Just 22 Artists...

That's the number of artists that now comprise the majority of Spotify streams in the U.S. Why would that number have surprised yesterday's "experts"?

Every year, hundreds of artists spend at least a week among the Spotfy 200, the official weekly chart tracking plays on the U.S.’s dominant music streaming platform.

But how many of those artists do people actually play?

For each year, I’ve ranked the number of artists it takes to comprise 50% of the total streams among the Spotify 200. (Specifically, I examined every primary artist, grouping songs featuring more than one artist with the first artist listed for each title.)

Of the hundreds of artists with hits each year, how many comprise the majority of America’s hit music streaming on Spotify?

Not many.

On average, only about 25 artists receive the majority of Americans’ Spotify plays of hit songs each year. Last year—and so far this year—it’s just 22 artists.

And if we drill down to the artists who comprise the top 25 percent of Spotify streams each year? You won’t need to take off your socks to count them.

This next graph gives you a visual perspective on how truly few artists garner the bulk of America’s hit music streaming. That tiny group at the bottom are the artists who really count as stars.

Below, we’ll review those artists who comprised the majority of the hit music streams on Spotify for each year.

2019 saw the surprise debut of Lil Nas X with the record-setting Old Town Road, as well as the mainstream breakout of Billie Eilish and a massive album release for Ariana Grande. Topping them all, however, was Post Malone.

In That Year That Shall Not Be Named, Post Malone remained among the elite. Jack Harlow debuted, along with Pop Smoke following his murder. But it was Juice WRLD receiving twice as many streams as second-place Post Malone.

2021 saw Olivia Rodrigo debut as the year’s biggest artist. It was also Morgan Wallen’s first year among the elite artists. Lil Nas X garnered more streams in ‘21 than he did when “Old Town Road” owned every medium.

Can we really say Bad Bunny only appeals to Hispanic audiences when he garnered over 1.6 billion plays on Spotify in the U.S. in 2022? That’s more than Taylor Swift, Drake, Harry Styles, and the other artists who had a great year in ‘22.

Remember when Taylor Swift would not allow her songs on streaming so you had to buy her CDs? Not only was she Spotify’s top artist in the U.S.A. in 2023, she’s the first to surpass 2 billion streams—and that’s just the ones that made the Spotify 200 chart.

Remember when Country fans didn’t stream much compared to other genre fans? Morgan Wallen’s 2 billion streams ended that notion in 2023. Zach Bryan helped as well, and may have cracked the control of the Nashville Industrial Complex in the process.

Taylor Swift is Spotify’s most-streamed artist again so far in 2024 (the graph below shows through September), with over 2 billion streams and time still left in the year. Country’s Zach Bryan and Morgan Wallen remain strong. Kendrick Lamar took the dis track—a sub-genre not known for long-lasting or widespread appeal—and made a mass appeal hit out of his Drake take down. Finally, Chappel Roan is the biggest debut artist of 2024.

Why is it significant that only 22 artists receive the majority of Spotify’s top 200 streams?

Not too long ago, I recall culture and tech experts alike confidently proclaiming that the intent would wipe out mass appeal hits. With fans having unlimited and unhampered access to content, we would all find the media that most personally appealed to us. The day of the mass appeal hit song would be over.

Yet here we are in 2024. Streaming music is a mainstream activity. And despite having access to millions of songs in our pockets, Taylor Swift is a ubiquitous cultural icon. The prediction that the long tail would kill off the hit song was wrong.

As media continues evolving, be careful of the predictions of pundits who place too much stock into technology and give too little thought to human nature.

Even if that pundit is yours truly.

Data source for this post: Spotify Charts (2019-2024 for the USA): https://charts.spotify.com/charts/overview/us