Jamaica’s music industry was sent into a tailspin last week after it was revealed that Canadian rapper Drake was the country’s most-played artiste on Spotify for 2021.

Spotify Wrapped, which summarises the platform’s songs of the year as well as the most played artistes according to streaming data, disclosed that the rapper out-streamed self-proclaimed King of the Dancehall Vybz Kartel and the ‘Vendetta Boss’ Alkaline to claim the top spot in the island’s statistics.

Following the announcement, key industry players and artistes took to social media to voice their displeasure with a foreign act soaking up the island’s streams.

The consensus among those who decided to air their grosses was that Jamaicans need to start supporting their own.

The account manager behind Vybz Kartel’s Instagram page was among those who joined in on the discussion. In a lengthy post, the account manager expressed that while it is not surprising that a foreigner is among the top ten most-streamed artistes out of the country, it is puzzling that the top spot is occupied by a non-Jamaican.

“Jamaica people stop worry unuh farin mind and start supporting local music more,” a part of the post read.

“Yes people free to listen what they want and if foreigners are in the top ten I’m not surprised, but still…we have a plethora of local genres and artistes to choose from so it puzzles me that a foreigner is at #1,” it continued.

While the Spotify data undoubtedly ‘rubbed’ some industry players the wrong way, a few others with whom the OBSERVER ONLINE spoke said the statistics are “much ado about nothing”.

With data from popular streaming platform Youtube showing vastly different results, these industry insiders feel that perhaps Spotify was not the most accurate reflection of what the Jamaican audience is listening to.

“Persons in Jamaica are different from Jamaicans. Persons in Jamaica include tourists that come here every week as well and these tourists come with their music devices to listen to personal content. Also, the cold hard fact facing our local industry is that most Jamaicans do not listen to Spotify,” said music analyst and creator of World Music Views, Donovan Watkis.

“The vast majority of Jamaicans go to YouTube for their music. If we want a true picture of what Jamaicans are listening to, that is the platform we should pay attention to.”

A quick visit to YouTube analytics showed that for 2021 the most streamed artiste out of Jamaica is Vybz Kartel. Chronic Law, Alkaline, Skillibeng, Intence, Teejay, Popcaan, Masicka and Squash round out the top ten on the platform’s list.

Vybz Kartel amassed a whopping 409 million YouTube streams to emerge in the top spot for a third consecutive year.

Artiste manager and CEO of Pop Style Music,Julian Jones-Griffith, agreed with Watkis.

Jones-Griffith, who is partly responsible for Charly Black’s musical ascension internationally, and is the former manager of ‘Gully Gad’ Mavado, told OBSERVER ONLINE that Spotify is yet to make an impression on the average Jamaican. He noted that for Jamaicans YouTube remains the platform of choice.

“Spotify still hasn’t made huge inroads into the streaming market in Jamaica. It would be a fairer representation to look at the YouTube data because that is where most Jamaicans consume music. Speaking of which, Kartel is undisputed there. His popularity has not wavered for years and it shows in the streaming numbers.”

Adding his two cents to the discussion, Billboard-charting producer NotNice also shared that when it comes to Jamaicans, YouTube continues to make the right connection.

“Jamaicans nuh buy music! So any platform weh dem affi pay fi subscription or anything like that, it nah go get the support. YouTube is free so that’s where the masses are gonna go locally. I’m sure if you even go over to Audiomack and do the analysis of their data, it will give you something different from Spotify. Spotify just nuh take off in Jamaica.”

NotNice’s artiste Jahvinci has the number one streamed song out of Jamaica for 2021 on YouTube. His hit single Virgin, which was released last December, has amassed more than 13 million views on the platform. It beat out Rytikal’s Chosen and Skeng’s Gunman Shift to land the number one spot on the chart.

NotNice shared that based on the track’s popularity it came as no surprise that it would be the most listened to song on YouTube for 2021.

“The song was just a hit and you could feel the reception. Thirteen million views and we never buy one. When the song came out, it gave the artiste a new shine on the dancehall scene and the love for the single nuh drop all now. The views keep climbing so mi know di number one spot on YouTube is no fluke. Jamaicans love it, especially the ladies.”