Spotify’s Singles have been streamed 5 billion times
The Spotify Single series, which features artists re-recording their song and covering another track, continues to be hugely popular and has now reached 5 billion total streams.
Spotify are celebrating the success of one of their most popular series, Spotify Singles, which has reached the massive landmark of 5 billion streams. A collection of stats released by the streaming platform shows the evolution of the program and the most notable artists and trends involved.
Never come across any Spotify Singles before? The series, launched in 2016, features artists big and small re-recording one of their songs, and also covering another track by a favourite artist of their choice. The new version of their own song is often a fresh take with a creative sound.
Singles are exclusive to Spotify and have been recorded by artists of all genres from Toots and the Maytals to Shawn Mendes. To date there’s been 630 recordings from over 300 artists. The chosen artists record in a world-class recording studio and through the pandemic have taken part from home.
The program has worked neatly in tandem with Spotify playlists, capitalising on their profile-raising potential; producing original tracks in collaboration with RnB playlist Are & Be, dance playlist mint, multi-genre POLLEN, and hip-hop playlist RapCaviar. Singles have also been released for PRIDE and to mark occasions like Christmas.
The Spotify Singles which have been added to the most editorial playlists are Radiohead cover “Creep” by R3HAB and GATTÜSO, Lionel Richie’s “All Night Long” covered by Benjamin Ingrosso, and “when the party’s over” by Lewis Capaldi. Capaldi’s Billie Eilish cover makes the list of the top three Singles added to user playlists too, along with “Girl Crush” by Harry Styles and “Dive” by Luke Combs.
Michele Santucci, Recorded Music Lead at Spotify said: “The Spotify Singles catalogue is wide-spanning — huge pop stars, up-and-comers, international artists, icons, and more — which has attracted listeners from around the world. The program supports an artist’s strong suits by getting them in the studio with like-minded, best-in-class recording pros and showcasing their art in new ways. By fostering relationships with the artist community and creating content exclusive to Spotify that feeds into our editorial playlisting strategy, Spotify Singles’ reaching 5B streams shows that we’re at the forefront of the audio space with an engaged listener base.”
Harry Styles’ “Girl Crush” takes the most-streamed Spotify Single crown, with 145 million streams and counting. With regards to artists recording other musicians’ tracks, songs by Post Malone and Bob Dylan were the most-covered.
Explore all the Spotify Singles with the Complete Collection playlist.