Hip Hop: The Most Streamed Genre

Hip-Hop is the most streamed genre in the world according to the New York Times. The famed outlet reported on the subject in a newly-released article entitled Hip-Hop and R&B Fans Embrace Streaming Services. In the piece, Ben Sisario writes:

Throughout 2015, on outlets like Spotify, Rhapsody and Apple Music, releases by hip-hop and rhythm-and-blues acts including Drake, Kendrick Lamar, ASAP Rocky and the Weeknd have consistently posted far higher numbers than those in other genres.

The piece also factored into the equation the recent Drake and Future album, labeling the project, “the latest example of the extraordinary popularity of hip-hop on streaming music services.” NYT’s Sisario breaks down the numbers game as such:

Songs from “What a Time to Be Alive,” which came out Sept. 20, were streamed 40.3 million times around the world in its first week, including 35.1 million times in the United States, according to Apple. Earlier this year, Drake’s “If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late” was streamed 48 million times in one week, according to Nielsen. Mr. Lamar’s “To Pimp a Butterfly” opened with 38 million and the Weeknd’s “Beauty Behind the Madness” started with 57 million one week and 52 million the next.

On Spotify, hip-hop’s share of the top 500 artists is up 16 percent over last year, and 24 percent since 2012, according to that service. On Pandora, the leading Internet radio service, four of the top five acts with the most “station adds” — the number of times listeners choose their names of the artists, or their songs, for listening — are hip-hop and urban; the only other top act is Taylor Swift, according to Next Big Sound, a data-tracking service owned by Pandora.

Hip-hop artists’ consistent, constant use of social media is also cited as reason for the genre’s dominance. To check out the article, head on over to the New York Times website to read the piece in its entirety.