Spotify maps the music

London is partial to local hip hop duo Krept and Kronan and art rock band Everything Everything. Sydney lends its ears to electro dance producer Golden Features. Rio loves funk singer MC Nego do Borel.

Those are the results music streaming service Spotify has highlighted on a new online map of the world it has produced, showing the musical tastes of nearly 1,000 cities in 60 countries.

The Swedish company's site seeks to showcase what non-mainstream tunes are currently running hot among its users around the planet.

But it's not the whole planet: reflecting Spotify's user base, the map essentially focuses on Europe, the Americas and Oceania.

Only a few cities in Asia, namely in Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Taiwan, are shown, and big swathes of the planet -- Africa, the Middle East, India and Russia -- are blank.

For each city that is included, a playlist pops up showing the prevalent tastes of Spotify users there, concentrating on "distinctive" songs -- meaning not the global hits heard worldwide, but usually local or national bands that have earned prominence.

"This is music that people in each city listen to quite a bit, which people in other cities also do not listen to very much. So it is, exactly, the music that makes them different from people everywhere else," Spotify said.

It added that the map is based on analyses of billions of "listener/track relationships" and is updated twice a month.

Some of the first commenters on the site, though, lamented the absence of their city on the interface.

"You seriously think in Africa we don't stream music. SMH (shaking my head). This is such rubbish," wrote one user.

Many others were dismayed with the results given.

"According to this map, in Mexico we listen to almost pure crap," wrote one user.

"Rio de Janeiro is only funk and pagode (a subgenre of samba)?! This map doesn't represent me," wrote another.

But many commenters hailed the opportunity to explore musical preferences around the world.

- Hip hop on top -

One of the biggest general trends revealed by the map is the broad success of hip hop, which Spotify said was the genre most represented in playlists, regardless of geography and language.

While London digs tracks from Krept and Konan's album "The Long Way Home" and Everything Everything's "Get to Heaven", in the northern English city of Liverpool, British DJ David Zowie tops the list.

In New York, electro pair The Chainsmokers reign, while Los Angeles streams the partymakers Grupo Maximo Grado and Omar Ruiz.

In the southern hemisphere, Sydney dances to Golden Features and RUFUS. Brasilia reveres Brazilian rap by the likes of 3 Um So and Tribo da Periferia.

In France, Paris has turned to Jeanne Added, a jazz-trained singer who's turned to hard rock.

The map can be viewed at: https://eliotvb.cartodb.com/viz/971d1556-0959-11e5-b1a4-0e9d821ea90d/public_map
Source: AFP