Most streamed artists on Spotify

As of July 2024, “Blinding Lights” (2019) by Canadian singer the Weeknd is the most-streamed song to date. Four artists tie for having the most songs (including features) in the top 100; The Weeknd, Dua Lipa, Post Malone and Bruno Mars each have five. The newest song in the top 100 is “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus (2023), while the oldest song is Queen‘s “Bohemian Rhapsody” (1975).

Who are the most streamed artists of all-time on Spotify? Here we have the Top 10 (As of July 2024).

1. Taylor Swift – 84,931,566,158

At 11, Taylor Swift travelled to Nashville with her mother to visit record labels and submit demo tapes of Dolly Parton and Dixie Chicks karaoke covers. She was rejected by all the labels, which led her to focus on songwriting. Swift became a billionaire in October 2023, becoming the first musician to achieve the status “solely based on her songs and performances”. During the Eras Tour, Swift donated to food banks at every stop, she also directly employed local businesses throughout the tour and gave $55 million in bonus payments to her entire crew.

2. Drake – 77,090,696,790

At 15, Drake was introduced to an acting agent and was given a role on the Canadian teen drama series Degrassi: The Next Generation, in which Drake portrayed Jimmy Brooks, a basketball star who became physically disabled after he was shot by a classmate. Being musically inspired by Jay-Z and Clipse, Drake self-released his debut mixtape, Room for Improvement in 2006 and sold roughly 6,000 copies for which Drake received $304.04 in royalties. Drake is now the highest-certified digital singles artist ever in the United States, having moved 142 million units based on combined sales and on-demand streams.

3. Bad Bunny – 72,492,170,734

Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio known professionally as Bad Bunny is primarily a Latin trap and reggaeton artist. He started to publish his songs through SoundCloud in 2013. As of June 2022, the musician has had sixty-five songs enter the Billboard Hot 100, including the number-one hit “I Like It” (with Cardi B and J Balvin). Bad Bunny has collaborated with multiple artists, including Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez, Maluma, Daddy Yankee, Anuel AA, Enrique Iglesias, Becky G, Karol G, Farruko, Ozuna, Prince Royce and Marc Anthony.

4. The Weeknd 58,645,669,170

Canadian singer-songwriter Abel Makkonen Tesfaye is known professionally as the Weeknd. During his early life he experienced homelessness and was incarcerated on several occasions after being engaged in drug use, including substances such as ketamine, cocaine, MDMA and magic mushrooms, stating that drugs were a “crutch” for him when he wrote music. In December 2010, Tesfaye uploaded “What You Need”, “Loft Music” and “The Morning” to YouTube under the username “xoxxxoooxo” with his identity undisclosed initially. These songs gained attention online and were later acknowledged in a blog post by the rapper Drake. His second album Beauty Behind the Madness (2015), features a guest appearance from Ed Sheeran and became his first US number 1 album.

5. Ed Sheeran 48,672,353,865

A 2004 school report described Ed Sheeran as a “natural performer”, and his classmates also voted him “most likely to be famous”. He began recording music in 2004, and at the age of thirteen independently released his first collection of work, titled Spinning Man. Sheeran began to be seen by more people over the internet through YouTube and his fan base expanded, with him also receiving praise from Elton John. In 2011, Sheeran released the independent EP, No. 5 Collaborations Project, which gained mainstream attention for having reached number 2 in the iTunes chart without any promotion or label, selling over 7,000 copies in the first week. Sheeran is now one of the world’s best-selling artists with more than 150 million records sold. He has received four Grammy Awards, and five Brit Awards and in 2015 and 2018, he received the Ivor Novello Award for Songwriter of the Year.

6. Ariana Grande 45,636,285,783

Regarded as a pop icon and an influential figure in popular music, Ariana Grande is noted for her four-octave vocal range and her signature use of the whistle register. As a young child, Grande performed with the Fort Lauderdale Children’s Theater, playing her first role as the title character in the musical Annie. She rose to prominence for her performance as Cat Valentine in the Nickelodeon television series Victorious. She is the most streamed female artist of the 2010s on Spotify and Apple Music and has amassed 85 chart entries on the Billboard Hot 100 — the third most entries for a female artist—including ten number-ones. As of 2023, Grande has broken thirty-five Guinness World Records. These records included the most songs to debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, most followers on Spotify (female), most monthly listeners on Spotify (female), most streamed act on Spotify (female), most streamed track in one week by a female artist on the Billboard charts.

7. Eminem 43,262,633,528

Eminem made his first music video appearance in 1992 in a song titled, “Do-Da-Dippity”, by Champtown. His debut album Infinite was a commercial failure upon its release in 1996. One lyrical subject of Infinite was his struggle to raise his newborn daughter on little money. He cooked and washed dishes for minimum wage at Gilbert’s Lodge, a family-style restaurant at St. Clair Shores. Eminem attracted attention when he developed Slim Shady, a sadistic, violent alter ego. The character allowed him to express his anger with lyrics about drugs, rape and murder. In the spring of 1997 he recorded his debut EP, the Slim Shady EP. The Marshall Mathers LP was released in May 2000 and sold 1.76 million copies in its first week. He was the best-selling music artist in the United States for the 2000s. He was the first artist to have ten albums consecutively debut at number one on the Billboard 200 chart and has had five number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100.

8. Justin Bieber 43,227,640,326

In early 2007, aged 12, Bieber performed Ne-Yo’s “So Sick” for a local singing competition in Stratford, in which he placed second. While searching for videos of a different singer, Scooter Braun, a former marketing executive of So So Def Recordings, clicked on one of Bieber’s 2007 YouTube videos by accident. Impressed, Braun tracked down, Bieber’s school which resulted in Bieber going to Atlanta, Georgia with Braun to record a demo tape. Following the release of his fourth studio album Purpose, Bieber set major milestones globally. He became the first artist, since Elvis Presley in 2005, to replace his own song as number one on the UK Singles Chart. He is the first artist in history to occupy the entire top three of the UK Singles Chart. Throughout his career, Bieber has sold an estimated 150 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time.

9. Post Malone 39,941,926,247

Austin Richard Post known professionally as Post Malone, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. His father had been a DJ in his youth and introduced Malone to many different genres of music including hip hop, country, and rock. Malone cites Bob Dylan, in whom he became interested around the age of 15, as an influence on his music, calling him “a genius”. His second studio album Beerbongs & Bentleys broke streaming records on Spotify and debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200. The album also broke the record for the most simultaneous top 20 entries on the US Billboard Hot 100 songs chart with nine songs in the top 20 shattering the previous record of six by The Beatles who held the record for 54 years, as they charted six songs in the top 20 on charts dated April 11 and 18, 1964. Malone has a tattoo of U.S. President John F. Kennedy on his arm, and has said that Kennedy was “the only President to speak out against the crazy corruption stuff that’s going on in our government nowadays.”

10. Kanye West 39,692,910,951

West demonstrated an affinity for the arts at an early age; he began writing poetry when he was five years old. After graduating from high school, West received a scholarship to attend Chicago’s American Academy of Art in 1997 and began taking painting classes. West struggled to attain a record deal as a rapper. Multiple record companies, including Capitol Records, denied or ignored him because he did not portray the gangsta image prominent in mainstream hip-hop at the time. In Spotify’s first ten years from 2008 to 2018, West was the sixth most streamed artist, and the fourth fastest artist to reach one billion streams. In April 2012, West began dating reality television star Kim Kardashian, They were married at Fort di Belvedere in Florence in May 2014. West has been one of the wealthiest musical artists; his net worth was as high as $1.8 billion in 2021.