Flume’s Never Be Like You the top single of 2016

Never Be Like You, released in January, was Flume’s first No 1 on the ARIA singles chart.

The Music Network’s ranking caps what has been a remarkable year for Flume. Picture: Jonathan Ng

It wasn’t so long ago that Harley Streten’s career involved little more than creating music in his bedroom. These days the career of the 24-year-old global phenomenon known as Flume appears to be on an unstoppable upwards trajectory.

Yesterday the Sydney-based producer’s No 1 hit with Canadian singer Kai, Never Be Like You, dominated midyear charts released by music industry publication The Music Network, taking the top spot in the singles chart in the report on singles and market share for the first half of this year.

The top placing underlines a remarkable year for Flume, who also topped the album charts with his Skin, which has had great success overseas as well, including in the US. His Australian tour at the end of this year sold out quickly and extra dates had to be added.

Never Be Like You, released in January, was Flume’s first No 1 on the ARIA singles chart but also topped several charts across radio and streaming services in the January-June period. Another Australian artist, Sia, also scores well in the report, with her song Cheap Thrills second to Flume among the top 10 Australian tracks on the Airplay Hot 100 chart.

The half-yearly report provides detailed statistics on singles performances across 20 charts, including the ARIA singles chart, the AIR chart, which represents the independent music industry, as well as radio play charts and charts based on plays on streaming services such as iTunes, Spotify and Shazam.

Flume’s song topped nine of those charts, including the ARIA Streaming Top 10 and in all the state-based radio play charts except in Tasmania.

ARIA chief executive Dan Rosen says in the report the growth in streaming has significantly increased the profile of local talent, but those artists need continued support. “Streaming is an amazing solution for music fans,” Rosen says. “The ability to listen to anything you want at any time you want on any device is incredible. It’s returning growth to the industry; we were up 5 per cent last year and hopefully that trend will continue this year, but we need to make sure that we’re still allowing Australian talent to develop and to have success.”

The leading overseas performers in the report include Justin Bieber’s Sorry and his collaboration with Ed Sheeran, Love Yourself, alongside Charlie Puth’s One Call Away and One Dance by Drake featuring Wizkid and Kyla.