Recently Spotify and Apple revealed the most-streamed songs of 2021. According to their figures pop stars Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny were among the list of most-streamed artists of the year.
But this year’s limelight was taken by newcomer Olivia Rodrigo who took the top spot in the UK – with her punk-pop anthem Good 4U. It became the most-played song on both Apple as well as Spotify. Her debut song, Drivers License was a super hit and the biggest song for Spotify users worldwide.
Apple users on the other hand preferred the Korean Boyband BTS, whose single Dynamite was the most-played song of the year.
Initially, when Dynamite was released in 2020, it failed to make Spotify’s top five – presumably because the streaming service only launched in the band’s native South Korea this year
In the year-end charts, Dua Lipa’s album Future Nostalgia became Spotify’s second most-played album, after Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour. Apart from that, Ed Sheeran’s Bad Habits was Spotify’s third-biggest hit of 2021 and was in 53rd position in Apple’s charts.
The music streaming app revealed the year’s most popular artist overall – Bad Bunny, who achieved an impressive total of 9.1 billion streams.
“I don’t into it to be the number one most-streamed artist,” said the 27-year-old, upon hearing the news. “I just make music. I just enjoy my ‘work’.”
Moreover, Taylor Swift became Spotify’s second most played artist for the new versions of her classic albums Fearless and Red, followed by BTS, Drake and Justin Bieber in the chart.
About 48% of the global streaming market is occupied by Spotify and Apple Music, together. Also, successful artists can attract huge numbers of plays for their most popular tracks.
All of the songs in Spotify’s top five were streamed more than 1 billion times over the last 12 months. The profits earned from streaming have helped the music industry to improve the piracy crisis of the 2000s, with UK record labels making £736.5 million the previous year.
