Not really sure if this is small enough to count, but Tomas Novoa makes great music.

Not sure if it counts, but I find KAMRAD quite good, a lot of his streams on Spotify come from his 3 hits, otherwise it's not a lot.

Lissie. I primarily like things from her first two albums. For her songs, I either loooove them or don't care to listen at all. There's no middle ground for me.

There is this album called Soul Below from LJONES, it's available on Bandcamp with the "name your price" model so I suppose you could also get it for $0 if you are really strapped for cash.

If you like Nujabes, Fat Jon, or Pete Rock then this would be perfect for you. It's one of the rare albums that I can listen to from start to finish because there is no song there that "stands out" in some bad way. It's filled with catchy tunes, beats, and a plethora of samples. One tune even samples Bic Runga's famous Listening for The Weather song.

Here is a preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTg4v2Cnfyo

Me in the shower.

P.S. Neighbours disagree.

La Lá (suuuupertalented Peruvian singer)
Barton Fink (Canadian band, reminds me of Gorillaz sometimes)
Graveltones (hard blues duo)
Mose Allison (soft blues classic)
Dope Lemon (don't know how to describe it)
Brian Protheroe (inspired many famous musicians from what I've read)
Razika (a rock-esque girlsband from Norway)
элли на маковом поле (soft ballads)
Di Melo (underrated musician from Brazil)
Andy Shauf (poetic young man)
Smooth Hound Smith (country and blues duo)
Kahimi Karie (a talented singer-songrwriter from Japan)
Sybille Baier (sad poetic guitarist-singer)
Vashti Bunyan (poetic singer with an angel's voice)

My brother's old band but it's, perhaps, not small enough for your needs. They sold a few CDs with a not-heared-on-top-of-charts-label and made music for a small videogame, so maybe not your target. Many inspirations like Zorn, Mike Patton, tons of metal groups, 8bits music, and so on. The result gives something original :-)

Cool idea. Is there genres you're not very keen on?

There's this Slovakian band I love, playing proggy death metal on the atmospheric, dynamic and melodically intricate side of the genre, sort of old-school Greek style. They've never been very popular, likely due to where they're from and them having quite a niche style even within extreme metal boundaries. They came back a few months ago with a new album Psycold (Bandcamp) after over a decade of inactivity, and can't say anyone noticed. I highly recommend checking out their discography. Band formed in the early 90s!

how many spotify streams counts as small? or everything that is not on spotify is small?

i'll go with these then (all way below 1000 monthly streams on spotify):
Neutral
Ô Paradis
Awen
Der Blaue Reiter
Parzival
Rose Rovine E Amanti

Actually most band in these genres (Martial Industrial, Neofolk, Neoclassical) apart from like really known ones like Laibach, Rome, In The Nursery, Death In June are way below 1000 monthly streams, some even below 100

Prolapse - edgy name, but a great, not well known post-punk/noise rock band

I don t know is small enough:
My Fav:
Single artist:
Miracle of Sound: https://youtu.be/3TrC5UqdR4E or https://youtu.be/ALd0ILisKvI
Mittsies: https://youtu.be/K_7K7v2KGYU or https://youtu.be/-5QhWL8zMMk

I really love Helen Lawson's music but she hasn't released new music in years. The only other artist I can think of is Mizan K.

This is a band of a friend in Portugal.
https://nu-n.bandcamp.com/
It may be a little more niche than what you're looking for. They are starting to get some following in gothic festivals in Europe but you know...

Uncle Pecos.

Hey, you never specified it has to be live.

My friend Alex is a singer-songwriter in the Washington, DC area here in the USA. He quit his "regular" job to focus on his music a few years ago, it's his passion.

off the top of my head https://www.youtube.com/user/VocaCircus

Every barbershop quartet. A barbershop quartet is four singers singing four part harmony; one is melody (lead) with three others (bass, baritone, tenor)

I admit they are very unique since their competitions is mostly in USA, but they become more mainstream nowadays and young people start to catch up with many groups. They are rarely have concert in public btw due to the nature of the community. Some popular groups and my favorites:

Vocal Spectrum (which one of the member, Tim Waurick has a Youtube channel).
Ringmasters
The Newfangled Four
Storm Front (Yeah, I know. But that's their name. I am sorry.)1, 2, 3
'Shoptimus Prime (They are the quartet you meet in Cuphead!) 1, 2, Cuphead Theme
After Hours
Midtown 1, 2
Signature 1. 2

Or I love listening to the older ones, like FRED, Lunch Break, Masterpiece, The Gas House Gang, Michigan Jake, MaxQ, Crossroads. Or the most popular one Main Street.

when it comes to small musicians i like the lollipop guild.

First one to come to mind is 99 Payasos, Chilean punk pop https://open.spotify.com/artist/2WSHIN9bs2GkKpPCaRz23c?si=PeUkQWzKQBCVBkjQCivV8Q

Darkwood! Their stuff is so good! German neofolk, songs in German and English, very chill and hauntingly beautiful. What also doesn't hurt is that they are an awesome bunch, I've had the luck of meeting them at some shows and they are just lovely, talented people. :) Forgotten Beauty and Verlorenes Heer are probably my favourite songs of theirs. :)

https://www.youtube.com/user/notwendfeuer

How small are we talking?

able machines has only 711 likes on Facebook, and is radio-friendly, but has 511,563 plays of their song Narcissist on Spotify.

Whorticulture has 338 likes and less than 3500 plays per song. After releasing five original songs, all of which are good, they released a cover of a Tori Amos song last year. The accompanying music video, which was one continuous rotating shot, garnered some attention. This was soon followed by their first live performance.in their hometown of Denver, Colorado.
As of earlier in the year, they were remastering their songs for a physical release, and working on new songs for "season 2". Starting later this month, they are opening for Solar Fake on 10 dates of their North American tour. Just today, Whorticulture won a slot to open for Aesthetic Perfection on their upcoming tour date in Denver.

I posted a song a couple weeks ago on SoundCloud. It has one play, which may or may not have been me.

Think Mothica counts as relatively small, found her when she popped up in my YouTube mix. Songs are a vibe, then I see the music videos and it's "Ooh, I love that outfit!" XD

I don't know If they're really that small but Gemini Five is/was an amazing band and I discover It because of the "Getaway in Stockholm" videos.
Really nice rock vibe:
https://youtu.be/ZJxPPFw9PzE

I do not have any strong recommendations for this these days.
For various reasons, I am stockpiling music data, but I have not played it yet.

Lately, I've been receiving the toxic radio waves from crazy video clips.
[NSFW?]
🎞 📼

Ed Harrison released Valley recently which is different.
Been listening to Neotokyo soundtrack*s everyday for a number of years now. I guess it's ok.

Cry of Fear creator coincidentally has a fitting band.

Certain Grim Beard game reviewer uses self-made industrial concoctions in his videos, which can be enjoyable.