Spotify reveal most streamed artists

Drake’s music has been streamed 1.8 billion times in 2015 to over 46 million listeners

Spotify released their 2015 stats this morning and while there’s few surprises it’s certainly eye opening to see the sheer scale of certain artists’ popularity. Ed Sheeran proved to be the most popular artist on this side of the Atlantic for 2015 but has also emerged as the all time most-listened artist on Spotify with an insane 3 billion listens. Sam Smith and Sia also found their way into the UK’s top 5 but both narrowly missed out in the global figures.

Worldwide Drake proved most popular with the rest of the top 5 populated by The Weeknd, Ed Sheeran, Kanye and erm, Maroon 5. The top spots do present a rather bleak male-dominated view of the music industry with the highest charting female artists – Rihanna, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj, Beyoncé and Ellie Goulding – all falling outside of the overall top 5.

Major Lazer’s smash hit Lean On was the most streamed tune of the year with an unsurprising second place taken by Omi’s Cheerleader.

But what did we really learn from these statistics? The music industry has a disappointingly patriarchal landscape? Drake is a very popular artist? Maroon 5 still exist? Come on, we all know that only the latter is even remotely surprising.

(Via: Fact)