Spotify's Year in Music: Drake Most Streamed Artist, Major Lazer & DJ Snake Had Top Song

Spotify unveiled its annual Year in Music results on Tuesday, with Drake topping a crowded field to become the world’s most streamed artist. The rapper had over 1.8 billion streams and 46 million listeners.

The year’s most streamed female artist was Rihanna, with over 1 billion streams and 57 million listeners.

Digging deeper, Spotify said that Major Lazer and DJ Snake’s "Lean On" (ft. MØ) was not only the most streamed song of 2015, with over 540 million listens, but that it is now the most streamed song of all time. The year’s most streamed album was The Weeknd’s Beauty Behind the Madness, with 60 million listeners. Drake’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late was second. Justin Bieber set a record for the most streams in a single day, with 36 million on Nov. 13, the day his fourth album Purpose was released.

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Overall, Spotify said 75 million listeners streamed over 20 billion hours of music this year. A large driver of activity came from the new Discover Weekly playlists, which reached 1.7 billion streams since launching over the summer.

Benefitting directly from Spotify’s discovery tools was the Norwegian DJ Kygo, who has been crowned breakout artist of 2015. Songs including "Firestone" and "Stole the Show" helped him reach 1 billion streams. The most viral track of 2015 honors goes to Robin Schulz’s "Sugar" (ft. Francesco Yates). “Things that go viral are normally cat videos, small children doing stupid stuff or both - so it’s amazing when this happens to one of your songs!” Schulz said. “Thanks to everyone who shared Sugar on Spotify this year!” 

Last year’s top artist, Ed Sheeran, is now the most streamed artist of all time on Spotify, with more than 3 billion streams to date, and with over 59 million listeners this year.

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The U.S.-specific results of this year’s data varies slightly from the global stats, with Nicki Minaj besting Beyonce and Rihanna for top female honors, Fetty Wap’s "Trap Queen" as top track, and Drake’s Reading as top album. See more U.S. results below:

DATA FOR U.S. USERS

Top Five Artists in U.S.
1.       Drake
2.       The Weeknd
3.       Kanye West
4.       Ed Sheeran
5.       Eminem

Top Five Males in U.S.
1.       Drake
2.       The Weeknd
3.       Kanye West
4.       Ed Sheeran
5.       Eminem

Top Five Females in U.S.
1.       Nicki Minaj
2.       Beyoncé
3.       Rihanna
4.       Ariana Grande
5.       Lana Del Rey

Top Five Tracks in the U.S.
1.       Trap Queen – Fetty Wap
2.       The Hills – The Weeknd
3.       Earned It (Fifty Shades Of Grey) – The Weeknd
4.       Uptown Funk – Mark Ronson
5.       Lean On (feat. MØ & DJ Snake) – Major Lazer

Top Five Albums in the U.S.
1.       If You're Reading This It's Too Late – Drake
2.       Beauty Behind The Madness – The Weeknd
3.       Fetty Wap – Fetty Wap
4.       Dark Sky Paradise – Big Sean
5.       SremmLife – Rae Sremmurd 

Top Five Viral Tracks in the U.S.
1.       Here – Alessia Cara
2.       Hotline Bling – Drake
3.       Sugar (feat. Francesco Yates) – Robin Schulz
4.       Ex's & Oh's – Elle King
5.       Sunday Candy - Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment (tied for 4th place)

Top Five Playlists in the U.S.  
1.       Today's Top Hits
2.       Hot Country
3.       RapCaviar
4.       TGIF
5.       Afternoon Acoustic