New York (AFP)
Canadian singer and rapper Drake has been listened to some 28 billion times on Spotify over the last decade, placing him at the top of the ranking released Tuesday by the streaming audio platform.
Drake leads Ed Sheeran of Britain, who wins the title of the most played song between 2010 and 2019 on Spotify, with "Shape of You", listened more than 2.3 billion times.
The podium is completed by the American rapper Post Malone, who is his laureate for the year 2019 alone, with a total of 6.5 billion plays in the world via Spotify, according to a statement.
The Texas rapper managed to slip into the leading trio while his first album was released in December 2016.
In fourth place of the most listened artists on the decade, arrives the American singer Ariana Grande, followed by the rapper Eminem.
In the ranking of the most played titles in ten years, "Shape of You" is followed by "One Dance" by Drake, "rockstar" by Post Malone, "Closer" by Halsey and The Chainsmokers, and "Thinking Out Loud" by Ed Sheeran.
Created in 2006, Spotify was in 2010 only a young start-up, which had less than one million paying subscribers, against 113 million today.
Its rise to power, to reach today 248 million monthly users, adding the pay and free offers, has largely matched that of streaming.
Asked by AFP about the most listened to artists of the decade on its platform, Apple Music, the second largest player in the market with more than 60 million subscribers, did not follow through.
Another natural destination for today's music lovers, YouTube has not published a ranking of the decade. It is nevertheless established that the most viewed track on the video platform is "Despacito" by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, with 6.55 billion views.
In 2019, the song "Senorita", a duet between Shawn Mendes and Camilla Cabello, was heard more than a billion times on Spotify, making it the most popular of the year, in front of "bad guy" by Billie Eilish.
© 2019 AFP