Spotify announced its top streaming artists, albums and songs of the year on Wednesday, with British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran topping the list as the most-streamed artist of 2014.
Sheeran garnered an impressive 860 million listens on Spotify thanks to the success of his latest album X, the most streamed album of 2014 with 430 million listens. The album has received generally positive reviews, with a Metacritic score of 67%. Other artists to make the global list include Eminem, Calvin Harris, Avicii and David Guetta.
In the U.S., Eminem was the most popular artist streamed on Spotify. Other artists on the U.S. list include Drake, Kanye West, Lana Del Rey and Ariana Grande.
The most-played song of the year goes to Pharrell Williams’ “Happy.” The catchy tune was streamed more than 260 million times across the world. Meanwhile, Hozier’s “Take Me to Church” was ranked the most viral track of the year, both worldwide and in the U.S. The Billboard Hot 100 hit currently sits at #3 on the chart.
Although Iggy Azalea didn’t top the list on Spotify’s worldwide charts, she had phenomenal success this year domestically. Her hit single “Fancy” became the most streamed song in America while her album, The New Classic, was the second most streamed album in the U.S., behind Ed Sheeran’s X.
Spotify reports that more than seven billion hours of music was streamed by more than 50 million users this year. It plans on rewarding listeners this month by offering new users in the U.S. a premium, three-month membership for only 99 cents.
The discount seems to be an aggressive way for Spotify to gain as many new users as possible in anticipation of a potential price war. In the coming months Apple will start pushing its own streaming service, Beats, to its millions of device owners while YouTube is getting ready to launch a paid music service of its own.
