Bhutan’s Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Employment launched the country’s first Artist Registration System, “Creative Bhutan,” to build a comprehensive database of artists. The country’s first national music awards were presented at an event, featuring Sonam Wangchen as Trending Artist and Kelden Lhamo as Trending Artist. The winners were determined using data from Spotify and YouTube, including monthly listener numbers and song streams. According to him, Spotify offers information like the total number of song streams and the number of monthly listeners on an artist’s profile. Finding the most popular male and female artists was made easier by the monthly listeners, which display the number of individuals actively following and listening to an artist.
The most popular song was chosen based on the overall number of streams. He claimed that despite SoundCloud’s widespread use in the nation, it was challenging to use its data effectively because to piracy and duplicate uploads, which occasionally caused unapproved versions to receive more streams than authorized ones. In order to combat copyright infringement and assist the creative industry, he urged people to support their favorite musicians by streaming music through their official channels.