If you’re already getting streams, you have the data you need to pick the right countries—no guesswork, no “spray and pray.” Here’s a practical, metrics-first playbook that works whether you release electronic, hip-hop, rock/metal, Latin, K-pop, or anything in between.

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1) Start with your platform analytics (home base)

Open the dashboards where your music already lives and pull countries + cities for the last 28–90 days:

  • Spotify for Artists – use Audience and Top Cities to see where you’re already resonating (Spotify explicitly recommends Top Cities for tour and geo decisions).

  • Apple Music for Artists – the Places map shows top countries, cities, Shazams, and radio spins by market.

  • YouTube / YouTube Music (Official Artist Channel) – Analytics for Artists includes geography reports to see where views and listeners come from.

  • TikTok – “TikTok for Artists” now provides market-level insights (and TikTok Ads Manager’s Audience Insights shows country-level targeting data if you run ads).

What to capture into a simple sheet: top countries, top cities, 28-day growth, track(s) driving the market, Shazam count (Apple), Shorts/reels usage (YouTube/TikTok), and any local playlists/radio mentions.

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2) Check the macro opportunity (size & growth)

Pick countries where the overall market is big or growing fast:

  • The IFPI Global Music Report tracks the world’s top markets and regional growth (e.g., 2024 saw strong streaming-led growth, with Sub-Saharan
  • Africa and MENA among the fastest-growing). Use this to sanity-check your short list.

If two countries give you similar streams, start where the market is expanding faster or where streaming is a higher share of revenue (better discovery, better conversion). 

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3) Validate genre–market fit (who’s open to your sound?)

Use public signals to gauge how welcoming a country is to your genre and to new artists:

  • Local vs. international repertoire:
     Markets with very high domestic share can be harder for foreign artists to break. For example, France’s Top 200 Albums in H1-2024 were 63% domestic productions; Germany’s 2024 Top 1,000 streams were 43% local (57% international), indicating more openness. Japan tracks domestic vs. international releases in its yearbook—domestic repertoire is structurally strong there.

  • Genre infrastructure & charts:
  • Fan behavior indicators:
    •  Mexico City is famed as a global streaming powerhouse on Spotify—often a top listener city for diverse artists, making Mexico a powerful “launchpad” market.

4) Weigh fan culture & discovery channels

You’re not just hunting streams—you’re hunting active fans. Ask:

  • Where do Shorts/reels sparkle right now? TikTok’s largest user bases include the US, Indonesia, Brazil, and Mexico, which often correlates with strong music discovery.

  • Are there genre-specific communities or charts you can plug into (e.g., UK Afrobeats, Europe’s dance festivals, Nordic rock/metal scenes)? For metal specifically, Scandinavia (esp. Finland) repeatedly ranks top in metal bands per capita—good soil for heavy music fans and media.

5) Build a short list with clear rules

  1. Data-led: top-5 countries by recent (28–90 day) listeners/Views/UGC.

  2. Momentum: keep countries where growth ≥ your global average.

  3. Fit & friction: add markets with visible genre infrastructure (e.g., ADE for dance; UK Afrobeats), drop those with high friction unless you’ll localize.

  4. Activation math: reachable audience (platform insights) ÷ expected cost (ads/PR/travel).

Tip: Keep one “moonshot” country (big upside, moderate friction) and one “quick win” country (smaller but fast-growing, low friction).

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Quick genre-guided starting points (use with your data)

  • Electronic/Dance: Netherlands (ADE ecosystem), Germany (festival heft), UK.

  • Afrobeats/Amapiano: UK (official Afrobeats chart + diaspora), also watch Brazil & Japan as cross-over playlists grow.

  • Rock/Metal: Nordics/Germany for highly engaged fanbases and media ecosystems; Finland in particular is metal-dense.

  • Latin/Regional Mexican & Reggaetón: Mexico (huge streaming city base) and the U.S./Spain/Colombia for spillover; regional Mexican’s global break-out is well-documented.

  • K-pop/Idol Pop: Global fandom mobilizes on YouTube/short-form; prioritize countries where your Shorts and UGC already over-index. (Use YouTube/TikTok analytics first; then layer markets with strong fan-community infrastructure.)

A simple checklist before you hit “go”

  • Do I have top countries & cities from Spotify, Apple, YouTube, and TikTok for the last 90 days? 
  • Did I compare them to market growth signals from IFPI?
  • Is there genre infrastructure (charts, festivals, local media) I can plug into?

Bottom line

Don’t pick countries by hype. Pick them by your own audience data, filtered through market growth and genre fit. If the metrics move (saves, Shazams, UGC, city-level spikes), that’s your green light to invest more.

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