Finding Indigenous Artists
This page has links to musicians' websites, streaming sites, or social media to be able to find where you can stream their music from, whether that is YouTube or Spotify.
Don't have a specific artist in mind? We have highlighted artists we found from the Lower Mainland and British Columbia.
Looking for artists from across North America? Check out the Indigenous Music Countdown, hosted by Roz McIvor. This radio program spotlights new Indigenous music and shares interviews from artists from several genres like hip-hop, rock, country, alternative, rock, folk and pop/dance.
Indigenous Music Awards can show who has been nominated in your favourite genre. They currently have a legacy series showcasing long standing Indigenous musicians in the industry
Digital Drum is a music media platform that showcases innovative indigenous talent, with streamable music and music playlists, as well as a blog to stay up to date with music news. Our favourite section is the studio spotlights.
Following Indigenous focused organizations or specific people's social media accounts that have a history of highlighting Indigenous artists and Indigenous achievements is one way to find new artists to add to your playlists. Indigenous artists are always highlighting other Indigenous artists for their fans, and some of those new artists might just become your new favourites.
On YouTube, a great way to find new artists to listen to is to start listening to the artists you already know about and enjoy to see what their algorithm pulls up to play next for you. Some Indigenous music festivals have playlists already made for you!
CBC has created a list of musicians from the 1960s to today of the most popular Indigenous musicians decade by decade, though the list is not exhaustive.
CBC's Reclaimed series is a weekly series on CBC Radio that explores the many worlds of contemporary Indigenous music from traditional songs and acoustic sounds to Native hip-hop, R&B, and electric powwow and you can go back and listen to episodes from June of 2018 to the present.
Indigenous Musician Collection
We have a small selection of artists sorted in loose genres below. Many of these are only available through streaming platforms. Where possible we have linked to the artist's own website. Alternatively, we have linked to the artist's playlist on a platform where their music can be accessed for free.
Do you know of an Indigenous musician or artist that should be on this list? Email us at xwi7xwa.library@ubc.ca and let us know their name so we can add them!