Last week, music streaming giant Spotify released its annual list of the top artists and songs that its Filipino users listened to the most, with artists such as Ed Sheeran and Sarah Geronimo, along with bands like Eraserheads and Maroon 5 topping the charts for 2015.
As for the top tracks that resonated with Spotify’s Filipino listeners the most, Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud” comes out on top with the highest number of Filipino listeners, with Ellie Goulding’s “Love Me Like You Do,” and Maroon 5’s “Sugar” trailing behind as the second and third most streamed tracks, respectively.
One of the most iconic Filipino bands, OPM pioneers Eraserheads lead the charge on the local music scene, being the top OPM artist of the year for the second year, with pop rock band Up Dharma Down in second place, and pop superstar Sarah Geronimo in third.
Sheeran once again sits comfortably at the top of the list for the most listened-to artist overall in the Philippines, with pop bands Maroon 5 and One Direction following closely behind in the second and third positions, respectively.
Spotify on the global scene
This year, more than 75 million listeners enjoyed over 20 billion hours of music, creating more than 2 billion different playlists, catering to different tastes, different genres and different people. With Spotify, music fans across the world discovered more new music and artists this year – streams of the company’s “Discover Weekly” personalized playlists, refreshed every Monday, reached 1.7 billion streams in 5 months.
Drake, the man behind such hits as “Started from the Bottom,” “Headlines,” and 2015’s “Hotline Bling,” topped Spotify’s 2015 global charts, being the most-streamed artist of this year, with 1.8 billion streams this year alone, and with a massive 46 million listeners.
Drake unseats last year’s most streamed artist, Ed Sheeran, who, despite this setback, zoomed past Drake in the overall rankings, becoming the most-streamed artist of all time, amassing a whopping three billion streams to date, with over 59 million listeners this year.
With over one billion streams and 57 million listeners, pop superstar Rihanna closes in behind Drake, as 2015’s most-streamed female artist.
As for the year’s most-streamed song, Major Lazer’s “Lean On,” featuring MØ and DJ Snake, tops the charts, sitting pretty with Spotify users listening to it 540 million times this year. “Lean On” also surged even further up the charts, becoming Spotify’s most-streamed song of all time.
With such big names, some credit must be given to the up-and-coming artists of the year, spearheaded by Norwegian DJ and producer, Kygo, crowned as the breakout artist of the year, becoming the first Spotlight artist to reach 1 billion streams, with hit songs like “Firestone” and “Stole the Show.”
“2015 has been a crazy year for me, and Spotify have supported me right from the start. It’s an honor to be their Breakout Artist of the year, and I’m super excited to see what we can do together in 2016!” Kygo said.
With music streaming experiencing on the rise, Spotify has become the most successful music streaming service globally, and the second biggest source of digital music revenue for European music labels. With 2015 providing such a wonderful roster of artists new and old, we’re all looking forward to what 2016 brings to the music scene.