It’s officially December and that leads to many reflections on the year as we wrap up 2020, a year unlike any other. Spotify’s 2020 Wrapped lists the top music, and podcasts the world listened to this year.
With more than 320 Million listeners, Spotify is well placed to create charts that reflect what the world lent their ears to in 2020, so lets get into it.
MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
The late rapper Juice WRLD was Australia’s most-streamed artist of the year, and The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” has come in at #1 as the country’s most streamed track.
Hilltop Hoods has taken out Australia’s most streamed local artist for the second year in a row, as well as Tones And I’s “Dance Monkey” holding its top spot as the most streamed local song in Australia for two years running.
The Wiggles was the most streamed artist on Spotify Kids, and Richard Ramsey’s “Slumber” was the #1 most-streamed song. With soothing sleep tracks also coming in at spots #2, #3 and #4 – we know that Aussie kids were sleeping easy this year.
To celebrate Wrapped, Spotify has curated a playlist of this year’s top Aussie songs – you can listen here.
MUSIC (GLOBAL)
- With more than 8.3 billion streams this year,Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny is our most-streamed artist of 2020. Check out Bad Bunny’s reaction when he first learned the news HERE.Following Bad Bunny is Drake and the third most-streamed artist of the year is J Balvin, followed bythe late rapper Juice WRLD andThe Weeknd.
- Billie Eilish continues her reign asSpotify’s most-streamed female artist for the second year in a row, followed by Taylor Swift andAriana Grande in the second and third spots. Coming in as the fourth and fifth most-streamed female artists are Dua Lipa andHalsey.
- The most-streamed song of 2020 is The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” with almost 1.6 billion streams this year. In the second and third spots respectively, are Tones And I’s “Dance Monkey” andRoddy Ricch’s “The Box.”The fourth most-streamed song of the year is “Roses – Imanbek Remix” byImanbek andSAINt JHN, followed by Dua Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now.”
- The most-streamed album globally of 2020 is Bad Bunny’s YHLQMDLG, followed by The Weeknd’s After Hours and Post Malone’s Hollywood’s Bleeding. Rounding out the list of top albums are Harry Styles’ Fine Line and Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia.
- The year’s most popular Spotify editorial playlist is Today’s Top Hits,which has more than 27M followers.
PODCASTS (AUSTRALIA)
Australians were staying up to date with current affairs this year, with news podcasts From the Newsroom, The Quicky, and Squiz Today coming in as the top three most popular podcasts in 2020.
In what was a challenging year for us all, Australians looked for a laugh as Comedy took out the most popular podcast genre, followed by Society & Culture and Lifestyle & Health.
Australians tuned in the most to listen to former POTUS and FLOTUS have an intimate conversation about community, love and relationships and life after the White House on episode one ofThe Michelle Obama Podcast.
PODCASTS (GLOBAL)
Easily the biggest story in podcasting was the massive deal to license Rogan’s content, with a rumoured payday to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. It looks like that investment may be paying dividends for Spotify with The Joe Rogan Experience taking the number one slot for most popular podcast of the year globally.
Coming in second and third are TED Talks Daily and The Daily, showing that listeners were staying in the know as usual. The fourth most popular podcast is The Michelle Obama Podcast, followed by the comedy/advice show Call Her Daddy.
Podcast genres people were most drawn to in 2020 was Society & Culture, followed by Comedy. Spots three and four were Lifestyle & Healthand Arts & Entertainment, respectively. Filling in the fifth spot on top global genres list is Education.
Spotify 2020 Wrapped Australia Top Lists
Most Streamed Artists – Australia
Most Streamed AU Artists
Most Streamed Songs – Australia
- “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd
- “Roses – Imanbek Remix” by Imanbek, SAINt JHN
- “Don’t Start Now” by Dua Lipa
- “ROCKSTAR (feat Roddy Richh)” by DaBaby, Roddy Richh
- “Watermelon Sugar” by Harry Styles
Most Streamed AU Songs
- “Dance Monkey” by Tones And I
- “Never Seen the Rain” by Tones And I
- “Live In Life” by The Rubens
- “Rushing Back” by Flume, Vera Blue
- “This City” by Sam Fischer
Most Streamed Albums – Australia
- Fine Line, Harry Styles
- After Hours, The Weeknd
- Shoot For the Stars Aim For The Moon, Pop Smoke
- Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent, Lewis Capaldi
- Future Nostalgia, Dua Lipa
Most Popular Podcasts – Australia
Most Popular Podcast Genres – Australia
While I’m a little disappointed not to see Technology feature in that list, it is great to see that long-form content like the Joe Rogan podcasts is alive and well.
Personally, I’m a massive fan of podcasts and as Spotify continues to mature in that space, we’re likely to see Podcasts get even more prevalence in the app.
