These 14 Bands Got The Biggest Lift From Festival Season 2015

Festivals can have a big impact on record sales and streams too – just ask Florence and the Machine, who went back to Number One after their Glastonbury headline slot. But when you’d packed up the tent and had a wash, which acts did you head back to Spotify for more of? Here are the bands who benefitted the most from festival season 2015 with a hefty increase in plays from June to September.

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14. Snoop Dogg

14. Snoop Dogg:
Snoop Dogg did a mini tour of some of the country’s smaller festivals this year, playing at the likes of Y Not, Parklife and London inner city weekender Lovebox. It earned him a 14% streaming boost over the season.

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13. Bastille

13. Bastille:
Bastille chose quality over quantity in 2015, only appearing at Glastonbury, Boardmasters and Reading and Leeds during the summer. Maybe the fact that two out of three of those festivals were streaming online and shown on TV could account for the band’s 18% boost.

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12. The Who

12. The Who

12. The Who:
Many said that The Who’s Sunday night headline slot at Glastonbury was underwhelming, but that didn’t stop many of you heading straight over to your laptops. The Mod icons ended the summer with 20% more streams than they started it.

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11. Metallica

11. Metallica:
They were tied with last year’s headliners Metallica, who also received a 20% boost after stepping up to headline Reading and Leeds this August.

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10. Tiesto

10. Tiesto

10. Tiesto:
Perhaps more surprising, however, was the 24% increase for Tiesto. Though you can’t imagine many of the punters at Milton Keynes’ Electric Daisy Festival were sober and taking notes during the DJ’s headline slot, he still had people flocking back to Spotify when they arrived home.

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9. Kanye West

9. Kanye West:
Kanye West isn’t exactly someone who needs publicity, but his much-talked about Glastonbury headline slot (performed in the face of a 100,000-plus strong petition) didn’t hurt. It boosted Yeezy’s streams by 28%. Not too shabby for 90 minutes work.

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8. Sam Smith

8. Sam Smith:
Bond theme botherer and your Nan’s favourite nice boy crooner Sam Smith popped up to play V Festival in Chelmsford and Staffordshire this August. It boosted his already considerable streaming power by a pretty decent 28%.

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7. Kendrick Lamar

7. Kendrick Lamar:
Kendrick’s spots at Wireless and Reading and Leeds this year were some of the summer’s most talked about gigs so it’s no surprise that people pressed play back home in tandem. ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’ and its predecessors had a 31% boost in streams by the end of the summer.

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6. Blur

6. Blur

6. Blur:
Blur headlined a day of British Summer Time in Hyde Park this summer, righting the sound problem-plagued wrongs of their set there in 2012. That, plus a glorious Isle of Wight headline set, plus their first new LP in 12 years equalled an increase of 33% in their Spotify streams. Now that’s some good maths.

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5. Fleetwood Mac

5. Fleetwood Mac:
Heading to Isle Of Wight for the first time and also for their only UK festival appearance of the year, Fleetwood Mac’s headline set was one of the year’s big coups. It reignited the fandom fire in a lot of people at home too, with the band upping their streaming game by 34%.

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4. The Chemical Brothers

4. The Chemical Brothers:
The Chemical Brothers are a British festival institution. A safe pair (well, two safe pairs) of hands who’ve been doing the rounds for more than 20 years now, they know how to hold a crowd in the palm of their hand and then, seemingly, send them straight to Spotify. They upped their streams by 37%.

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3. Disclosure

3. Disclosure:
In at three are Disclosure who, ahead of the release of forthcoming second LP ‘Caracal’, hosted their own festival this summer. Taking place near Brighton and headlined by the duo, it also helped them rack up 38% more streams too. Hard work does indeed pay off.

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2. Calvin Harris

2. Calvin Harris:
The superstar DJ isn’t exactly struggling in terms of his hits, fanbase or money, but this summer saw Harris rise even further up the streaming charts. Notching up 46.8% more plays come the end of the season than he began with, Calvin’s V Festival headline shows likely played their part.

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1. The Libertines

1. The Libertines:
And with a runaway roaring lead of a whopping 131% streaming increase it’s The Libertines. A combination of new material, solid Reading and Leeds headline sets and an exciting, last minute Glastonbury show saw the likely lads shoot right back into peoples’ hearts and ears where the rightly below. Well done boys.

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