Yesterday the BBC revealed their ‘BBC Music Sound of 2016’ and today Google released their ‘One’s To Watch’ 2016.

After compiling a panel consisting of 144 DJs, critics and writers the BBC released the ‘BBC Music Sound Of 2016‘ featuring 15 artists that they think will be the breakthrough acts of 2016. After topping the list last year british electronica trio Years & Years’ debut album made it to the top of the charts and are now in the running for British Artist of the Year at the BBC Music Awards.

The BBC’s Sound Of 2016 list features:

However today, only one day since the BBC released their list, Google Play Music have released their ‘Ones to Watch’ in 2016. Whereas the BBC’s list was curated by industry experts Google Play Music have used Google search counts, social media metrics and streaming numbers to predict their list.

Head of EMEA Music Partner Management at Google Play Music, Azi Eftekhari, said: “It’s always an exciting time when we look to the year ahead and share our tips for success. Whilst the BBC’S Sound of 2016 and Brits Critics’ Choice are fantastic indicators from the industry, our judging criteria is based on a myriad of factors – industry insight is one of them but also more factors like volumes of streams, search activity and social media buzz are taken into account too.

Google also say that their list includes “expert insight from members of the platform’s music team” for a balanced result that may not be entirely different to the BBC’s list, but has enough of it’s own original artists to be taken as it’s own predictions.

Google Play Music’s Ones to Watch for 2016 are:

Eftekhari went on to say: “I think the one thing this year’s shortlist shows is how the power and accessibility of streaming platforms allows grassroots artists to reach a wider audience from a very early stage in the career. The facts that Jack Garratt has already played a sold out show at the 2,000 capacity Sheperd’s Bush Empire and that Aurora has already had a track appear on a major TV advertising campaign is a testament to that.”

We’ll have to wait and see which acts find their fame in 2016, and which list proves to hold the better predictions. Until then why not try out the artists on the list and let us know which one’s you’d like to see break through next year.