Moby Leads DJ Radar's Downtempo Board, With Four Tet 8 Points Behind

Downtempo is the part of electronic music that doesn't chase the peak-time rush. It favours slower tempos, room to breathe and detail over impact. On DJ Radar, the downtempo board is a small one: 4 DJs are ranked in the genre family right now. That makes every placing count.

The board has a broader idea of downtempo than the name suggests. Only one of the four leaders lists Downtempo as their main genre. The other three are filed under Leftfield / Electronica. That's the clearest definition the board gives: downtempo here is a wide family, and its centre is as much about experimentation as about tempo.

Moby holds the top spot with a credit score of 908 and 8,865 votes, the highest vote count on the board. Moby is also the only leader whose main genre is listed as Downtempo itself, which makes the No. 1 the most direct expression of the genre in this group.

The platform numbers are broad. Moby has 9,748,430 Spotify monthly listeners, 2,349,964 Spotify followers, 1,090,000 YouTube subscribers and 1,753,646 Instagram followers. That reach covers streaming, video and social alike.

Four Tet sits 8 points behind the leader with a credit score of 900, from 7,751 votes. The voting is the interesting part: Four Tet has fewer votes than DJ Shadow in third, yet ranks higher. Credit score clearly measures more than raw vote totals.

Four Tet's strongest signal sits on the club-culture side. With 91,202 RA followers, Four Tet leads the downtempo board on Resident Advisor, ahead of Moby's 80,123. Add 2,997,143 Spotify monthly listeners and 631,429 Instagram followers, and the profile is just as strong in the club world as on streaming.

DJ Shadow comes third with a credit score of 886 and 7,978 votes, the second-highest vote count of the four. On streaming, DJ Shadow is second only to Moby, with 5,747,700 Spotify monthly listeners and 2,023,358 Last.fm listeners.

DJ Shadow also leads the board on Mixcloud with 30,318 followers, almost double Moby's 16,796. Mixcloud is where long-form mixes live, so that count says something about how this audience listens.

Floating Points completes the board with a credit score of 855 from 7,032 votes. The streaming numbers are the smallest of the four, at 598,460 Spotify monthly listeners and 429,711 Spotify followers. But 61,576 RA followers puts Floating Points ahead of DJ Shadow on Resident Advisor.

That split matters. Floating Points has a strong following in the club-culture press and community, which is a different kind of support from mass streaming.

A few patterns stand out:

- Two countries, evenly split. The United States (Moby, DJ Shadow) and the United Kingdom (Four Tet, Floating Points) each hold two of the four spots. - Electronica is the backbone. Three of four leaders are listed under Leftfield / Electronica, so the family leans exploratory rather than purely ambient or chill. - Reach and rank don't line up exactly. DJ Shadow outpolls Four Tet and outstreams Four Tet on Spotify, but still ranks below. Floating Points has the smallest streaming numbers but a solid RA base. - The top is close, the base is wider. There are 8 points between first and second. Floating Points sits 53 points off the lead.

With only 4 DJs on the board, small movements in votes or credit score could change the order quickly. For now, Moby leads, and an electronica-heavy chasing pack defines the sound.