The ‘Thinking Out Loud’ singer rounds off a tremendous year which saw the release of his sophomore album. ‘X’.
Ed Sheeran has been named Spotify’s most streamed act of the year globally, beating the likes of Eminem and Coldplay. It rounds off the biggest year yet in the 23 year old’s career, after his album X passed the one million sales mark in the U.K. earlier this month.
Ed Sheeran, statistically you're probably listening to him right now.
According to Spotify Sheeran’s X has had 430m streams worldwide since its release in June. The album’s June release date also proved significant as new chart rules meant that from July 2014, streams counted towards UK official chart positions.
Spotify collected streaming data from more than 50 million users and more than 7 billon hours of music from throughout year to compile the lists, which also saw Sheeran take the top album spot. Speaking after the announcement Sheeran said “It’s a great thing to be above so many amazing artists who I’d assume would be streamed more than me.”
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Coming in behind Sheeran in the top five global artist list were Eminem, Coldplay, Calvin Harris and Katy Perry. As for the five most streamed albums, Sam Smith’s In the Lonely Hour comes in behind X, followed by Iggy Azalea’s The New Classic, Pharrell Williams’ GIRL and Ariana Grande’s My Everything.
Katy Perry was also named the year’s most streamed female artist, toppling Rihanna for the first time in two-years. Pharrell Williams’ 'Happy' was the year’s most streamed single, with over 260m plays worldwide.
More: Katy Perry Confirmed As The Headline Act For The 2015 Super Bowl Halftime Show
But it seems rock and metal lovers were out in force on October 10th, as Spotify reported it was officially “the loudest day of the year”, with more heavy rock and metal tracks being played than any other day in 2014.
Katy Perry is the year's most streamed female artist
In a statement Steve Savoca, head of content at Spotify, said: “This has been a phenomenal year for a rich variety of amazing artists on Spotify. Over 50m dedicated music fans listened to more than 7bn listening hours in 2014 alone.”
Adding, “Huge congratulations to Ed Sheeran on achieving most-streamed album on Spotify for the wildly successful X, and also for earning the overall most streamed artist of 2014 thanks to his dedicated fans on Spotify.”
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