Taylor Swift battles for Spotify No.1 against Indian artist
The world’s biggest popstar is battling for the top spot against Arijit Singh, an Indian artist who’s taken her place as number 1 on Spotify.
Taylor Swift has long been the queen of pop and her place on Spotify has confirmed that. Recently though, Swift’s crown has come up for grabs as Indian superstar Arijit Singh goes neck and neck for Spotify followers.
Last week, Singh actually took the top spot with 117.2 million followers on Spotify, 21,000 more than Swift at the time. A competitive weekend for listeners has seen Swift regain the top spot by a healthy 50,000, but the fact remains that the top spot is in contest.
Singh became a headliner last year when he became the first Indian artist to cross 100 million followers on Spotify. Just a year earlier in 2022, Singh was the 110th biggest artist on Spotify with less than 30 million monthly listeners. Now, the Indian singer is locked in battle with Taylor Swift as each day their positions as the number one most followed Spotify artist shifts.
However, Swift still vastly leads the way in monthly listeners revealing her broad appeal as opposed to Singh’s more dedicated fanbase. Swift has over 96.2 million monthly listeners at the time of writing whilst Singh has less than half with just over 40.1 million monthly listeners, putting him at #79 in the world.
Swift’s impressive monthly listeners don’t actually place her at the top. That accolade goes to The Weeknd who has long held a position as the most listened to artist on Spotify. Billie Eilish meanwhile takes the second place after catching up to Swift last month and taking her place since.
At the time of writing Arijit Singh has 117,835,421 followers on Spotify and Taylor Swift has 117,880,740, making Singh the most followed artist on Spotify for the time being.
India’s rise to global streaming dominance
India is experiencing a meteoric rise in music streaming. India is currently the fastest growing streaming audience, growing on-demand audio and video streams by 463.7 billion in 2023 over 2022. The U.S. saw the second largest growth with nearly just a third of the same growth, adding 184 billion streams.
This week YouTube revealed that their largest audience across the globe is in India. When it comes to music, 7 of the top 10 artists in YouTube’s Global Weekly Top Artists are Indian and the entire top 5. From Bollywood soundtracks to regional folk music, Indian music has a huge and strong fanbase at home that is developing worldwide.
With a massive, young population and increasing smartphone penetration, the country has become a hotbed for music consumption. Local platforms like JioSaavn, alongside global giants like Spotify and Apple Music, are witnessing unprecedented growth.