Just some interesting stats from Spotify's playcounts

lolly said:
Yes, apparently it climbed from #21 to #17 on that list I posted above in the space of a month. And I assume a small part of the reason why Voulez-Vous was the only album to rechart a couple of weeks ago when all the picture discs were released.
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:david:

Certainly it was streaming which elevated VV into the overall chart, because on sales only The Visitors performed better.

I think I'm right in saying that the top performing streaming tracks on an album are averaged out or something in the Great Chart Equation, but I guess it's likely that people streaming Angeleyes may well have gone on to stream other tracks on the album - particularly when it looks like Gimme is such a streaming favourite already and is on the deluxe version of that album.
 
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lolly said:
Oh go on then. I'll do the Abba songs with more than 50m, although I have stolen it from ukmix (thanks Benny).


739m Dancing Queen
406m Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!
318m Mamma Mia
253m The Winner Takes It All
211m Take A Chance On Me
187m Lay All Your Love On Me
186m Waterloo
181m Super Trouper
172m Chiquitita
112m SOS
107m Voulez-Vous
106m Fernando
104m Knowing Me Knowing You
100m Does Your Mother Know
91m Money Money Money
67m I Have A Dream
66m Angeleyes
62m One Of Us
61m Thank You For The Music
57m Honey Honey
54m Slipping Through My Fingers
52m Don't Shut Me Down
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Interestingly there are 22 Abba songs with 50m+ streams, but 25 tracks from the Mamma Mia soundtracks with 50m+. LAYLOM is the highest MM track with 125m.

This does mean there are a few Abba tracks which have been streamed more in their MM cover versions than the originals - usually the album tracks which were featured in the films but also The Name Of The Game only has 40.4m in its original version, but 39m from its MM2 version, plus a further 33m from MM1. That almost disgusts me.

I assume the MM versions won't be adding that much any more, though...
 
Another one you say? OK

ALICIA KEYS


706m If I Ain't Got You
629m No-One
495m My Boo (with Usher)
435m Girl On Fire
336m Fallin'
314m Empire State Of Mind II

98m Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart :(


I get No-One and Girl On Fire (even if they're both her worst singles IMO) but If I Ain't Got You? I had no idea.

My Boo must be entirely US based, I don't think that was a thing outside America.
 
funky said:
Another one you say? OK

ALICIA KEYS


706m If I Ain't Got You
629m No-One
495m My Boo (with Usher)
435m Girl On Fire
336m Fallin'
314m Empire State Of Mind II

98m Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart :(


I get No-One and Girl On Fire (even if they're both her worst singles IMO) but If I Ain't Got You? I had no idea.

My Boo must be entirely US based, I don't think that was a thing outside America.
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This pretty much is mine with my experience of which songs of hers I hear most in public. If I ain’t got You has become a classic
 
I do like If I Ain't Got You but I think You Don't Know My Name is the best ballad from that album.

Gorgeous video too.

If I Ain't Got You way more accessible as a classic ballad though I guess.
 
funky said:
Another one you say? OK

ALICIA KEYS


706m If I Ain't Got You
629m No-One
495m My Boo (with Usher)
435m Girl On Fire
336m Fallin'
314m Empire State Of Mind II

98m Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart :(


I get No-One and Girl On Fire (even if they're both her worst singles IMO) but If I Ain't Got You? I had no idea.

My Boo must be entirely US based, I don't think that was a thing outside America.
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Boring artist's most boring songs are her highest streamed by boring GP*
What a shocker!


(*that's general public for some of you that may not be au fait with gay stan terminology; not general physician. Thank you.)
 
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No One is one of those cases where it would be less bad if it was sung by somebody else. See also a lot of Maroon 5 songs.
 
Unfortunately it's like she had this theory that if she moved away from her lush neo soul roots and released 4 minutes of continuous wailing, she'd score a massive hit.

Turns out she was RIGHT :D
 
Prompted by the Backstreet Boys vs *Nsync thread from this week I went into Spotify for playcount comparisons and they're very revealing.

13,937,073 monthly listeners for the BSB while *Nsync has 6,100,187 :o
 
lolly said:
Oh go on then. I'll do the Abba songs with more than 50m, although I have stolen it from ukmix (thanks Benny).


739m Dancing Queen
406m Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!
318m Mamma Mia
253m The Winner Takes It All
211m Take A Chance On Me
187m Lay All Your Love On Me
186m Waterloo
181m Super Trouper
172m Chiquitita
112m SOS
107m Voulez-Vous
106m Fernando
104m Knowing Me Knowing You
100m Does Your Mother Know
91m Money Money Money
67m I Have A Dream
66m Angeleyes
62m One Of Us
61m Thank You For The Music
57m Honey Honey
54m Slipping Through My Fingers
52m Don't Shut Me Down
Click to expand...
Update (again thanks ukmix)

780m Dancing Queen (+41m)
440m Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (+31m)
335m Mamma Mia (+17m)
264m The Winner Takes It All (+11m)
223m Take A Chance On Me (+12m)
206m Lay All Your Love On Me (+19m)
197m Waterloo (+11m)
190m Super Trouper (+9m)
186m Chiquitita (+14m)
121m SOS (+9m)
114m Voulez-Vous (+7m)
111m Fernando (+5m)
109m Knowing Me Knowing You (+5m)
105m Does Your Mother Know (+5m)
97m Money Money Money (+6m)
95m Angeleyes (+29m)
70m I Have A Dream (+3m)
64m One Of Us (+2m)
64m Thank You For The Music (+3m)
61m Slipping Through My Fingers (+7m)
60m Honey Honey (+3m)
55m Don't Shut Me Down (+3m)
 
There's a piece on the BBC about Pavement and it covers the TikTok/Spotify success of the b-side "Harness Your Hopes" which, despite not being a single or appearing on any of their albums, is their biggest streaming hit.

Heartwarming, in its way - it's a fun song with Stephen Markmus at his most playful. Also indicative of how streaming has liberated songs from their 'status' i.e. single, album track, b-side.

It has over 83M steams on Spotify with its nearest rival Cut Your Hair having just under 33M.
 
ON-TOPIC GEEKERY MOMENT

The 77th S Club reunion news has everyone comparing the poor sods unfavourably to Steps, who seem to command much more respect and goodwill these days, despite OUR TINA

But Spotify seems to suggest that it's actually S Club's hits that have endured more strongly... were they simply a bigger deal outside of the UK?

"Original" era singles only

01. Bring It All Back - 100m
02. Never Had A Dream Come True - 82m
03. Reach - 67m
04. Don't Stop Movin' - 65m
05. 5,6,7,8 - 60m
06. Have You Ever - 45m
07. S Club Party - 37m
08. Tragedy - 27m
09. It's The Way You Make Me Feel - 22m
10. Last Thing On My Mind - 13m
11. Chain Reaction - 9.5m
12. One For Sorrow - 9m
13. Two In A Million - 7m
14. You're My Number One - 7m
15. Deeper Shade Of Blue - 6.5m


BONUS TINA EDITION

01. Mwah Mwah (FASHION. WEEK. SIPPING. COSMOS. WITH. ANNA. WIN. TOOORRRR.) - 69k
02. Private Dance Instructor - 32k
03. HOT LIKE FIIIIIRUH - 15k
 
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S Club were definitely bigger round the world thanks to the TV show. Never Had a Dream Come True was a top ten hit in America.

Tragedy only on 27 million does feel a touch low though.
 
lolly said:
Interestingly there are 22 Abba songs with 50m+ streams, but 25 tracks from the Mamma Mia soundtracks with 50m+. LAYLOM is the highest MM track with 125m.

This does mean there are a few Abba tracks which have been streamed more in their MM cover versions than the originals - usually the album tracks which were featured in the films but also The Name Of The Game only has 40.4m in its original version, but 39m from its MM2 version, plus a further 33m from MM1. That almost disgusts me.

I assume the MM versions won't be adding that much any more, though...
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I’ve never been able to listen to any ABBA Song not performed by ABBA themselves, it’s also the reason why I didn’t like any of the MM movies. These songs are so much part of my life , any other versions just sound wrong
 
Shoat said:
ON-TOPIC GEEKERY MOMENT

The 77th S Club reunion news has everyone comparing the poor sods unfavourably to Steps, who seem to command much more respect and goodwill these days, despite OUR TINA

But Spotify seems to suggest that it's actually S Club's hits that have endured more strongly... were they simply a bigger deal outside of the UK?

"Original" era singles only

01. Bring It All Back - 100m
02. Never Had A Dream Come True - 82m
03. Reach - 67m
04. Don't Stop Movin' - 65m
05. 5,6,7,8 - 60m
06. Have You Ever - 45m
07. S Club Party - 37m
08. Tragedy - 27m
09. It's The Way You Make Me Feel - 22m
10. Last Thing On My Mind - 13m
11. Chain Reaction - 9.5m
12. One For Sorrow - 9m
13. Two In A Million - 7m
14. You're My Number One - 7m
15. Deeper Shade Of Blue - 6.5m


BONUS TINA EDITION

01. Mwah Mwah (FASHION. WEEK. SIPPING. COSMOS. WITH. ANNA. WIN. TOOORRRR.) - 69k
02. Private Dance Instructor - 32k
03. HOT LIKE FIIIIIRUH - 15k
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Yeah S Club vs Steps was very similar to Sugababes and Girls Aloud.

Sugababes and S Club had more international traction and much more radio play, so their ‘hits’ resonate more. But were perhaps more casual listeners and fans overall.

Whereas GA and Steps had the much bigger core fanbase with rabid fans, hence the much bigger tours and perhaps longevity once they were no longer the type of music the general public listened to. I couldn’t imagine any new S Club music would do as well as Stros has for that reason.
 
Good grief at 5,6,7,8 being over twice as popular as the #2 Steps track. Presumably that's due to it appearing on more ghastly playlists.
 
Yeah it’s their main playlisted one. It’s The Way…also gets a bit of playlisting hence it being so much more ahead from the few behind it that you’d expect to be just as (if not more) popular.
 
Are S Club 7 generally more playlisted than Steps, then?

I'm wondering if they have higher playcounts largely because they have more successfully pushed onto playlists.
 
Bring It All Back and S Club Party are still pretty popular in the US, and I don't think many Americans are listening to Steps songs (except me)
 
Possibly, but I’d say S Club had more big international hits by far. Outside of 5678, Tragedy and Last Thing on My Mind, Steps didn’t have much clout internationally.

Obviously below the above fifteen S Club fall off a cliff stream-wise, and with the new Steps stuff their overall total doesn’t trail all that far in total.
 
I think legitimately S Club have more obvious career extremes than Steps. Their hits are either very fondly remembered or consigned to the graveyard.

You could shuffle the order a little (Tragedy probably is too low), but I'd wager that top 8 would also be the 8 the UK remember most.
 
Shall we have RIHANNA on the back of the Superbowl?


1.39BN - This Is What You Came For
1.19BN - Work
1.16BN - Needed Me
1.06BN - Umbrella
1.06BN - Love On The Brain
1.04BN - We Found Love
952m - Diamonds
951m - Stay
943m - Too Good
692m - S&M
681m - Bitch Better Have My Money
663m - Only Girl (In The World)
663m - Don't Stop The Music
604m - Take A Bow
534m - Pon de Replay
494m - Take Care
484m - Where Have You Been
482m - Disturbia
398m - Rude Boy
380m - What's My Name?

Honestly I had to play Needed Me, don't even recognise the title. I barely recognised the tune. Don't care for the top 2 (discounting Calvin) at all personally.

My fave album (Rated R) doesn't fair great with only Rude Boy just making an appearance. Russian Roulette and Te Amo way down the list. Surprised that Love The Way You Lie, SOS and Shut Up And Drive don't make the cut either, but all still well into 9 digits.
 
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For such a rich catalogue, that is rather an uninspiring top 3
 
Work, Needed Me, and Love on the Brain all definitely benefit from being released when Spotify was already popular
 
I love that Bitch Better Have My Money has ended up being one of her most lasting hits
 
RJN said:
Work, Needed Me, and Love on the Brain all definitely benefit from being released when Spotify was already popular
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Yup tends to be the rule for most, but interesting seeing the anomolies otherwise... such as Pon de Replay on half a billion :o
 
I forgot a couple of Drake collabs - added in. I thought Run This Town would also need to be included, but it's 'only' on 300m.
 
RIGHT I had a go at doing Madonna and WHAT A FUCKING RABBIT HOLE THAT WAS.

Still fun though :david:

Madonna is probably the artist most affected by play counts split by song length not being recognised as the same song. She has so many different edits of her big hits strewn across compilations (as it so happens, the compilation function on Madonna's page doesn't seem to WORK, which is ODD in itself...)

370m - Material Girl
351m - Like A Prayer
323m - Hung Up
278m - La Isla Bonita
258m - Like A Virgin
251m - 4 Minutes
204m - Vogue
161m - Holiday
108m - Into The Groove
105m - Papa Don't Preach
98m - Crazy For You
97m - Frozen (actually 216m if you count the recent remix)






The consistency of accessing songs is all over the place. In some cases the studio version is the default, in others it's the compilation version. One example: on LAV, Material Girl has 45m plays; seems low. On Celebration, that version has 318m plays.

It gets more complicated from there because live versions of Vogue and Like A Prayer probably make up another 30m or so each, but I've only counted studio versions. There's just SO many versions of songs for people to access.

Finally Enough Love have even MORE versions but they've barely made a dent on the bigger tunes... yet.
 
funky said:
RIGHT I had a go at doing Madonna and WHAT A FUCKING RABBIT HOLE THAT WAS.

Still fun though :david:

Madonna is probably the artist most affected by play counts split by song length not being recognised as the same song. She has so many different edits of her big hits strewn across compilations (as it so happens, the compilation function on Madonna's page doesn't seem to WORK, which is ODD in itself...)

370m - Material Girl
351m - Like A Prayer
323m - Hung Up
278m - La Isla Bonita
258m - Like A Virgin
251m - 4 Minutes
204m - Vogue
161m - Holiday
108m - Into The Groove
105m - Papa Don't Preach
98m - Crazy For You
97m - Frozen (actually 216m if you count the recent remix)






The consistency of accessing songs is all over the place. In some cases the studio version is the default, in others it's the compilation version. One example: on LAV, Material Girl has 45m plays; seems low. On Celebration, that version has 318m plays.

It gets more complicated from there because live versions of Vogue and Like A Prayer probably make up another 30m or so each, but I've only counted studio versions. There's just SO many versions of songs for people to access.

Finally Enough Love have even MORE versions but they've barely made a dent on the bigger tunes... yet.
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Considering her entire career is pre-Spotify, Amy Winehouse has some HUGE numbers :o

740m Valerie
713m Back To Black
422m Rehab
379m You Know I'm No Good
308m Tears Dry On Their Own
176m Love Is A Losing Game
138m Me & Mr Jones
118m Stronger Than Me
 
funky said:
Considering her entire career is pre-Spotify, Amy Winehouse has some HUGE numbers :o

740m Valerie
713m Back To Black
422m Rehab
379m You Know I'm No Good
308m Tears Dry On Their Own
176m Love Is A Losing Game
138m Me & Mr Jones
118m Stronger Than Me
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For a song that didn’t chart here, Valerie is her most played song now. Back to Black is up there as well
 
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