Alaina Castillo is now on your RADAR…

Six months after Spotify kicked off its emerging artists program, RADAR, featuring the Latina singer, the streaming service is launching a new global hub on the platform to spotlight it.

The hub will be home to the full lineup of RADAR artists and their newest releases, 22 region- and genre-specific playlists (incorporating both RADAR artists and others chosen by Spotify’s editorial team) and original exclusive content.

The program is also debuting brand-new RADAR France, Canada, U.S. Country and U.S. Latin playlists.

Statistics provided by Spotify paint a rosy picture of RADAR and its 115-strong artist lineup across 22 global sister programs, including such breakthrough successes as Castillo (U.S.), Young T and Bugsey (U.K.), Lous and The Yakuza (France), Zoe Wees (Germany) and Rina Sawayama (Japan).

Over the past six months, RADAR artists have collectively generated over 2 billion streams, 100 million listening hours and 112 million listeners across 102 countries. They have also cumulatively gained more than 8 million followers since the launch of the program, representing a 64% overall increase.

Spotify’s lead, international music markets strategy Andy Sloan-Vincent says the RADAR hub is designed to further the program’s mission to break local artists on a global scale — something he sees as a complement to the way listeners consume music now. “What we’re starting to see — we’ve seen it with K-pop — [is that] fans aren’t necessarily listening to just the music of their home language anymore,” he says. “They’re starting to listen to artists from completely different geographies, speaking different languages.”

He adds, “It’s something we feel we’re uniquely positioned to drive, because we have such a huge reach [in 92 countries around the world].”

Launched on March 9, RADAR put all of Spotify’s domestic and international emerging artist programs under a single umbrella, though each of the sister programs is locally run. Artists chosen for the program receive support from Spotify’s editorial and marketing teams, including on- and off-platform promotion as well as exclusive content like Spotify Singles, mini-documentaries and more. Spotify’s plans for a series of large-scale RADAR live events were put on hold by the coronavirus pandemic, though it is looking to expand the program to additional territories, including Russia, in the coming months.

Spotify users will be alerted to the RADAR hub via a mixture of banner ads on the Spotify homepage, pop-up notifications and out-of-home marketing. It will also be given a dedicated spot on the app’s main “Search” page.

Sawayama, who released her acclaimed debut album Sawayama via Dirty Hit earlier this year, says she saw a noticeable boost in her following after being included in the program.

You can navigate to the RADAR hub here.