Macklemore, Imagine Dragons Dominated Spotify In 2013: See The Year’s Top Streams

Carl Williott | December 3, 2013 8:44 am

Spotify is cagey with streaming numbers and statistics regarding the habits of their 24 million listeners, but each year the service releases a capsule review of their users’ habits from the past 12 months. In 2013, 4.5 billion hours of music were streamed through the service, and in the US, those streams were dominated by newcomers Imagine Dragons and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. The two acts were responsible for Spotify’s three most-streamed tracks (“Radioactive,” “Thrift Shop” and “Can’t Hold Us,” respectively) and two most-streamed albums of the year (Night Visions and The Heist, in that order) in America. Quite frankly, the Imagine Dragons performance stunned us. Obviously, everyone was listening to/watching Macklemore all year. But where are all these ID listeners coming from?!

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis were the most-streamed act worldwide (stateside, Drake was tops), and Rihanna was the globe’s most popular female artist. Despite coming in second in the US, “Thrift Shop” is the most streamed song of the last five years. Daft Punk, Robin Thicke, Jay Z, Justin Timberlake, The Lumineers, Bruno Mars and Lana Del Rey also had a strong year domestically.

Head below for the top 10 tracks, albums and artists in the US on Spotify this year.

Most streamed tracks in 2013 (US): 1. “Radioactive,” Imagine Dragons 2. “Thrift Shop,” Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Wanz 3. “Can’t Hold Us,” Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Ray Dalton 4. “Get Lucky,” Daft Punk 5. “Blurred Lines,” Robin Thicke 6. “Royals,” Lorde 7. “Ho Hey,” The Lumineers 8. “Mirrors,” Justin Timberlake 9. “Wake Me Up,” Avicii 10. “Sail,” AWOLNATION

Most streamed albums in 2013 (US): 1. Night Visions, Imagine Dragons 2. The Heist, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis 3. The Lumineers, The Lumineers 4. Unorthodox Jukebox, Bruno Mars 5. Magna Carta Holy Grail, Jay Z 6. Nothing Was the Same, Drake 7. Born to Die: The Paradise Edition, Lana Del Rey 8. 18 Months, Calvin Harris 9. Good kid, m.A.A.d city, Kendrick Lamar 10. Random Access Memories, Daft Punk

Most streamed artists in 2013 (US): 1. Drake 2. Jay Z 3. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis 4. Imagine Dragons 5. Kanye West 6. Eminem 7. Justin Timberlake 8. Daft Punk 9. Lana Del Rey 10. Mumford & Sons

Head over to Spotify for even more lists and infographics summing up the year, and some cool analytics (for instance, New York City listens to Jay Z 88% more than the rest of the world, apparently).

[via USA Today]