Spotify’s Year in Music looks back at the soundtrack of this year, which saw over 50 million Spotify users listen to over 7 billion hours of music in 2014.
Ed Sheeran is crowned the most streamed artist of 2014, with the UK singer songwriter being listened to more than 860 million times across the globe this year on Spotify. Ed Sheeran also holds the title for the most streamed album for x which was released in June which had over 430 million streams from the album by fans.
Top Five Global Artists
1. Ed Sheeran
2. Eminem
3. Coldplay
4. Calvin Harris
5. Katy Perry
Top Five Global Males
1. Ed Sheeran
2. Eminem
3. Calvin Harris
4. Avicii
5. David Guetta
Top Five Global Females
1. Katy Perry
2. Ariana Grande
3. Lana Del Rey
4. Beyoncé
5. Lorde
Top Five Global Groups
1. Coldplay
2. Imagine Dragons
3. Maroon 5
4. OneRepublic
5. One Direction
Top Five Global Tracks
1. Happy – From “Despicable Me 2” – Pharrell Williams
2. Rather Be (feat. Jess Glynne) – Clean Bandit
3. Summer – Calvin Harris
4. Dark Horse – Katy Perry
5. All of Me – John Legend
2014 also saw Katy Perry take the crown from Rihanna – who has held the title consecutively for the previous two years – as the most streamed female on Spotify. Dark Horse (Katy Perry) spent 11 weeks at #1 on Spotify’s US Top 50 chart, the longest run at the top of the chart in 2014.
Happy by Pharrell Williams is the most streamed track in the world in 2014 on Spotify, with over 260m plays.
In Malaysia, Coldplay is the most streamed artist of 2014, narrowly beating out Ed Sheeran who takes the second spot. However, Sheeran grabs the top spot for the most streamed album with x. Meanwhile, Jay Chou tops the streaming charts as the most streamed Asian artist, while Yuna ranks a close second. The track with the highest number of streams among Malaysian music fans is ‘Rude’ by Magic!.
Top 10 most streamed artists (Malaysia)
1. Coldplay
2. Ed Sheeran
3. Maroon 5
4. Ariana Grande
5. Katy Perry
6. Taylor Swift
7. Calvin Harris
8. Sam Smith
9. OneRepublic
10. Jay Chou (周杰倫)
Top 10 most streamed Asian artists (Malaysia)
1. Jay Chou (周杰伦)
2. Yuna
3. Eason Chan (陈奕迅)
4. Wang Lee Hom (王力宏)
5. Yiruma
6. Jacky Cheung (张学友)
7. Mayday (五月天)
8. 2NE1
9. JJ Lin (林俊杰)
10. Hafiz Hamidun
Top 10 most streamed tracks (Malaysia)
1. Magic! – Rude
2. John Legend – All of Me
3. Sia – Chandelier
4. Pharrell Williams – Happy – From “Despicable Me 2”
5. Maroon 5 – Maps
6. Calvin Harris – Summer
7. Coldplay – A Sky Full of Stars
8. Sam Smith – Stay With Me
9. Passenger – Let Her Go
10. OneRepublic – Counting Stars
Top 10 most streamed albums (Malaysia)
1. x – Ed Sheeran
2. In The Lonely Hour – Sam Smith
3. V – Maroon 5
4. The New Classic – Iggy Azalea
5. My Everything – Ariana Grande
6. 5 Seconds Of Summer – 5 Seconds Of Summer
7. The Fault In Our Stars: Music From The Motion Picture – The Fault In Our Stars
8. G I R L – Pharrell Williams
9. 1000 Forms of Fear – Sia
10. Don’t Kill the Magic – MAGIC!
More than 733 million playlists have been created on Spotify this year, with ‘Today’s Top Hits’ being the most popular with over 2.3 million followers. Spotify also revealed that 10th October was officially the loudest day of the year, with more heavy rock and metal played than any other day, while 30th May was the happiest day, with the biggest number of playlists titled ‘happy’ being streamed on repeat.
Check out spotify.com/2014. The site will identify users’ most-played songs, favourite artists and the playlist that soundtracked their year. They can also discover how many minutes of music they enjoyed in 2014, which genres they listened to most, favourite artists by season, and their most musical day of the week.