Topline
Billionaire pop star Taylor Swift, who ended a record-breaking tour, released a 31-song album and became the wealthiest female musician this year, dominated major streaming platforms in 2024—though a feud between Kendrick Lamar and Drake that dominated the R&B world also seemingly helped the pair land spots on year-end charts.
Key Facts
Swift was named Spotify’s top global artist this year with more than 26.6 billion streams worldwide, and though Apple Music didn’t release a complete top-streamed artist list, it did announce Swift was the platform’s No. 1 steamed artist.
The Weeknd, Bad Bunny, Drake and Billie Eilish rounded out the top five of Spotify’s globally streamed artist list, while Kendrick Lamar, who is set to headline the Super Bowl in February and had a big year at least in part because of his ongoing feud with Drake,was noticeably absent from the top 10.
Apple Music did release information on its top-streamed songs, and Lamar’s “Not Like Us”—the chart-topping, Grammy-nominated diss track targeting Drake as part of the pair’s feud—was the most-streamed song, followed by Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” and Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso.”
Aside from streaming, Swift topped Billboard’s top artists of 2024 list—which ranks the top acts of the year by activity on the Billboard 200 albums chart and Billboard Hot 100 songs chart along with touring data—for the fourth time, and she was followed by Morgan Wallen, Zach Bryan and Drake.
Drake, in his own right, was named Billboard’s year-end top R&B/hip-hop artist for the eighth time, giving him twice as many year-end no. 1 titles as any other artist—though Billboard named Lamar’s “Not Like Us” the no. 1 R&B/hip-hop song.
Get Forbes Breaking News Text Alerts: We’re launching text message alerts so you’ll always know the biggest stories shaping the day’s headlines. Text ”Alerts” to (201) 335-0739 or sign up here.
Big Number
$15.4 million. That’s how much the feud between Drake and Lamar made across platforms this year, Billboard reported. Lamar’s “Not Like Us” was the biggest earner of the feud and generated about $7.6 million in streaming, sales and publishing revenue, and Lamar’s “Like That” with Future and Metro Boomin—which began the beef in March—generated around $4.6 million in revenue, meaning Lamar was financially the winner. Drake’s two diss tracks, “Family Matters” and “Push Ups,” generated almost $1 million each—though Drake outsold Lamar in terms of album units by nearly double, Billboard reported.
Kendrick Lamar performs onstage during The Pop Out – Ken & Friends Presented by pgLang and Free … [+] Lunch at The Kia Forum on June 19, 2024 in Inglewood, California.
Getty Images for pgLang, Amazon Music, & Free Lunch
Tangent
Spotify users criticized the streaming platform on social media for its Spotify Wrapped package—a bundle of data that tells users their listening trends and top artists and songs of the year—calling it disappointing after a longer-than-normal wait and criticizing its lack of statistics compared to streamers like Apple. Spotify Wrapped did not tell users their top genres this year or their top albums, and it had new artificial intelligence features fans were critical of, including one that assigned users phrases to describe their listening habits, like “Pink Pilates Princess Strut Pop.”
Forbes Valuation
Forbes estimates Swift has a net worth of about $1.6 billion. Swift became a billionaire last October in large part due to the success of her record-breaking Eras Tour, which is the highest-grossing tour in history with more than $2 billion brought in, and she became the world’s richest female musician, passing Rihanna, this October.
Taylor Swift performs during “The Eras Tour” on Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, in Vancouver, British … [+] Columbia.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Spotify’s Most-Streamed Artists Globally
- Taylor Swift
- The Weeknd
- Bad Bunny
- Drake
- Billie Eilish
- Travis Scott
- Peso Pluma
- Kanye West
- Ariana Grande
- Feid
Spotify’s Most-Streamed Songs Globally
- “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter
- “Beautiful Things” by Benson Boone
- “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” by Billie Eilish
- “Gata Only” by FloyyMenor, Cris Mj
- “Lose Control” by Teddy Swims
- “End of Beginning” by Djo
- “Too Sweet” by Hozier
- “One Of The Girls (with JENNIE, Lily Rose Depp)” by The Weeknd
- “Cruel Summer” by Taylor Swift
- “Die With A Smile” by Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga
Apple Music’s Most-Streamed Songs Globally
- “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar
- “Beautiful Things” by Benson Boone
- “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter
- “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey
- “Cruel Summer” by Taylor Swift
Further Reading
Forbes Taylor Swift Becomes World’s Richest Female Musician: Here’s Who Is Right Behind Her By Conor Murray Forbes Spotify Users Slam ‘Worst’ Wrapped After Long Wait And Lack Of Genre, Album Statistics By Conor Murray Forbes Kendrick Lamar’s Diss Tracks Vastly Outearn Drake’s As Feud Generates $15 Million In Revenue, Billboard Says By Conor Murray
