Amazon Music Launches Developing Artist Program

Amazon Music is rolling out a new developing artist program—Breakthrough—aimed at elevating and amplifying new artist voices as they evolve throughout their careers. Gabby Barrett is among the initial crop of Breakthrough Artists selected for the program.

Amazon Music has already seen success with the Breakthrough campaign with Barrett’s debut album, GOLDMINE. Released last month, Goldmine’s first-day streams exceeded any other debut country album ever on Amazon Music globally, and the album ended the week as the most-streamed debut country album in history, with Amazon Music delivering the highest percentage of streams for the album of any streaming service in the US.

Breakthrough will champion emerging artists at the most crucial moment in their careers through a variety of methods, including global marketing support, custom merch stores on Amazon.com, increased visibility across Amazon’s playlists and programming, high-profile Amazon Original tracks available only on Amazon Music, support for the artists’ Twitch channels, and more.

As part of the new program, Amazon Music is also revealing a new global Breakthrough playlist which will serve as a new home for the best music from the best rising artists from around the world. Covering multiple genres and languages and available across all tiers of Amazon Music, the Breakthrough playlist is the destination for the best music from the emerging artists. Featured artists will span a variety of genres including country, UK rap, R&B, indie, and more and will have their own mini-documentary, as well as support from Amazon Music in creating brand new Amazon Original tracks.

Drawn from the U.S., U.K., and Germany, Amazon Music’s first selection of Breakthrough artists include:

• Rising country powerhouse Gabby Barrett
• Emerging R&B singer Kiana Ledé
• Breakout U.K. Rap star Jay1
• 19-year-old rising alt R&B singer/poet Arlo Parks
• Critically acclaimed folk pop group Provinz
• Rising German pop sensation Malik Harris