This article was published on November 29, 2012

Spotify reveals the most streamed songs, albums and artists of 2012. Can you guess what they are?


Spotify reveals the most streamed songs, albums and artists of 2012. Can you guess what they are?

It may be a month premature, but Spotify has revealed its most played music of 2012.

Topping the track-streaming polls is Gotye’s Somebody That I Used To Know, beating off Carly Rae Jepsen’s hit Call Me Maybe into second place.

Gotye’s breakthrough hit was also the most-shared tune on Spotify worldwide across the social sphere, including Twitter and Facebook.

In a year that saw Spotify launch its embeddable play button, it would seemingly make sense to embed this here, however it will only work for those who have a Spotify account. So here’s YouTube to the rescue, just in case you’re one of the few folk yet to hear this song:

In terms of the biggest album of 2012, this is where dance music legend David Guetta came to the fore with Nothing But the Beat. This knocked Gotye’s Making Mirrors and Drake’s Take Care into second and third place respectively.

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Going by gender alone, Guetta was Spotify’s overall man of the year ahead of Flo Rida and Eminem, while over in the female camp Rihanna trumped Nicki Minaj and Adele. For the record (pun intended), Coldplay was the most-streamed band of the year.

‘Appy times

Spotify launched its app platform in November last year, and since then we’ve seen a slew of third-party developers rolling out apps for it. Indeed, back in September the very first dedicated Spotify app development studio was launched by ShareMyPlaylists.

With that in mind, Spotify has also revealed the “most-used” app of 2012 was TuneWiki, which launched last December to helps music fans with song lyrics, before going on to roll out for iOS too. This knocked Soundrop and We Are Hunted into second and third place.

Elsewhere in the music realm, Mumford and Sons grabbed the Spotify record for the most streams of a newly-released album in 2012, in October, with Babel streamed more than eight million times in one week in the US.

Meanwhile, here’s a full list of the Top Ten tracks of 2012 by category:

Most-streamed tracks of 2012 (global)

1.       Gotye featuring Kimbra – ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’
2.       Carly Rae Jepsen – ‘Call Me Maybe’
3.       Fun. featuring Janelle Monáe – ‘We Are Young’
4.       Flo Rida – ‘Whistle’
5.       Flo Rida featuring Sia – ‘Wild Ones’
6.       Train – ‘Drive By’
7.       Nicki Minaj – ‘Starships’
8.       Maroon 5 featuring Wiz Khalifa – ‘Payphone’
9.       David Guetta featuring Sia – ‘Titanium’
10.    Loreen – ‘Euphoria’

Most-streamed albums of 2012 (global)

1.       David Guetta – ‘Nothing But The Beat’
2.       Gotye – ‘Making Mirrors’
3.       Drake – ‘Take Care’
4.       Lana Del Ray – ‘Born To Die’
5.       One Direction – ‘Up All Night’
6.       Fun. – ‘Some Nights’
7.       Rihanna – ‘Talk That Talk’
8.       Coldplay – ‘Mylo Xyloto’
9.       Carly Rae Jepsen – ‘Call Me Maybe’
10.    Flo Rida – ‘Wild Ones’

Most-shared tracks by Spotify users (the most-shared tracks to Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr; global)

1.       Gotye ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’
2.       Carly Rae Jepsen ‘Call Me Maybe’
3.       Fun. ‘We Are Young – feat. Janelle Monáe’
4.       Flo Rida featuring Sia ‘Wild Ones’
5.       David Guetta ‘Titanium – feat. Sia’
6.       Flo Rida featuring Sia – ‘Whistle’
7.       Train – ‘Drive By’
8.       Maroon 5 – ‘Payphone’
9.       Rihanna – ‘We Found Love’
10.    Michel Teló – ‘Ai Se Eu Te Pego – Live’

Most-streamed female artists (global)

1.       Rihanna
2.       Nicki Minaj
3.       Adele
4.       Lana Del Ray
5.       Katy Perry
6.       Carly Rae Jepsen
7.       Beyonce
8.       Taylor Swift
9.       Loreen
10.    Kelly Clarkson

Most-streamed male artists (global)

1.       David Guetta
2.       Flo Rida
3.       Eminem
4.       Skrillex
5.       Gotye
6.       Drake
7.       Pitbull
8.       Jay-Z and Kanye West
9.       Chris Brown
10.    Avicii

Most-streamed bands (global)

1.       Coldplay
2.       Maroon 5
3.       Fun
4.       Mumford and Sons
5.       Florence and the Machine
6.       Linkin Park
7.       LMFAO
8.       One Direction
9.       Train
10.    Glee Cast

Feature Image Credit – Thinkstock

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