Most listened to songs on spotify

Neill

Philly_Q said:

Neill said:

breakstuff said:

Anyone watching the re-runs of Top Of The Pops from 1990 currently being shown every weekend on BBC4?

My god, that was a turd of a year as far as popular music was concerned. Bloody awful. 

It was wasn't it.  But let's be honest the rot had well and truly set in by 1990.

1990 is around the time my pop music knowledge grinds to a halt, although I probably would recognise a few things if I went and looked at the chart.

Coming back to the thing about music's lack of significance nowadays:

A few months ago I took part in a big Nordoff-Robbins pop music quiz on Zoom (it was pretty heavy duty, our team came in the bottom 5 out of 50 but that's getting away from the point).  In our team we had me in my 50s, someone else in her 40s and some kids in their 20s.  I said I'm OK up to the 1980s, but I'm relying on you lot after that.

Well, the youngsters were fucking hopeless.  They knew nothing about modern pop music, even when they thought they knew the answers they turned out to be wrong.  I think I contributed nearly every answer we actually got right.

I do think pop/rock music is becoming a bit like classical music in that you end up mostly referencing the past, eg I know a really good classical pianist and if you ask her about favourite composers today she just says well it all comes back to Bach.  In the same way bands like the Beatles, The Who, Pick Floyd, Black Sabbath, Led Zep, just can't be surpassed.  I have a young friend who is fully 40 years my junior yet his musical taste is 70's American Rock, Springsteen, Bachman Turner Overdrive, that sort of thing (it's ok I'm working on him).  He has no interest in modern pop and can you blame him?

It's not that no-one is producing good music these days, far from it, but sadly for them, Dark Side of the Moon, Abbey Road, Paranoid, Ziggy Stardust, etc etc have already been created and no-one will ever make albums to compare with them.   Part of the problem is there's too much technology now which paradoxically restricts creativity, well that's my view.  

 

chrisj1602

This maybe a bit of a generalisation but kids aren’t that into albums are they?

They’ll stream the charts or recent release playlists, probably on the free service and they generally consume what Spotify give them, almost like it’s radio.

I’m not saying this accounts for all of those millions of plays but I
feel like it might contribute.

Philly_Q

chrisj1602 said:

This maybe a bit of a generalisation but kids aren’t that into albums are they?

They’ll stream the charts or recent release playlists, probably on the free service and they generally consume what Spotify give them, almost like it’s radio.

I’m not saying this accounts for all of those millions of plays but I
feel like it might contribute.

Albums are almost like an artificial construct nowadays, when artists can release individual tracks online as soon as they're finished.  Bolting 8 or 10 tracks together into an album which hardly anyone will actually buy as a "thing"... it probably makes no sense to a young audience.

That said, the likes of Ed Sheeran and Adele still seem to sell loads of albums - but maybe that's a slightly different audience again?

I use Spotify but I use it in an old-man way - I only listen to albums.  

Grunfeld

axisus said:

Top 10, I only know Ed Sheeran. 

@axisus ; #6, The Weeknd, Blinding Lights is great.

viz

There’s only one song in that list that also appears on the “100 most played songs on Viz’s record player” list, and that’s Bohemian Rhapsody, so Bohemian Rhapsody is obviously the best song from these two lists. 

Danny1969

I knew Sheeran would be up there but I thought he would have more streams on Spot than YT,  but the Spot is only half his 5 billion views plus on Youtube. 
Unless I have the maths wrong that is 

Slash'N'burn

chrisj1602 said:

This maybe a bit of a generalisation but kids aren’t that into albums are they?

They’ll stream the charts or recent release playlists, probably on the free service and they generally consume what Spotify give them, almost like it’s radio.

I’m not saying this accounts for all of those millions of plays but I
feel like it might contribute.

I’ve used Amazon music and Spotify a bit, I hate the way that by default it wants to shuffle songs from an artist (or similar artists) you select, it can be hard to find the albums and open them up to see the tracks. Then when you do get there, it defaults to shuffle the songs in the album too, arrggh! 
I think streaming services are mostly to blame for kids not being into albums, as they seem to view them as low importance, or necessary evil.

PaulWarning

we're old, we're not supposed to like modern music, like my Dad couldn't stand Hendrix I can't stand rap, when I hear stuff by the likes of Ed Sheeran I just wonder what all the fuss is about, pleasant enough, but no innovation, but I sort of get why youngsters would like him, he's one of them 

Hurling_Fruitmig

PaulWarning said:

we're old, we're not supposed to like modern music, like my Dad couldn't stand Hendrix I can't stand rap, when I hear stuff by the likes of Ed Sheeran I just wonder what all the fuss is about, pleasant enough, but no innovation, but I sort of get why youngsters would like him, he's one of them 

At 29 he seems a bit old to be a youngster.

breakstuff

Hurling_Fruitmig said:

PaulWarning said:

we're old, we're not supposed to like modern music, like my Dad couldn't stand Hendrix I can't stand rap, when I hear stuff by the likes of Ed Sheeran I just wonder what all the fuss is about, pleasant enough, but no innovation, but I sort of get why youngsters would like him, he's one of them 

At 29 he seems a bit old to be a youngster.

Compared to most on here he's practically a foetus.

the_jaffa

A significant part of this may well also be down to the algorithms and how they are manipulated to push certain artists into all of the lists that Spotify etc create.

Philly_Q

Slash'N'burn said:

I’ve used Amazon music and Spotify a bit, I hate the way that by default it wants to shuffle songs from an artist (or similar artists) you select, it can be hard to find the albums and open them up to see the tracks. Then when you do get there, it defaults to shuffle the songs in the album too, arrggh! 

I use Spotify and I don't seem to have any trouble finding and playing albums (with the tracks in the right order!).  Sometimes at the end of an album - if there isn't another album in the list to move on to - it plays songs by the same artist, in random order.

Maybe I changed my settings a long time ago, but I don't remember.

Danny1969

I don't think Sheeran  as a guy who's very modern. He tends to use dated and cliched chord sequences and diatonic melodies, more aimed at casual listeners of music I think than the younger crowd.  

Keiko

Philly_Q said:

Slash'N'burn said:

I’ve used Amazon music and Spotify a bit, I hate the way that by default it wants to shuffle songs from an artist (or similar artists) you select, it can be hard to find the albums and open them up to see the tracks. Then when you do get there, it defaults to shuffle the songs in the album too, arrggh! 

I use Spotify and I don't seem to have any trouble finding and playing albums (with the tracks in the right order!).  Sometimes at the end of an album - if there isn't another album in the list to move on to - it plays songs by the same artist, in random order.

Maybe I changed my settings a long time ago, but I don't remember.

Yeah I don't have that problem either and listen to albums in order all the time. If you pay the subscription fee that shouldn't be happening. Check your settings.

Keiko

Surprised to see that dude from the x-factor at number 13 on the list. Looks like he's done well since. Still not a fan though, pronounce your vowels properly aaaargh!

Nitefly

ewal said:

Nitefly said:

I read this week that new acts can't make any money from streaming because of all the old acts taking the money - looks like this list rather debunks that?

It doesn't - those established at the top of the roster (like Ed Sheeran) do very well. However most don't.

Agreed, @ewal but he's not exactly "old acts"    The thing I read (from @Cols thread) was complaining about Queen, The Beatles, etc.

Slash'N'burn

Philly_Q said:

Slash'N'burn said:

I’ve used Amazon music and Spotify a bit, I hate the way that by default it wants to shuffle songs from an artist (or similar artists) you select, it can be hard to find the albums and open them up to see the tracks. Then when you do get there, it defaults to shuffle the songs in the album too, arrggh! 

I use Spotify and I don't seem to have any trouble finding and playing albums (with the tracks in the right order!).  Sometimes at the end of an album - if there isn't another album in the list to move on to - it plays songs by the same artist, in random order.

Maybe I changed my settings a long time ago, but I don't remember.

Maybe it’s an app thing, I’ve had a couple of different phones.
When I’ve used the web player on a laptop that’s been a bit more user friendly, but I’ll check the settings.