Top Artists to Watch in 2019

Hablot Brown, John Splithoff, Horace Bray, Rob Araujo, Lindsey Lomis, JD Beck & DOMi, Hailey Knox, Georgie Clifford, Abigail Zachko.

This year we discovered so many incredible artists. You'll find a mix of instrumentalists and recording artists below. Some of them have had their "break-through moment", while others are just getting started. Every artist's path is different but the common ground between them all is they are all well-loved on Instagram. What sets our list apart from similar lists by music blogs is our focus on Instagram as a point of reference, which in the past three years has become a hotbed or emerging talent, a fact often ignored by other music publications.

Over 2018, we saw the artists in last year's list go from strength to strength: Lolo Zouaï, Emily Browning, Raelee Nikole, Mac Ayres, Bruno Major, Aron Hodek, Tash Wolf, Dori Valentine, Melanie Faye, Jesus Molina Acosta, HANNIE, Ayla Tesla-Mabe, Cautious Clay, and Pomo. We believe this year's artists will have a huge 2019.

Hit us up on Instagram if there are any artists you think we should add.

Lindsey Lomis

The sky is the limit for Lindsey Lomis, a 15-year-old Nashville-based singer-songwriter who had us spellbound in 2018 with her at-home Instagram videos and fire single releases. Lindsey was first introduced to us via Raelee Nikole's taking over of our Instagram. The whole Instagram music community has become instant fans of Lindsey's – and we feel fortunate to have discovered her music so early on in her career. We can't wait to hear more.

JD Beck & DOMi

Drummer JD Beck and keyboardist DOMi are on another musical planet. We've rarely seen artists with such raw talent and seemingly no limitations to the music they create. There's a sense of effortlessness and technical wizardry in their music that leaves us all shook up. Be sure to follow their Instagram pages for thumb-stopping jams or catch them at a live show. We can't wait to see what 2019 holds for JD and DOMi.

Hailey Knox

Already a well-established singer-songwriter in 2018, we were late to the game hearing about Hailey Knox, but have quickly become fans. She's one of few artists who do it all: sing, play guitar (really well), write songs, and tell stories that move us – both through the boundaries of a 60 second Instagram video and through her full tracks (listen to Hardwired to see what we mean). Hailey's first headlining tour is coming up in 2019, so things are about to step up to the next level. Big fans right here.

Georgie Clifford

New Zealand singer and multi-instrumentalist Georgie Clifford quickly became a favorite of ours in 2018. Without even having released a single, she has already built an audience of over 30K Instagram followers through her beat-heavy videos and soulful, jazzy grooves. I mean... she plays the trumpet, sings, makes beats, and plays keys all in one video. We're excited to see what the next few years bring for her.

Rob Araujo

Somehow we missed producer, artist, and keyboardist Rob Araujo from our list last year but better late than never. 2018 was a big year for Rob which saw him opening and performing with Tom Misch, drop a few fire tracks, launch his beat-oriented project Shopan, and regularly have us jaw-on-the-floor watching his in-studio Instagram videos.

Abigail Zachko

As soon as we heard about Abigail Zachko through Music Radar we knew that she would be one of the most exciting young guitarists to watch in the year ahead. At 16 she has already developed her own unique sound accompanied with incredible facility on the instrument. We hear hints of Mateus Asato, CHON, and Jakub Zytecki in her playing. Be sure to follow her journey on Instagram with us.

Hablot Brown

One of the most exciting bands to emerge on our radar in 2018 was Neo-Soul / R&B group Hablot Brown. The band is made up of Linus Lester-Hodges, Austin Brown, & John Brown who all met during a summer program at Berklee. You might have seen them open for Tom Misch this year or heard one of their tunes on Spotify which have stacked up over 7.7 million streams. We'll be following their journey closely in 2019 and beyond.

John Splithoff

There are only a few NYC-based artists on our list this year so we're super excited to include John Splithoff, who had a huge 2018. His debut EP had over 60 million streams on Spotify and tour dates included Lollapolaza, Bonnaroo, and opening up for Andy Grammer and Gabrielle Aplin. For us, a community founded in NYC, it's neat to see a local artist (and band members) from our home city. We'll be all ears for future music and shows from John in 2019!

Horace Bray

Well known and loved in our community, Horace Bray took big steps in 2018, releasing his debut singles as a singer-songwriter which as of December 2018 has already stacked up a lot of streams. It's exciting to see these next steps and we look forward to Horace's full EP drop early next year.

Who did we miss? Hit us up on Instagram.