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Artists Share Reactions To The 2021 Year-End Spotify Wrapped Lists

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If you’ve been on social media today, you’re probably well aware that Spotify unveiled the annual Spotify Wrapped feature today, where music fans see lists of the songs, artists, genres, and more that they most engaged with on the streaming platform over the past year. While it’s an opportunity for fans to look back on 2021, it’s also a neat chance for artists to see just how music their work was appreciated. So, as Wrapped started making the rounds today, artists shared their reactions.

Bad Bunny’s reaction wasn’t on social media, but in real life. As he was told in-person that he was the year’s most-streamed artist worldwide, he was all smiles. He was asked what fans can look forward to in 2022 and he said, “The same! I don’t go into it to be the No. 1 most streamed artist. I just make music. I just enjoy my ‘work.’ I hope 2022 is going to be great.”

Lil Nas X also took time to answer a bunch of fans who reached out via social media to let him know that he made their lists.

A bunch of artists beyond the aforementioned shared their thoughts about Spotify Wrapped, so check out some other reactions below.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Bad Bunny Takes The Lead As Spotify’s Most-Streamed Artist Globally In 2021

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It’s that time of the year again — Spotify Wrapped is here. While many are spending the first day of December decorating for the holidays, music lovers around the globe are checking their Spotify account to see a round up of their most-streamed artists, albums, and songs of the year. The data shows that Olivia Rodrigo had a massive year, as she had the most-streamed song and album worldwide. But there was another artist whose music was streamed the most times around the world on the platform: Bad Bunny.

Thanks to Bad Bunny’s prolific songwriting, the Puerto Rican rapper received the most streams on Spotify out of any other artist around the world. According to Spotify’s data, rapper was streamed 9.1 billion times globally this year, an impressive feat for an artist who didn’t even release an album in 2021. Following behind Bad Bunny in worldwide streaming numbers is Taylor Swift at No. 2, BTS at No. 3, Drake at No. 4, and Justin Bieber at No. 5.

When Bad Bunny found out the news, he still remained humble. The musician said he makes music for the love of it and his goal was never to be the most-streamed artists around the world.

While Bad Bunny may have been the top-streamed artist around the globe, the stats look a little different in the US. Bad Bunny was the fifth-most-streamed artist on Spotify in the US, while Drake took the No. 1 slot. Taylor Swift was behind Drake while Juice WRLD came in at No. 3 and Kanye West at No. 4.

See a video of Bad Bunny finding out he’s 2021’s most-streamed artist above.

Check out more Spotify Wrapped data here, and to get your own Wrapped info for 2021, check out the Spotify mobile app.

The Kid Laroi And Justin Bieber’s ‘Stay’ Reportedly Hit 1 Billion Spotify Streams Faster Than Any Song Ever

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The Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber’s “Stay” is an undeniable hit, as it spent multiple weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and helped both artists make history for their home countries. Now, it has apparently pulled off a major feat: Pop Crave reports the track has reached 1 billion streams on Spotify and is now the fastest song to ever accomplish that.

“Stay” was released on July 9, and if it did indeed reach a billion streams today, November 4, it did so in 118 days. (As of this post, the Spotify desktop and mobile apps indicate the song has 994,497,008 streams, although it’s possible that count is not current.) The reported previous record-holder, Ed Sheeran’s “Shape Of You,” was released on January 6, 2017 and reached a billion Spotify streams on June 8 that same year, which is 153 days later. So, even if “Stay” didn’t actually hit a billion streams today but does so in the next couple days — or even in the next month, which it will almost certainly do — it will handily surpass Sheeran’s mark.

“Shape Of You,” by the way, is Spotify’s most-streamed song ever and currently has over 2.9 billion streams. At the time “Shape Of You” hit a billion streams, it was just the third song to do so on the platform, following Drake’s “One Dance” and The Chainsmokers’ Halsey-featuring hit “Closer.” Times have certainly changed, as now, at least 100 songs now have 1 billion Spotify streams; As of November 3, Spotify’s 100th most-played song, The Weeknd’s “Can’t Feel My Face,” has over 1.2 billion streams.

Meanwhile, Olivia Rodrigo recently came close to breaking Sheeran’s record before Laroi and Bieber did: Spotify reported on October 26 that Rodrigo’s “Good 4 U” surpassed a billion streams, 165 days after its May 14 release.

Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Doja Cat Officially Surpasses Drake As The Rapper With The Most Monthly Spotify Listeners

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For the past several years, Drake has absolutely dominated streaming numbers on Spotify. Several of his songs sit at over one billion streams and he was even named the most-streamed Spotify artist of the decade along with Ed Sheeran and Post Malone. But some of his Spotify stats have recently changed, as Doja Cat has now surpassed Drake as the rapper with the most monthly listeners on the streaming platform.

As first reported by XXL, Drake has 63,302,316 monthly listeners on Spotify, whereas Doja Cat managed to slightly beat that number thanks to the success of her 2021 album Planet Her. Beating Drake’s monthly listener count by several hundred thousand, Doja Cat now boasts 63,690,597 monthly listeners.

Doja Cat’s new feat counts as another career win for the musician, but she recently revealed she was starting to feel burnt out from hustling a little too hard. In a series of since-deleted tweets earlier this month, Doja Cat went off about how she never takes breaks from constantly working. “I’m just tired and i don’t want to do anything,” she wrote. “I’m not happy. I’m done saying yes to motherf*ckers cuz I can’t even have a week to just chill. I’m never not working. I’m f*cking tired.”

Planet Her is out now via Kemosabe/RCA. Get it here.

Drake’s ‘Certified Lover Boy’ Broke Apple Music And Spotify’s Record For Streams In A Single Day

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Drake’s Certified Lover Boy is already making history. The rapper’s sixth album just broke Apple Music and Spotify’s record for streams in a single day. He surpassed the Apple Music record first, breaking it on Friday evening EST. A few hours later, it was announced that the rapper also broke Spotify’s record. As reported by Complex who spoke to a representative from the platform, the new number is indeed an all-time global record. Official first-day streaming numbers for Cetified Lover Boy from Apple Music or Spotify have yet to be released.

To the surprise of no one, the previous record was held by Drake himself, as his fifth album Scoprion broke the record for streams in a single back in 2018. Scorpion earned more than 132 million streams on Spotify and more than 170 million on Apple Music.

Certified Lover Boy offers 21 tracks, with guest appearances from Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Travis Scott, Young Thug, Future, 21 Savage, Lil Baby, Giveon, Ty Dolla Sign, Lil Durk, Yebba, Project Pat, Masego, Tems, and Kid Cudi.

The project also garnered attention for apparent disses towards Kanye West, a hilarious video for “Way 2 Sexy” with Future and Young Thug, and Drake’s rather odd “lesbian” line from “Girls Want Girls” with Lil Baby.

Certified Lover Boy is out now OVO Sound/Republic. Get it here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Drake’s ‘Hotline Bling’ Becomes His Latest Track To Surpass One Billion Spotify Streams

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While Drake’s Certified Lover Boy album announcement has dominated the news, one of his previous releases quietly passed a major milestone. Drake’s 2016 track “Hotline Bling” (the best song of the 2010s, we reckon) has apparently become his latest song to achieve the impressive feat of surpassing one billion streams on Spotify.

The achievement was first reported by the Twitter account Chart Data, though the song’s streaming numbers currently sit at 165,000 over the one billion mark.

“Hotline Bling” is far from Drake’s first song to reach one billion streams on the music platform. Drake’s track “One Dance,” which also appears on his 2016 Views album, was actually the first song on Spotify to reach one billion streams, which it did just a few months after the album’s release. Today, “One Dance” has nearly doubled in streams and now boasts well over two billion listens on Spotify.

Drake’s popularity on Spotify truly comes as no surprise as he’s constantly one of the top artists on the platform. Not only was Drake the most-streamed artist of the last decade, but he was also Spotify’s most-streamed artist of 2015, 2016, and 2018. On top of that, Drake became the first Spotify artist to have 50 billion listens on his music this past January, meaning his Certified Lover Boy album is sure to perform well on the streaming service.

Trevor Noah Dove Deep Into How Spotify Treats Non-Major Artists On ‘The Daily Show’

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For years now, streaming services like Spotify have faced criticism about how much they pay the artists whose music they depend on. It’s a nuanced situation, so on The Daily Show last night, Trevor Noah broke it down and spoke about how hard it is on make money on Spotify as a non-major artist.

After sharing a compilation of news clips that charted the music industry’s shift from CDs to digital downloads to streaming, Noah got into it, starting by calling streaming “the best thing to happen to the music industry since the government created LSD.” He then noted, though, that while streaming services have “arguably saved music,” they’re “not exactly sharing the wealth.”

Noah shared more video clips, ones illustrating how little artists get paid when their songs get streamed. Then, Noah got into Spotify specifically, giving them credit for providing smaller artists with valuable exposure. He went on to point out, though, that regardless of who subscribers listen to, a hefty portion of their money still goes to major artists. As Noah put it, “Even if you are way too cool to listen to the top ten artists on Spotify, they still get most of your money. And the bands that you do listen to get almost none of it.”

Noah concluded by noting, “For now, maybe the most important things for artists to do is get the word out to their fans.” Then, he introduced Aloe Blacc, who has been vocal about issues with streaming music since he earned just $4,000 from streaming for Avicii’s international hit “Wake Me Up,” which he co-wrote. For The Daily Show, Blacc wrote and performed a new version of his “I Need A Dollar,” with lyrics modified to directly address Spotify and streaming problems.

Watch the whole segment above or find just Blacc’s performance below.

Billie Eilish And Finneas Helped Spotify Announce Their New Hi-Fi Streaming Tier

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The Hi-Fi streaming experience has been touted before, with Jay-Z’s streaming service Tidal initially orienting their messaging around a lossless streaming tier, and of course, there’s Neil Young’s obsession with his Pono player and high-definition digital archives. But today, Spotify announced they will be joining the lossless streaming world too, letting Spotify Premium subscribers upgrade to Spotify HiFi, which will “deliver music in CD-quality, lossless audio format.”

According to Spotify, this has been one of the most-requested additions, and the rollout was announced with the help of Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas. “High quality audio means more info, there are things you will not hear if you don’t have a good sound system. It’s really important just because we make music that [we] want to be heard in the way that it was made,” Eilish said. Her brother added: “Anytime anyone really takes time to sit down with our music and listen to it in a really high quality way it’s very exciting because I know they are hearing everything that we intended them to.”

The service will roll out in select markets later this year, though no pricing info has been released yet. It’s a big day for the streaming platform considering they also announced a brand new exclusive podcast with Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama.