Women dominated the year in music, Spotify has confirmed, as it unveils the most-streamed artists, songs and albums of the past 12 months.
As the streaming platform launched its annual Wrapped event, in which subscribers can see a personalised roundup of their listening habits, it also named the artists who racked up the biggest numbers.
Unsurprisingly, Taylor Swift claimed the title of both Global and UK top artist for the second year running, achieving more than 26.6 billion streams thanks to the release of her Grammy-nominated album, The Tortured Poets Department.
Released in April, the US pop star’s record-breaking 11th studio album featured several different editions, including an “anthology” of 31 tracks, most of which have surpassed 100 million streams each.
Swift has also made headlines throughout 2024 with her Eras tour, a career-spanning series of shows that has seen her perform to millions of fans around the world.
Meanwhile Sabrina Carpenter, who released her breakthrough sixth album Short ‘n Sweet this year, topped the global songs chart with her catchy single “Espresso”.
All five of the biggest-streamed albums were by women, including Swift’s and Carpenter’s records at number one and three, respectively. Billie Eilish’s third album Hit Me Hard and Soft was the second biggest album of the year on Spotify, with Colombian singer Karol G’s Mañana Será Bonito fourth and Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine fifth.
In the UK, too, Swift was the most-streamed artist of the year. Canadian hip-hop star Drake easily nabbed the number two spot despite his controversial legal action against Spotify and Universal Music Group, in which he accuses UMG of campaigning to artificially inflate streams of his rival Kendrick Lamar’s diss track “Not Like Us”. UMG has branded the allegations “offensive and untrue”.
Following Swift and Drake in the top five were Kanye West, Billie Eilish and The Weeknd. However, when it came to the most popular songs in the UK, music fans evidently had a taste for male singer-songwriters: folk artist Noah Kahan triumphed at number one with his breakthrough single “Stick Season”, joined by Benson Boon’s “Beautiful Things at number three, Hozier’s “Too Sweet” at number four and Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control”, with Carpenter as the only woman in the top five thanks to “Espresso”.
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When it came to podcasts, the controversial Joe Rogan Experience – which in 2022 prompted Neil Young to quit the streaming service as he accused Rogan of spreading disinformation about the Covid vaccine – took the number one spot on the global chart for the fifth consecutive year. Rogan’s podcast was followed by Call Her Daddy at number two, Huberman Lab at number three, This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von at number four, and The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett at number five.
Spotify has also begun collating data for the biggest authors and audiobooks on the platform, along with its most-streamed podcasts. This year, A Court of Thorns and Roses fantasy author Sara J Maas topped the list, followed by Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien and horror master Stephen King.
Taylor Swift
Drake
Kanye West
Billie Eilish
The Weeknd
Eminem
Sabrina Carpenter
Rihanna
Travis Scott
Noah Kahan
“Stick Season” by Noah Kahan
“Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter
“Beautiful Things” by Benson Boone
“Too Sweet” by Hozier
“Lose Control” by Teddy Swims
“BIRDS OF A FEATHER” by Billie Eilish
“Good Luck, Babe!” by Chappell Roan
“A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey
“Please Please Please” by Sabrina Carpenter
“Austin (Boots Stop Workin’)” by Dasha
THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT: THE ANTHOLOGY by Taylor Swift
Short n’ Sweet by Sabrina Carpenter
Stick Season by Noah Kahan
HIT ME HARD AND SOFT by Billie Eilish
1989 (Taylor’s Version) by Taylor Swift
Fireworks & Rollerblades by Benson Boone
The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess by Chappell Roan
GUTS by Olivia Rodrigo
Lover by Taylor Swift
eternal sunshine by Ariana Grande
The Joe Rogan Experience
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
The Rest Is Football
The Rest Is Politics
The Rest Is History
The Louis Theroux Podcast
Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster
The Rest Is Entertainment
Parenting Hell with Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe
Call Her Daddy
The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken
Politics On the Edge by Rory Stewart
Spare by Prince Harry The Duke of Sussex
A Game of Thrones (Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1) by George R.R. Martin
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
Unruly by David Mitchell
And Away… by Bob Mortimer
How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie
The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien
Spotify’s top 10 global artists of 2024
Taylor Swift
The Weeknd
Bad Bunny
Drake
Billie Eilish
Travis Scott
Peso Pluma
Kanye West
Ariana Grande
Feid
“Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter
“Beautiful Things” by Benson Boone
“BIRDS OF A FEATHER” by Billie Eilish
“Gata Only” by FloyyMenor, Cris Mj
“Lose Control” by Teddy Swims
“End of Beginning” by Djo
“Too Sweet” by Hozier
“One Of The Girls with JENNIE, Lily Rose Depp)” by The Weeknd
“Cruel Summer” by Taylor Swift
“Die With A Smile” by Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga
THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT: THE ANTHOLOGY by Taylor Swift
HIT ME HARD AND SOFT by Billie Eilish
Short n’ Sweet by Sabrina Carpenter
MAÑANA SERÁ BONITO by Karol G
eternal sunshine by Ariana Grande
1989 (Taylor’s Version) by Taylor Swift
SOS by SZA
Lover by Taylor Swift
Fireworks & Rollerblades by Benson Boone
Starboy by The Weeknd
Spotify users can now access their personalised 2024 Wrapped Experience via the Spotify mobile app (iOS and Android), provided it has been updated to the latest version. New features include the “Longest Listening Streak”, where fans can see the artist they enjoyed for the longest period, as well as learning if they landed in the coveted “one per cent” of an artist or band’s top listeners.
