out to the shows, and overall caring more about the artists’ work.
Les made a wonderful point by addressing an issue local artists face when trying to gather support from the community. “A problem with the local scene is that sometimes people will wait for somebody else’s co-sign, or they’ll wait in silence until they see success before lending their support. Everyone isn’t like this, but it’s important more people form their own opinions first without waiting to see success or influence. If you like it, who cares if someone else doesn’t.”
We continued discussing more about local art communities, specifically how other artists could better support each other. I mentioned how local artists could even support each other by reposting other artists’ promos for shows on their social media accounts. They all agreed with me, however, it brought up another issue the guys have experienced in the local scene—competition.
“When you’re at a local level, you’re not even in the game yet. What’s the point in fighting each other when you could all band together and help each other succeed. Everybody can eat. Everybody can get love,” Les intensely explained. Sonny and Jaxson were also in accord, stating that it’s best to help each other rather than to have competition, especially since local artists share common goals.
After about half an hour of speaking with them, I only had one lingering question. Thankfully for them, it was an easy one. Obama wants them to perform a song for him, which one would they choose and why?
“Well it’s only right that we do Raleighwood,” said Jaxson with a stamp of initial approval from Les.
“But he already knows that, so we gotta give him some new heat,” Les quickly added. This made Jaxson change his answer to “Cliché” or “Ride for You”, two of his singles. Les followed up by saying his choice, outside of “Raleighwood”, would be one of his singles called, “Pray For Me”.
“Definitely was gonna say Raleighwood, but I might fuck around and cover ‘The Box’”, replied Sonny as we all erupted in laughter.
If you haven’t checked out “Raleighwood Hills” or even Obama’s 2019 Favorite Music playlist by now you definitely should ASAP and make sure to pay closer attention to the independent artists! From these three artists, you can expect more from them in 2020.
LesTheGenius, @lesthegenius, has a joint project coming out in February/March with fellow Raleigh-based artist Zack Cokas. Their song “Bust Down” which was released last month, has already made it onto a Spotify playlist. He also has several other singles that’ll be dropping throughout the year. Their newest one, “Pray For Me” was just released on all platforms last Friday.
Sonny Miles, @sonnyformiles, dropped his debut mixtape this week called Catallabs, a precursor to his second mixtape Gamma, which will be released later on this year. His latest single, “Bedroom Hollywood”, was released at the end of last year and has already begun seeing streaming success.
Jaxson Free, @jaxsonfree, has singles prepared for release in February/March. He and Les have a collab project they’ll also be releasing later on this year. His latest song Cliché is out on all platforms.
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