Spotify has revealed that Drake is its most streamed artist of 2016.
The streaming service has published its yearly lists analysing the artists, albums, tracks and genres its users listened to most.
Drake received more than 4.7 billion global Spotify streams this year, and comes out on top in the UK list for the second time in a row, beating Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Kanye West and Coldplay to No.1. The Canadian rapper has more than doubled his 1.8 million streams from last year.
With over 2.5bn global streams, Rihanna was also the UK's most streamed female artist, ahead of Sia, Adele, Ariana Grande and Beyoncé. Twenty One Pilots round out the Top 5 most streamed male artists in the UK, with Drake, Justin Bieber, Kanye West and Coldplay occupying the four slots above them.
Drake’s One Dance was the most streamed track and is now Spotify’s most popular song ever. Also in the Top 5 most streamed UK singles are Sia’s Cheap Thrills, Mike Posner’s I Took A Pill In Ibiza (Seeb remix), Lukas Graham’s 7 Years and This Is What You Came For by Calvin Harris. The rapper’s Views was the most streamed album too, ahead of Justin Bieber’s Purpose and Rihanna’s Anti.
Hot Hits UK came out on top as the platform’s most popular playlist, while Zayn Malik was the most popular breakout artist. David Bowie was the top artist in the alternative genre, with Arctic Monkeys, Michael Jackson, Bob Marley & The Wailers, and Michael Bublé most popular in rock, soul and jazz respectively.
Drake’s success in Spotify’s year end lists comes even after he initially released Views exclusively via Apple Music in April.
In this week’s edition of Music Week, Spotify’s head of content programming for the UK, Australia and New Zeland, George Ergatoudis, commented on such deals.
“Spotify is so far ahead in terms of reach that, if you’re not working with us, you’re essentially shooting yourself in the foot. It really doesn’t make any sense,” he said.
On the subject of whether or not artists that do exclusives elsewhere get on Spotify playlists he added: “If you want to partner with us, be on a project with us, be with us from the beginning – that’s where the benefits are going to be. So obviously we are favouring the labels, artists and managers that want to work with us.”
Read the full interview here.
To see full details of Spotify’s year end lists go to spotify.com/2016.
FOLLOW 
