How much your favourite international acts made from Spotify in 2019
It’s that special time of year when most of us are getting the decorations up, thinking of a holiday getaway, breaking bread with friends and family. And if you’re a mega-star recording artist, counting your money.
Spotify’s annual ‘Wrapped’ feature has been a hit with the streamer’s 248 million-plus users, and many high-flying artists are giving thanks to their success by sharing out their own insights.
TIO had a look at your favourite homegrown artists’ big year in streaming, now let’s take a scan around the globe.
Post Malone can afford to buy nice presents for his buddies this month. The ‘Rockstar’ rapper was Spotify’s most streamed artists around the world in 2019, clocking up 6.5 billion streams.
Spotify
Based on the Swedish streaming platform’s going rate of about US$0.00437 per play, that’s roughly US28.4 million or A$41.5 million.
The coolest kid in school Billie Eilish had a year for the ages, blasting her way to 6 billion streams, setting herself up with a sum of about US26m or A$38 million.
Christmas came early for Ariana Grande who clocked up 5.7 billion streams on Spotify this year. That comes to a tidy figure of about A$36 million.
https://twitter.com/ArianaGrande/status/1202658823455903744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1202658823455903744&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.billboard.com%2Farticles%2Fnews%2F8545577%2Fariana-grande-lizzo-share-spotify-wrapped-insights
Troye Sivan collaborator Lauv racked up 1.5 billion streams on Spotify, which ought to drop some A$9.58 million into his bank account.
YALL STREAMED ME 1.5 BILLION TIMES THIS YEAR pic.twitter.com/jBZaNAKPb5
— lauv (@lauvsongs) December 5, 2019
Eight-time Grammy-nominated ‘Good as Hell’ singer Lizzo managed 1.1 billion streams in 2019, netting her about A$7 million.
Meanwhile, John Mayer had a billion reasons to smile. The guitar hero bagged a billion streams, which means about A$6.39 million in royalties.
Also, Ed Sheeran had the song that keeps on giving. ‘Shape of You,’ which ruled the ARIA Singles Chart for 15 weeks, is Spotify’s most streamed track of the decade with more than 2.3 billion streams, meaning one song earned a cool A$14.6 million.
And here’s the mind-bending bit. These figures are based on streams on a single, digital platform. When you factor in the likes of Apple Music, Deezer, Amazon, Tidal, Google Play Music, YouTube and the long list of apps and sites where music is streamed, the numbers can really balloon.
The top-line royalty figures aren’t an exact science, due to the unpredictable nature of payouts from the myriad platforms. But it’s a whole lot better than guess-work.
Want more? Drake cleaned up as the most streamed artist of the decade on Spotify with 28 billion streams. Do the math.
Check out what you earned with this neat little calculator, and remember to convert to Australian currency.
This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.