Everybody got their bags packed for Bozeman, Montana?
Spotify dropped their annual “Spotify Wrapped” this week, showing everybody just how good (or bad) their taste in music was this year – and apparently telling everybody that they should move to Bozeman for some reason.
Of course there was a lot of Taylor Swift and Morgan Wallen on people’s’ lists of most-played artists. But honestly, I don’t really care about anybody’s Spotify Wrapped. What’s always most interesting to me is when artists post their year-end stats showing how much their music was streamed.
Most of this data isn’t generally available to the public, so Spotify Wrapped for artists provides a rare glimpse into just who people are listening to. And it’s always interesting to see who’s getting streamed more than expected and whose numbers are low for an artist of their size.
So I’ve tried to catch all of the artists who have been posting their Spotify Wrapped numbers to see if there’s anything we can learn about who’s hot and who’s…well, not.
Now, obviously it’s not exactly as black and white as that. Spotify Wrapped reportedly only recaps data through October, so artists who release an album in November aren’t going to see those streams counted.
And of course a lot of streaming depends on whether or not an artist released new music that year, so artists who release new music every week (not naming names Zach Bryan) are going to naturally get a lot more streams than artists who didn’t release an album this year.
Then there are also plenty of artists who haven’t shared their Spotify Wrapped stats – including one of the biggest artists in the genre, Morgan Wallen. So keep in mind that these numbers are an incomplete picture of the listening habits of country fans. But nonetheless, it’s an interesting peek behind the curtain.
So with that in mind, let’s take a look at the numbers from those artists who have shared their Wrapped this year.
American Aquarium
I have a feeling that this is one of those misleading stats that don’t really reflect an artist’s popularity. American Aquarium didn’t release any new music this year – not to mention, if I had to guess, I’d say a lot of their fans listen to BJ Barham and company’s music on vinyl.
Nolan Taylor
An impressive showing from the newcomer Nolan Taylor, who didn’t really start releasing music on Spotify until this year with his single “68.”
Drake Milligan
Drayton Farley
Randall King
Charles Wesley Godwin
Tracy Lawrence
Josh Meloy
This is one that surprised me – not because I’m not a fan of Josh Meloy (he puts on an incredible live show) but to see him so far ahead of some of these other artists (including Charles Wesley Godwin, who Josh opened for earlier this year) really shows the power of streaming.
Wyatt Flores
A breakout year for Wyatt Flores got him over 100 million streams this year, and I have a feeling that number’s going to be a LOT higher next year, with his Life Lessons EP only coming out a couple of weeks ago.
Travis Tritt
Pretty impressive numbers on the heels of not only a legendary catalog, but also the release of his gospel album Country Chapel earlier this year.
Flatland Cavalry
Cody Jinks
Parker McCollum
Lainey Wilson
A huge year for the new CMA Entertainer of the Year.
Jelly Roll
Zach Bryan
It’s hard to argue that many people had a bigger year than Zach Bryan. Aside from his massive sold-out tour, Zach dropped a ton of music this year – and his die-hard fans streamed the hell out of it.
Just how big was Zach’s year in streaming? He got nearly as many streams as Beyoncé, who had 3.4 billion.
With all those streams, Zach can probably almost afford to buy a ticket to a Zach Bryan concert. (I’m just joking, don’t come at me).
