The Coachella Effect: A Platform for Emerging Artists
This is the final post in our four-part series exploring how Coachella serves as a launchpad for emerging artists. In this edition, we turn our attention to the 2025 lineup and predict who might be next in line to experience mainstream success.
At a Glance
- Learn how early Spotify metrics and audience engagement help predict future breakout artists.
- Explore the rising momentum behind Clairo, Role Model, and GloRilla following their Coachella 2025 performances.
- Use Chappell Roan’s breakout journey as a blueprint to uncover who might be the next potential breakout artist.
What Comes After the Spotlight?
In our last three newsletters, we broke down how the Coachella Effect works—how artists like Anitta, Dominic Fike, and Chappell Roan used their festival performances to dramatically grow their audience and cement their place in the music industry. Now, we’re shifting from hindsight to foresight.
Chappell Roan’s meteoric rise offers a clear blueprint. Her performance at Coachella 2024 was a turning point—she saw a 32x increase in daily streams, gained over 3 million followers, and climbed nearly 30 points in her popularity rating. By examining these metrics, we can begin to identify which 2025 performers might follow a similar trajectory.
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Using the same data lens—daily streams, monthly listeners, followers, and popularity rating—we’re highlighting three standout artists from the 2025 lineup who are showing early signs of breakout potential: Clairo, Role Model, and GloRilla.
Clairo – The Indie Icon Entering a New Era
Clairo has spent nearly a decade cultivating a devoted fanbase through raw lyricism and understated pop production. With a Grammy nomination for her 2024 album Charm, a history of critical acclaim, and an indie image that resonates deeply with Gen Z, she entered Coachella 2025 as a respected voice, but not yet a mainstream staple.
That may be changing. During the festival, her daily streams more than doubled, rising from 3.57 million to 7.93 million—a massive surge in engagement that points to increased visibility. She also added over 600,000 new followers on Spotify, bringing her total to just under 6 million. Her popularity rating remained steady at 82, reflecting consistent interest even as new listeners flooded in.
Interestingly, her monthly listeners dipped slightly, from 20.2 million to 18.2 million. This could indicate a short-term reshuffling of listeners or the early stage of a longer tail of discovery still unfolding. Either way, the spike in streams and followers suggests a broadening reach.
Clairo’s growth around Coachella feels like a moment of acceleration rather than reinvention. If her post-festival momentum holds, she’s well-positioned to become one of 2025’s most significant breakout artists—pushed not by hype alone, but by the strength of her music and the loyalty of her listeners.
Role Model – The Emotional Underdog Gaining Ground
Tucker Pillsbury, better known as Role Model, has spent the last few years quietly building a dedicated fanbase with his emotionally honest lyrics and soft-spoken bedroom pop sound. After early mixtapes recorded in his dorm room led to a deal with Interscope, he’s steadily evolved his sound—from intimate EPs to 2024’s critically praised sophomore album, Kansas Anymore. But Coachella 2025 may have been the biggest stage of his career yet—and the numbers reflect it.
In the six months leading up to Coachella, Role Model averaged around 677,000 daily streams. During the festival, that number spiked to 2.69 million. His monthly listeners doubled from 3.29 million to 6.59 million, and his follower count jumped by over 150,000. His popularity rating rose from 68 to 76, pointing to a surge in both discovery and audience engagement.
What makes Role Model especially compelling is the consistency of his growth and the strength of his personal connection with fans. If this momentum continues—and especially if he follows his Coachella set with new music or tour announcements—he could very well be one of 2025’s biggest breakout stories.
GloRilla – The Southern Star on the Rise
GloRilla has already made major waves in hip-hop, with her bold sound, commanding presence, and viral energy setting her apart in an increasingly crowded field. Since breaking out with 2022’s “F.N.F. (Let’s Go)” and building her resume with a string of high-profile collaborations—including Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion—she’s proven she’s more than a one-hit wonder. Her Coachella 2025 performance may be the moment that pushes her fully into mainstream stardom.
The numbers paint a clear picture of momentum. In the six months leading up to the festival, GloRilla was averaging 3.79 million daily streams, 11.9 million monthly listeners, and had 1.16 million followers on Spotify. During Coachella, her daily streams jumped to 4.28 million, and her monthly listeners surged to 21.2 million—a 77% increase. Her follower count nearly doubled, climbing to over 2.05 million, and her popularity rating increased from 76 to 81.
GloRilla's rise reflects a combination of viral credibility, major-label polish, and a strong cultural pulse. These post-Coachella gains suggest she’s not just sustaining attention—she’s leveling up. If she can continue delivering music that resonates and maintain a strong performance presence, GloRilla has everything it takes to translate festival hype into lasting industry power.
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The Breakout Blueprint: Why Role Model Is the Breakout Artist of Coachella 2025
While many artists see a temporary bump in visibility after Coachella, few undergo the kind of transformation Chappell Roan experienced in 2024. Role Model, however, is showing unmistakable signs of following that same breakout trajectory, and potentially carving out a similarly culture-shifting moment.
The Chappell Roan Blueprint — Replayed with Role Model
- Tour Momentum: Just as Roan opened for Olivia Rodrigo, Role Model laid the groundwork through a support slot on Gracie Abrams’ The Secret of Us Tour (Sept–Oct 2024), introducing him to a devoted fanbase aligned with his sound. He then launched his own “No Place Like Tour” from November through early April — ending just days before Coachella 2025 — cultivating a loyal, energized global audience.
- Strategic Timing: Before Coachella, Role Model released a deluxe version of his sophomore album Kansas Anymore (The Longest Goodbye), featuring the breakout track “Sally, When The Wine Runs Out.” Much like Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!,” this single arrived at the perfect moment — and exploded. It has since become his most-streamed song on Spotify with over 68 million streams and racked up.
- Performance Impact: Role Model’s performances are marked by a distinctive blend of emotional vulnerability and dry, self-aware humor that draws audiences in. This dynamic came to life during his set-closing performance of “Sally, When The Wine Runs Out,” where he invited a surprise guest on stage as “Sally” — sometimes a fan, and other times a celebrities like Renne Rapp and Conan Gray. These playful, heartfelt reveals quickly went viral, turning the song into a fan-favorite moment and amplifying his presence across social media.
- Festival Follow-Through: Instead of fading after Coachella, Role Model has only accelerated. He hit Governors Ball (June 6th), Bonnaroo (June 15th), and is slated for Lollapalooza (July 31st) — keeping his name at the forefront of summer festival culture. He’ll also reunite with Gracie Abrams on tour this July, bringing him back in front of mainstream and indie-adjacent audiences alike.
- Cultural Relevance: Just like Roan’s theatricality and queerness resonated deeply, Role Model’s vulnerable songwriting, sarcastic online persona, and the lore around “Sally” have struck a chord with young audiences hungry for both sincerity and spectacle. He’s not just an artist gaining streams — he’s becoming part of the conversation.
While Chappell Roan’s growth was more explosive in percentage terms, Role Model’s Spotify metrics still show significant upward momentum across the board. His daily streams nearly quadrupled, monthly listeners doubled, and his popularity rating jumped by 8 points — all from a much higher starting base. This suggests that, while Roan experienced a breakout from relative obscurity, Role Model is scaling from established indie recognition to widespread mainstream visibility. His rise reflects not just discovery, but a deepening connection with a rapidly growing audience.
Role Model is not just benefiting from the Coachella Effect — he’s activating it. With strong touring momentum, a viral hit released at exactly the right moment, unforgettable performances, and a growing cultural footprint, he mirrors everything that made Chappell Roan a breakout in 2024. If his current trajectory continues, Role Model could very well be 2025’s defining festival success story.
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Summary
This was the fourth and final post in our series exploring how Coachella can launch emerging artists into the mainstream. In this final edition, we used Chappell Roan’s breakout as a framework to predict who might be next—ultimately landing on Role Model as a likely contender for Coachella 2025’s breakout star.
We hope this series showed how data storytelling can bring music trends to life. Whether you're tracking artist momentum or sharing your own perspective on the industry, stories like these can spark conversation, grow your audience, and help shape your voice in the music space. We’ll revisit this story in the near future and see if the numbers told the truth.
