(Hypebot) — One million seconds is 12 days. One billion seconds is 32 years. So it is crazy to think that almost 500 songs have surpassed a billion streams per month, but it’s true.
by Bobby Owsinski from Music 3.0
If your songs are only getting a few thousand streams on Spotify every month it might be hard to believe that it’s possible for a song to get over a billion, yet it’s true. Not only that, if the numbers continue as they’ve been, there will be over 500 songs in the Spotify Billions Club by the end of the year.
As of Sept 2023, there are 473 songs that have reached the over 1 billion streams, 43 have passed 2 billion, and just 2 have passed 3 billion. I know you’re curious about the song with the most streams and you’ll probably be surprised – it’s “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd at just over 3.8 billion, followed by Ed Sheeran’s “Shape Of You” at 3.628 billion.
How much does 3.8 billion streams make in royalties? If you go to Spotify’s royalty calculator you’ll find that its $16.6 million.
Apple Music, on the other hand, has yet to have a billion streamer, but Ed Sheeran’s “Shape Of You” is getting close at 930 million.
What kind of songs have reached a billion streams? For the most part it’s just like listening to pop radio as all the hits are pretty much the same as what you might hear there. Most songs on the list have been released within the past 10 years, and you have to go down to #85 with Oasis “Wonderwall” to find a song from a different musical era.
As the graphic from Ditto Music above shows, the Billion Club numbers have grown rapidly over the last five years. In 2018 there were only 10 with a billion or more streams and three years ago there were only 62. This shows not only how much streaming has grown in that time, but also how top heavy streaming is.
If you’re a major artist on a major label, you’re going to get the bulk of the streams, although that’s not the case when it comes to video (watch for the extremely surprising YouTube list next week).
Go here if you’d like to listen to Spotify’s Billion Club playlist.
Bobby Owsinski is a producer/engineer, author, blogger, podcaster, and coach. He has authored 24 books on recording, music, the music business and social media.
Read more: https://music3point0.com/2023/09/22/spotify-billions-club-to-hit-500-soon/#ixzz8E3bdMEAf
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