Spotify’s Most Streamed Music of 2014: It’s a Pretty Surprising List
To celebrate the impending end of 2014 (wow, where did the year go?) Spotify put together some pretty incredible stats on its year in music. You might think you know what everyone was streaming in 2014, but the reality is probably quite different.
Along with tracking the basics like the top male and female artists (Ed Sheeran and Katy Perry led the list), top groups (Coldplay was number one), and the most played songs (Pharrell Williams’ Happy, Clean Bandit’s Rather Be, and Calvin Harris’ Summer took the reigning spots), the digital music service also released some pretty interesting data on its year in general.
According to Spotify, more hangover themed Playlists are streamed on January 1, than any other day of the year, no surprise there. Interestingly, their “Hangover Friendly Singer-Songwriter” playlist even has 125,144 followers. The also made the keen observation that the typical New Year’s Resolution of getting into shape doesn’t actually kick off until January 7, the day they have the highest spike in workout playlists.
And Spotify was there for some of our cultural and historical milestones too in 2014. On March 2, Colorado unofficially held their “celebration of weed culture” where marijuana stores generated over $22 million in sales. Coincidentally, throughout 2014, Spotify noticed that their “Chill Out” playlists trended significantly higher on Colorado campuses than anywhere else in the nation.
Another interesting—though discouraing—tid-bit we picked up from the data mined by Spotify, is the lack of diversity among the artists who made their top lists. 2014, unfortunately, seems like a pretty white washed year in music. Here’s to hoping that 2015 looks different in that regard.
Here, the top artists streamed on Spotify in 2014:
Top 5 Male Artists:
1.Ed Sheeran
2.Eminem
3.Calvin Harris
4.Avicii
5.David Guetta
Top 5 Female Arists:
1.Katy Perry
2.Ariana Grande
3.Lana Del Ray
4.Beyonce
5.Lorde
Top 5 Groups:
1.Coldplay
2.Imagine Dragons
3.Maroon 5
4.One Republic
5. One Direction
Top 5 Songs :
1. “Happy” by Pharrell Williams
2. “Rather Be” by Clean Bandit
3. “Summer” by Calvin Harris
4. “Dark Horse” by Katy Perry
5. “All of Me” by John Legend
Are you surprised by who made the top lists? Share your thoughts in the comments!
