Billions Club: Collected

 Billions Club: Collected

  I did a series of these between March and April and by the end of the run I'd hit most of the repeat players, leaving a bunch of artists with one or two billion stream songs.  The point was just to show that you could account for something like half the billion stream songs with just a handful of artists.  The other issue is that there are new billion stream songs almost every week, sometimes more than one update a week, so it is hard to make real headway once you've accounted for the major players.  When I stopped doing these, the official Billions Club playlist had close to 400 songs.  Today, a year and three monthish later, it has 652 songs.   Also, I simply think that many of these artists are terrible, and don't want to write about them.  

Published 3/3/23

Dummy by Portugal, the Man: Official Video + Taco Bell Prelaunch Ad

  Anyway, as I said the other day I am very excited about this new Portugal, the Man single DUMMY because of the number of calls I had to listen to about it over the past three years.   One interesting aspect of this release is that they pre-launched it with a Taco Bell Ad- see above.  Which, this is not the first time Portugal, the Man have done this.   This tactic also mirrors the rise of the tik tok inspired "clip": a 15, 30 or minute long portion of a song that is used to generate interest BEFORE the actual release of the song.  Portugal, the Man and Atlantic kind of dipped their toes in that world with this release but for artists who have come up via the success of their social media profiles, word is that the song doesn't even get released unless the clips hit certain metrics- otherwise they just scrap the song and start over.  

  Also, here is the real video for Dummy, by Portugal, the Man:

   This is a good video- I quite like it.  It's closing in on fifty thousand views in the first twenty four hours- well, 47k plus and 24 hour mark will be in eight minutes.   Measuring the success of this song is a question that very much interests me, so  I'm going to use this post to announce my new feature, the Billions Club, an investigation of songs that have over one billion streams on Spotify.  It takes it's name from the Spotify playlist itself.   BILLIONS CLUB. 

This playlist has 372 tracks on it but far fewer artists.  The list is heavily weighted towards songs released more recently, which likely reflects the enormous growth in the Spotify user base- which Wikipedia says is up 188 million.   I think it's fair to say that the "Spotify era" dates from the end of 2015 and the beginning of 2016- following the Wikipedia observation that Ed Sheeran was the first artist to pass five hundred million streams in for a single song (Thinking of You.)  Thus, all the billion stream tracks happened after that point.

  If you look at the Billions Club playlist on the desktop version the Spotify playlist show you WHEN the track was added to the playlist.  For example, Have You Ever Seen the Rain by CCR and Going Bad by Meek Mill & Drake were added in the past day.  The oldest dates for any song on that playlist are July 6th, 2021, so the playlist must have been published on that day.  

 

Published 3/4/23

Ed Sheeran (11/372)

   There is no getting around the number of billion stream songs credited wholly or partially to English songstress Ed Sheeran.  Sheeran's popularity is fascinating- my best guess is that if you looked at the listening habits of English-listening music audiences, Sheeran would be the favorite of listeners who listen to very few artists on a yearly basis.  In other words, if you listen to fewer that a hundred artists in a year, chances are that Ed Sheeran is one of those artists.  Since those people probably listen to just as much music as anyone, only fewer artists, people like Ed Sheeran are going to benefit from the high number of engagement between his music and listeners because those listeners aren't listening to many other artists so there is less competition.

    Sheeran had six tracks on the original Billions Club playlist published by Spotify on July 21st, 2021.  On four of those he is the sole credited artist.  On two he shares artist credit- those artists are Khalid on Beautiful People and Justin Bieber on I Don't Care.

     The four "original" Billions Club playlist solo tracks are Shape of You, Perfect, Photograph and Thinking out Loud.  Two of those songs are from his 2014 album X and two are from %, released in 2017.  The two shared tracks are both singles- Beautfiul is a 2019 single as is I Don't Care.   Sheeran is also one of a handful of artists who have a top 5 that is almost entirely billion stream tracks- four of his current top 5. 

   After the initial playlist was published in July 2021, Sheeran added five more tracks to get him to his current place on the list.  Three of those crossed one billion streams in 2021 and then he added two more in 2022, with the last, Shivers, crossing over  in November 7th, 2022. Several of these tracks have crossed the two billion streams list- which- again- there are only a handful of artists who have any tracks that have reached this threshold. 

  I did some quick searches on other artists who might be number one- I'm pretty sure it is Ed Sheeran- Post Malone has 9, Drake has 8, Rihanna has 5. ETC.    But I think the way you explain this phenomenon generally is that the people who listen to the fewest number of artists listen to Ed Sheeran the most, and there are more of those people than there are of people who listen to more artists. 

Published 3/6/23

Drake (9/372)*

Total: 28/372

7.5% of the total  

* Work is counted under the total for Rihanna, but I adjusted Drake's total to 9 instead of 8 (but the total remains 28/372 because that song is counted under Rihanna.)

       It's also worth tracking the songs from these artists that are CLOSE to crossing the billion play threshold- Drake is the first of these artists to have songs in that category- which says something about Ed Sheeran and Post Malone- that they don't have any songs in that category.  Both Scorpion and Views have songs that have already crossed the threshold of one billion streams AND songs that are close- which I'm going to put at 940,000,000+- anything more than 940 million views.  I started a new playlist BILLIONS + HUNDRED MILLIONS on Spotify to keep track.

      It seems like this question of whether an artist that already has a song above one billion streams has any other songs that are close is an important way to distinguish the trajectory of artists in this club.  So even though the total number of tracks seems low for an artist the magnitude of Drake, the fact that I count three songs that are poised to cross the billion play threshold at some point in the future in some sense puts him above both Post Malone and Ed Sheeran. 

   For example, Going Bad, his collaboration with Meek Mill off of Meek's 2018 album Championships, just crossed the billion play threshold this week.   This is significant not only for Drake but more importantly for Meek Mill- whose popularity is raised an order of magnitude by having a Drake feature on this particular song.  Meek's album track average on Championships maybe barely scrapes 20,000,000 a track.  It's worth noting that even at the most prolific levels, the gap between billion stream hits and catalog/album tracks is so substantial that it almost seems insane if you stop to think about it.

   Just to track back to Ed Sheeran for a minute by comparison- his 2014 deluxe edition of X has two songs with over two billion streams, but the same record also has three tracks under one hundred million streams- which really seems like the bare minimum for an Ed Sheeran track.  The next highest streaming track after the two, two billion stream tracks only has 875 million- which is really low compared to two billion.  

   Or, to compare the other already discussed BILLIONS CLUB member, Post Malone, his 2018 record, beerbongs & bentleys has one track with two billion streams and two tracks with one billion streams, but most of the rest are at 200-300 million streams.   The next highest track on that record only has 914 million streams.

 

    So that is one difference that I can already see- the BILLIONS CLUB artist with static membership based on past achievement, and those with continuing momentum.

Published 3/7/23

Dua Lipa (7/372)

35/372= 9.4%

    Time to get some women on the board!  My boo is all reminding me about gender equity issues and the Billions Club is no exception.  Three entries already and they are all white, English speaking men.  What about women???  I thought FOR SURE that Rihanna would have more entries than any other woman on this list but it is in fact Dua Lipa, who outpoints Rihanna by one song.    Dua Lipa's presence is powered by the strength of the singles from her 2020 LP, Future Nostalgia which has three separate billion stream tracks:  Don't Start Now (2 billion), Break My Heart (1 billion) and the Levitating remix featuring Lil Baby (1.6 billion).  The non remix version of Levitating has 700 million plays in its own right.

   Break My Heart only crossed the line a couple weeks ago, the Levitating remix crossed in October of 2021 and Don't Start Now was a charter member from July 2021.  Two of her songs from her self titled debut record in 2017 were charter members of the Billions Club,  IDGAF and New Rules, which is closing in on two billion streams (1.8 billion).

   Her other two Billions Club tracks are collabos- one with Calvin Harris and the Cold Cold Heart remix she did with Elton John.  Like three of the four other artists I've discussed so far, Dua Lipa has no other songs that are close to crossing the billion stream threshold. 

    I'm familiar with a few of these songs.  I've listened to Levitating- the non remix version- dozens of time and the Elton John Cold Cold Heart song was a playlist fixture for six months last year.   I would imagine that she is hard at work in the hit factory working on a new billion streamer and a bunch of tracks to fill out her next record.

Published 3/8/23

Arian Grande (9/372)

44/372 =  11%

  Damn y'all I forgot about Ari- I also forgot about the Weeknd- who has 10 cuts.  So the BILLIONS CLUB Mount Rushmore would be Ed Sheeran(11), the Weeknd(10), Post Malone(9), Ariana Grande(9) and Dua Lipa(7).   That is over 10% of all the tracks in the world that have more than 1 billion streams.   The threshold questions for any artist in the BILLIONS CLUB is whether they have done it more than once. While not exactly ANY artist can get one song in the BILLIONS CLUB, the one hit members are a much more diverse bunch than the repeat players.  If you look at my hypothetical BILLIONS CLUB Mount Rushmore, all five are well positioned to get future hits on the playlist, but Drake is the only artist of the five that has an existing song that is within shouting distance of the threshold.  He is also the artist who has a song pass one billion streams the most recently- last week, in fact.  Ariana comes in second in that category- her Save Your Tears remix with the Weeknd crossed the billion streams threshold on January 8th, 2023.  That track was released on Spotify on April 23rd of 2021, meaning it made one billion streams in under two years.  Honestly, you would hope a track with two of the top five most billion streamed artists would be able to accomplish more than 500,000,000 plays a year in the first two years.  Isn't that the whole point of releasing such a collaboration as a non-album one off?

  It's good evidence that when you get to the one billion stream level, an album is beside the point.  Just give the label the single and you can keep the rest for your stupid artist mixtape that no one (relatively speaking) is going to hear.

  Grande had four tracks on the original playlist in July of 2021.  Since then she's added three not counting Save Your Tears- in May, July and September of last year.   More interesting than the songs that have already made it is which song will make the BILLIONS CLUB next.  I don't see any obvious candidates on her albums- which suggests her next billion streamer hasn't been released yet, doesn't exist OR will come from one of her non-album collaborations.  Stuck with U with Bieber is at 920 million.  34+35 seems like it would have a shot but they put out a remix that seems popular in its own right- between the two of them they do have one billion streams- 800 something and 200 something million between them both.   And then break up with your boyfriend I'm bored has 855 million.

Published 3/14/23

Bruno Mars (8/373)

61/373 = 16%

   Yesterday a new song- The Business, by Tiesto, was added to the BILLIONS CLUB playlist, so now we are talking 373 songs, not 372.  That's the first new member in two weeks, which suggests that new billion streamers are not commonplace, as one might expect.   In many, many, many ways Bruno Mars is the least interesting artist member of the Billions Club in that his rise represents an utterly conventional music industry pairing a charismatic stage presence with strong writing credentials (he had a publishing deal before he was an artist) and an insider's understanding of the business (his AR contact was Aaron Bay-Schuck, who is now the CEO of Warner Records, largely based on the strength of Mars' performance since 2010.   As such, Mars isn't a streaming era artist, but rather an artist who was on top when streaming came on line.  Four of his eight songs were on the inaugural BILLIONS CLUB playlist in 2021 and each of those tracks was from a different album/project.   Since then Mars has continued to place new tracks in the BILLIONS CLUB, most recently in January of 2023 when the lead single from his Silk Sonic project crossed the threshold.  Mars also has one track from Doo Wops & Hooligans (I can barely type that title out without cringing!) at 966 million, making it a likely ninth BILLIONS CLUB track for him.

   I guess, I could pick apart the production on the different songs and albums but all you really need to know is that every single one of his hits was a combination of talent, production and marketing in which Mars himself played a crucial but not necessarily unreplaceable part.  I sense that Mars, like Bieber, simply occupies a place in the music industry eco-system in a way like more individual distinctive BILLIONS CLUBS members, say, The Weeknd or even Ariana Grande, do not.   What I mean is that you wouldn't ever call Bruno Mars a protean talent, he's more of a savvy operator.  His artistic identity is extremely popular but you would be hard pressed to find a single person who would talk to you about the art of Bruno Mars- I'm just talking about in comparison to other members of the BILLIONS CLUB, not some romantic conception of the artist. 

   

Published 3/17/23

XXXtentacion  (6/375)

67/375 =  16%

  This was actually a big week for the BILLIONS CLUB with three cuts making the list- Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen, Losing My Religion by REM and an Eminem song.   All three represent the second main theme of the BILLIONS CLUB: catalog tracks that have endured and prospered in the streaming era. Call Me Maybe and Losing My Religion fit that bill.

   Meanwhile, XXXtentacion, today's artist, represents the flip of that and the main theme in the BILLIONS CLUB: Streaming era artists who either emerged just before streaming took off or came up during the streaming era.  XXXtentacion, of course, was murdered in 2018.  A whopping four songs from his 2018 album ? are on the list and one of those is closing in on two billion streams.

  Also, for the first time, I found two billion stream songs in an artist's catalog that haven't yet been included on the BILLIONS CLUB- suggesting that there are potentially many more billion stream songs than are on the list.   As far as personal experience with XXXtentacion goes, I don't have any beyond hearing that he is essentially the Kurt Cobain of his generation.  Not something I would care to argue about. 

   Perhaps it is the content of those two unplaylisted tracks that prevents them from being included on the Spotify Billions Club playlist. 

Published 3/17/23

Eminem (7/375)

73/375  =  19%

  OK- almost to 20 percent- which has been harder than I thought. The first 10 percent of the BILLIONS CLUB comprised four artists: Sheeran, Post Malone, Drake & Dua Lipa- though that should have been Ariana Grande- but that is four artists for the first 10 percent.  Getting to 20 percent requires five  more artists, and that is taking into account I excluded Justin Bieber, who himself has 10 songs in the BILLIONS CLUB.

   Eminem just recently placed his seventh track in the BILLIONS CLUB, Mockingbird from his album Encore, which does not have any other billion stream tracks.  I was surprised that Lose Yourself, his anthem from the highly succesful Eminem biopic 8 Mile, only has 1.6 billion streams- I would have pegged that song to have over two billion streams for sure.  And Eminem isn't solely a catalog artist either, Godzilla, which features Juice WRLD who himself has three other billions stream cuts, was off his 2020 LP(!) Music to Be Murdered By (who knew?).  Godzilla was added to the Billions Club playlist in October of 2022 and then Mockingbird this week.  Another mild surprise in the Eminem discography is that Stan- a song that literally launched a Gen Z culture, only has 834 million streams.

In terms of a potential eighth track for Eminem in the billions club, Stan would be it but that seems far off in the future if ever.  Unlike almost all of the other artists I've looked at on this list, I have plenty of personal experience listening to Eminem. I had some awareness of his existence before he signed to Interscope via his participation in the underground hiphop/turntablist scene of the mid to late 1990's- I can remember owning a cd with an early freestyle of his.  Obviously the story of Eminem is pure major label malarkey after Interscope got involved- he was a real pop/MTV/cd selling machine during an era when artists made real money at that level. 

  His level of stardom peaked in 2002 and 2003 when 8 Mile was released in theaters.  It grossed 250 million, which was good, but it also cemented an idea of Eminem in the public consciousness and gave him Lose Yourself, which I would argue is his biggest hit.   Stylistically, Eminem emerged out of the loosely defined "horrorcore" which you can basically trace back to the Gravediggaz and Kool Keith and his record as Dr. Octagon.   Gravediggaz dates from 1994, and Dr. Octagonacology came out in 1996.  Both Prince Paul, the animating force behind Gravediggaz, and Kool Keith were from the world of turntablism and horrorcore emerged as a kind of high concept attempt to create a new genre of hip hop.  As such, there was always something artificial and inauthentic about the original wave of horrorcore.  No one, for example, though that Kole Keith WAS Dr. Octagon and neither RZA nor Prince Paul ever publicly identified as their Gravediggaz personas.

   What Eminem introduced was a personal narrative to couple with the outrageous lyrics about murder and dismemberment and obviously it landed with a wide, wide audience.  After 2002 he was basically done despite some commercial success- no one really took Eminem seriously after 8 Mile and he responded by fully embracing top 40 commercialism, continuing to release records that critics and audiences hardly know exist.   It seems unlikely that he will ever have another song make the list, but it's impressive that he still had one break through as recently as this week. 

Published 3/18/23

Queen (5/376)

78/376 = 20%

  I wanted to include a catalog artist in the first twenty percent- meaning an artist who hasn't released any new music in the Spotify era, and Queen is probably the most succesful example, with five songs in the BILLIONS CLUB including one,  We Will Rock You, that was added three weeks ago, just after I started this project.  Unsurprisingly, the "album" for four of Queen's five Billions Club songs is the 2018 OST for the Freddy Mercury biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody.

   That song- Bohemian Rhapsody, is a member of the two billion streams club.  Historically Queen was classified as a rock act though at this point you would be hard pressed to find any fans from their original, active period- the popularity of their songs on Spotify indicates that a younger generation has successfully connected with their classic hits.  If you go through their whole catalog on Spotify it is easy to see how the 2018 film is the point of contact for the streaming generation, with that OST overwhelming the totals for their actual records.  Another instructive element of looking at the Queen catalog on Spotify is just how much of a mess it can be trying to replicate the physical release history of a succesful act like Queen in the streaming context.  It seems like their of dozens of versions of the different studio and live albums, some of the songs appear to be the same on each record, whereas other songs have several versions scattered throughout the catalog.   Is Queen well served, one might ask, by having two different versions of their forgettable 1980 OST for the equally forgettable Flash Gordon film?

   Another interesting streaming era observation about the Queen catalog is the separationof We Will Rock You from We Are the Champions, which appears to be a product of the 2018 film.  In 1977, the two songs were released together as one single and before the streaming era the two songs were typically played back to back on the radio.  In the streaming era, We Will Rock You is a billion streamer and We are the Champions is stuck on 580 million streams.

   As far as personal experiences go, like all adults on the planet earth over the age of 40, I have plenty.  I was of a prime age to be influenced by the usage of Bohemian Rhapsody in the original Wayne's World film:

  That was a huge moment for me and many other young people growing up in the United States- the first Wayne's World was released in 1992 when I was in high school.   We Will Rock You & We Are the Champions were early examples of "jock jams"- music that would be played either in anticipation of or during professional sporting events- I can particularly hearing the into and chorus of We Will Rock You dozens of times at baseball and basketball games in the Bay Area growing up.  Under Pressure was an FM radio staple when I was a child and then in 1990 Vanilla Ice sampled Under Pressure and reinvigorated and expanded the audience for the original- which was only released in 1981. 

  The only one of the five tracks that I find surprising is Don't Stop Me Now, which has 1.5 billion streams.   I remember both Bicycle Race and Fat Bottomed Girls garnering more attention when I was growing up but neither song has more than 250 million streams.  Of course, Another One Bites the Dust is a stone-cold classic all the way around- that was a song I would sing on the school bus or like, hum to myself in the outfield when I was playing baseball as a kid.  The bassline, in particular, is practically a part of our common musical heritage in the 20th century- the very essence of pop culture. 

  I couldn't find any other songs from Queen that are close- Crazy Little Thing Called Love has over a half billion streams and Somebody to Love has over 700 million.  In addition to Bicycle Race and Fat Bottomed Girls having disappointing streaming numbers, the LGBTQ+ anthem You're My Best Friend only has 200 million streams, which suggests an even tighter connection between the 2018 film and the songs Queen has in the Billions Club.

    In conclusion, that is ten artists with 20 percent of the songs in the BILLIONS CLUB.  It's easy to see a difference between the artists in the first 10 percent- a couple artists with 10 or more songs and then artists with 9, 8 and 7 songs, and the artists from the second 10 percent- already down to five songs per artist.

Published 3/22/23

Bad Bunny (6/376)

93/376= 24%*

* One of Bad Bunny's Billions Club tracks, MIA has already been counted under Drake.

     This is the first non-English speaking/bilingual artist in the Billions Club.  I suspect that Spanish and Korean are the only two non-English languages represented in the Billions Club- I can't think of any French, German, Italian or Japanese songs that are on the list off hand.  In addition to being the first non-English language artist in the Billions Club, Bad Bunny is also the first non-internet rap artist who launched his career inside the streaming era.  His first LP was released in 2018 and he's been the "most streamed" artist on Spotify in 2020, 2021 and 2022.  That seems a little incongruous because he currently sits at number 15 worldwide according to his current Spotify profile.  You'd think the biggest streaming artist in the world in the past three years would be at, or close, to number one, not fifteenth. 

    Consistent with this success, three songs from his May, 2022 LP,  Un Verano Sin Ti have already made it into the Billions Club.  A fourth, Ojitos Lindros is on the cusp with 950 million streams. A fifth, Efecto is at 887 million streams and a sixth is at 786 million streams and then there are three more songs that have each accrued a half billion.  There can be no question that Bad Bunny is still on the rise with a minimum of two more songs to cross the billion stream threshold within the next year or so.  It's entirely possible that Bad Bunny will be the next artist to reach double digits on the Billions Club.  He's competing with Post Malone and Ariana Grande,  who both only need one more track to make it to double digits, but Grande is basically at a stand still and it's hard to say what Malone will do next and whether that will generate another billion steamer.

  I don't have any personal experience listening to Bad Bunny but based on conversations with people who work in the music industry I know that his touring game is incredible, that he sells buckets of tickets to adoring fans.  I know that he is an iconic figure for many of the more non-traditional audiences for reggaetone.  Finally, I know that he runs a music making factory- I've heard conversations about Bad Bunny's "loops guys" i.e. guys who just work on the loops used in his music, and that he has more than one bunch of "loops guys" working for him full time.   This all suggests that future billion streamers from Bad Bunny- even beyond the songs that are already poised to cross over, are inevitable and that he is a force to be reckoned with. 

 

Published 3/22/23 

Bieber (11/381)

94/381 = 24%

    There was a big day for the BILLIONS CLUB two days ago- and then two more tracks made it on the list today.   Ghost is the second track from his most recent record to make the list.  This puts Bieber into a tie with Ed Sheeran- but man- I've been following the press for Sheeran's next record "Minus sign" and it sounds like he has some bangers lined up- including another song with Bieber.   Sheeran could well be on his way to 15 tracks after this next album cycle gets going.

3/13/23

I left Bieber off the Billions Club Mount Rushmore because I firmly believe that his best days are behind him in terms of being able to produce billion stream songs.   Four of them come from his 2015 album, Purpose, but everything else on that record is stuck around 100 million streams.  Justice, his 2021 record only has one billion stream track- Peaches, and one track that is close to a billion (Ghost at 992 million).  Stuck with U w/ Ariana Grande is at 920 million streams but that is it.  Considering he is the #9 artist in the world and the fact that his entire existence is supposedly about producing hits, I would say he is underperforming.  Also, he just sold his publishing which is a move artists make so they don't have to release new music OR tour.  I think there is a strong argument that Bieber will be stuck at 12 tracks for a long time after Ghost and Stuck with U cross the line...

Published 3/23/23 

Coldplay (6/381)

100/381 = 26%

    Coldplay has six on the board and a seventh (My Universe w/ BTS) on the cusp.  While I wouldn't call myself a fan per se I am surely not a hater of Coldplay and I've listened to The Scientist, Viva La Vida and A Sky Full of Stars, three of their songs on this list, ad nauseum over the years.  In fact, if I close my eyes I can picture a time when Coldplay wasn't a top 50 in the world type band.  This was back when they started and one could plausibly mention Coldplay and a band like Travis in the same breath without eliciting mockery.   Similar to Ed Sheeran, I picture Coldplay as being the absolute favorite of audience members who listen to a relatively few number of artists.  The bottom step of the audience pyramid- the biggest, widest, tallest step stuffed with people who say things like "I don't really listen to music."  Or "I just like the stuff I hear on the radio."   I imagine that their superfans emerge from this audience and maintain their other characteristics i.e. not listening to many other artists even as they become the type of Coldplay fans willing to pay hundreds for a concert ticket to watch... Coldplay. 

Published 3/23/23
Billie Eilish (5/381)

105/381 = 27%

    Right now, Billie Eilish is stuck on five billion stream tracks but she is poised to move to seven with Happier Than Ever reaching 950 million streams and bury a friend at 930 million.  Eilish also has two tracks over two billion streams- Bad Guy and lovely (with Khalid).   Eilish hails from the next neighborhood over where I live in LA right now- she is from Highland Park, though despite frequent visits I've never been able to detect her presence- no murals or shops run by friends or loved ones. 

   Like many others of these artists, her rise to the Billions Club is strictly a function of the major label A&R machine.  Eilish maintains some diy/indie roots- like her manager, for example, who is "day one" type of guy, but the come up has been courtesy of Interscope and a firm example illustrating that major labels are in no way, shape, or form flummoxed by the streaming universe.   I saw her first show at Coachella and I was stuck by the legions of dedicated fans- many of whom looked like they had never actually listened to any other artists before finding their devotion to Eilish.  I was stuck, from the beginning, that Eilish played against the sexual fetishization (and self fetishization) that plagues young, female pop stars- take Ariana Grande for example and impressed by her message of self empowerment- which her audience plainly needs and craves.

     One thing about this kind of rise is- it costs money.  No matter how viral an artist may appear you can trust that money has been spent to enable and capitalize on that rise.  For example, why she may have experienced some early viral success on streaming service, her transition to being big on the radio almost certainly cost substantial coin.   There is also the question of the value of her individual fans.  Beyond being rabid to see the live show, what are they buying.  Now, I'd be hard pressed to argue that young fans don't spend money, but whether they spend money on music outside of the concert ticket seems like an open question.  Do Billie Eilish fans buy vinyl records and cds?  I'm thinking the answer is no.

    Still with five on the board and two in the making I'm guessing she has several more billion streamers inside her AND the a trajectory that will allow her to get there organically. She's only two LP's into her career.   I wouldn't be shocked if she makes it to double digits with her next record.

Published 3/14/23

Bruno Mars (8/373)

61/373 = 16%

   Yesterday a new song- The Business, by Tiesto, was added to the BILLIONS CLUB playlist, so now we are talking 373 songs, not 372.  That's the first new member in two weeks, which suggests that new billion streamers are not commonplace, as one might expect.   In many, many, many ways Bruno Mars is the least interesting artist member of the Billions Club in that his rise represents an utterly conventional music industry pairing a charismatic stage presence with strong writing credentials (he had a publishing deal before he was an artist) and an insider's understanding of the business (his AR contact was Aaron Bay-Schuck, who is now the CEO of Warner Records, largely based on the strength of Mars' performance since 2010.   As such, Mars isn't a streaming era artist, but rather an artist who was on top when streaming came on line.  Four of his eight songs were on the inaugural BILLIONS CLUB playlist in 2021 and each of those tracks was from a different album/project.   Since then Mars has continued to place new tracks in the BILLIONS CLUB, most recently in January of 2023 when the lead single from his Silk Sonic project crossed the threshold.  Mars also has one track from Doo Wops & Hooligans (I can barely type that title out without cringing!) at 966 million, making it a likely ninth BILLIONS CLUB track for him.

   I guess, I could pick apart the production on the different songs and albums but all you really need to know is that every single one of his hits was a combination of talent, production and marketing in which Mars himself played a crucial but not necessarily unreplaceable part.  I sense that Mars, like Bieber, simply occupies a place in the music industry eco-system in a way like more individual distinctive BILLIONS CLUBS members, say, The Weeknd or even Ariana Grande, do not.   What I mean is that you wouldn't ever call Bruno Mars a protean talent, he's more of a savvy operator.  His artistic identity is extremely popular but you would be hard pressed to find a single person who would talk to you about the art of Bruno Mars- I'm just talking about in comparison to other members of the BILLIONS CLUB, not some romantic conception of the artist. 

   

Published 3/27/23

Selena Gomez (5/381)

125/381 =  32%

    I think Selena might be the last artist/act in the BILLIONS CLUB with five cuts and she only barely- she is the current cover girl of the playlist:  Lose You to Love Me from her 2020 record (?!) Rare is the most recent song to make the list- two days ago.  That is actually the only song she has in the billions club as a solo artist.  Her collaborators in the billions club include: Marshmello, Kygo, Charlie Puth & DJ Snake.  I guess that is pretty good for a woman who obviously considers herself more of an actress/all around celebrity than working musician.  She hasn't done a tour since 2016(!) and only a small basket's worth of live performances since then-- mostly doing a single song or two songs on television.

  If you stop to think about it, that actually makes her presence in the BILLIONS CLUB more impressive since all of the other artists I've written about on this list continue to perform live- even Queen- who I saw just announced another tour with Adam Lambert playing Freddy Mercury.   I actually genuinely like Gomez as an actress- Spring Breakers was a bit of a revelation as far as her performance went, and while I don't actually like or watch Only Murders in the Building I've seen enough here and there to recognize her dry wit and success playing opposite Steve Martin and Martin Short.  She's no fool, Selena Gomez.

  Gomez is also the first artist on this list who defines herself primarily as something OTHER than a musician/singer/musical performer- if you asked her today she'd probably call herself an actress with a past in music, which is impressive, because it seems to me that recency- the fact that an artist is continuing to produce new music, even if that music doesn't contain hits, and maintaining something like an active release and touring schedule is key to keeping a song in the public eye long enough for it to get to one billion streams. 

  

Published 3/27/23

Olivia Rodrigo (4/381)

129/381 = 34%

    Olivia Rodrigo is the first of the artists on this list who rose to prominence after the introduction of the Billions Club playlist in July of 2021.  Her first LP, Sour was released in May of 2021 and Drivers License, the lead single from that record, was added to the Billions Club playlist in August followed by Good For U in October.  Deja vu and traitor, two non-singles if I'm not mistaken, were added in September and November of 2022.  Rodrigo seems like a good opportunity to discuss the role of Disney in laying the groundwork for young artists to make it into the Billions Club.  Rodrigo is the first so far- Selena Gomez and Ariana Grande are the other two.   Obviously, being on television as the face of a Disney television channel show- which- I will say I've never watched the Disney channel since I didn't have it as a kid and don't hang around kids who watch it- but artists like Grande, Gomez and Rodrigo already have a built in audience for their music and as an added bonus it is mostly children who will have essentially never listened to music before they fall in love with an artist like Grande, Gomez or Rodrigo.

  If you, are an artist, are a 1/1 for a particular fan, you are going to rack up a ton of plays. Also, this fan is more likely to be a young person and thus almost guaranteed to stream music on a service like Spotify or Spotify itself.  

  

  In terms of my personal experiences with Rodrigo- they are limited.  During the pandemic, there was a no-contact activation event at the car wash down the block, and they've kept the Rodrigo shade of purple (#807EBF) as their paint color ever since.  I've heard... Good For U but I wouldn't be able to identify any of the other hits.  Rodrigo shares a booking agent with an artist my boo manages- not an artist I've ever mentioned here- but I haven't heard any bad things about her "around town" as it were.  

   She seems to be independent minded- her record came out on Geffen- not on Disney owned Hollywood Records and hired a new manager late last year- going with Selena Gomez's manager, which seems almost too on the nose.  Anyway, seems like she could have plenty more billion stream hits since she popped four off her first LP.  

Published 3/30/23

Arctic Monkeys (4/381)

133/381* =  35%

* there should actually be 383 songs on the list but there are only 381 songs on the playlist even after two were added this week.

     I've been dubious of the BILLIONS CLUB claim that it has "every Spotify song with one billion streams."  My suspicions have been confirmed after this week, when two new songs were added but they overall track count remained at 381, which means either the total track count is inaccurate, which seems impossible OR that two tracks were rotated off the playlist to keep the overall number of tracks at 381.   So I'm going to keep it at 381 because that is what the actual playlist says, but we all know there are at least 383 songs with one billion streams or more, not 381.

   One of the tracks from this week is I Wanna Be Yours, the third track from their 2013 album AM to make it into the Billions Club.  This is the first non-single to make it- the other two billion streamers from AM are Do I Wanna Know? and Why'd You Only Call Me When Your High?  Their fourth track is from their 2007 record, Favourite Worst Nightmare- 505.  Not sure what the deal is with that last song- big on tik-tok?  Used in a teen vampire flick?   Arctic Monkey's are the first rock band on this list that you could plausibly call "cool."  The billion streams for three songs off AM likely reflects their tremendous popularity in the UK & EU and their moderate popularity here in the US.   They are also a perennial favorite on alt rock radio, and I think regular play is a significant factor in whether rock tunes can get one billion streams.

Published 4/3/23

Adele (6/389)

134/389= 34%

   Big four song update for the Billions Club today with 3/4 songs coming from already profiled artists: Adele, Rihanna and Imagine Dragons.   They also updated the total number of songs on the playlist to 389 from 381.   Adele's new song, as predicted is Set Fire to the Rain which I understand is a focus of her ongoing Las Vegas residency.  Send My Love which had 905 million streams on March 20th, is now up to 910 million streams, so that's a pace of five million streams every two weeks or ten million streams a month, which suggests it will be added to the Billions Club nine months from today.

  

  I already put the Las Vegas Set Fire to the Rain video in the last post, so.

From 3/20/23

BILLIONS CLUB

Adele (5/376)

83/376 = 22%

  Adele seems like a good artist to start off the push to 30 percent in the Billions Club project.  She is a woman, making her only the third woman of eleven artists discussed.  Adele is also the first artist on this list where I've actually met and interacted with people who know her personally.  I've never met Adele, but I know people who have.   Incredibly, Adele is one of the most, and perhaps THE most indie artist in the Billions Club.  She was signed  by XL in the UK, one of the best indie labels in the world and her origins were similar to many indie artists of that time and place.  What was not similar was the audience response and the international success of her second record, 21, which according to Wikipedia is "the best selling album of the 21st century."  21 came out in 2011, which means that Adele is technically an artist who broke out before streaming took over, though her general lack of productivity over the years has masked just how long she has been around at this point.

  The single from her last record, Easy on Me, released in 2021, isn't even her most recent Billions Club member, that being When We Were Young, from 25.  There wasn't a second single from 30, probably reflecting the fact that Adele only needs one hit per record in her Las Vegas residency phase.  Any betting person would have to believe that Adele has at least one more billion stream hit in her, but there is an open question for her, like there is for Rihanna of whether she will care enough to put up with all the bullshit she would have to go through to get a song to that point.

 Like the more active members of the Billions Club it is easy to see her scoring another Billion Club member via a number of avenues outside of a new LP:  She could have a theme song for a movie or tv show a la her Bond theme,  she could do a duet with one of the other Billions Club artists: Ed Sheeran, Drake, Dua Lipa, Rihanna all seem like legitimate possibilities among the artists I've already covered.   I do think though there is a question about what there is seriously left for Adele to accomplish and why she would bother.

  I'd imagine you'd be hard pressed to find a human being on earth- at least a human being among the billions of people who live in North and South America, Europe and large parts of Asia and Oceania, you have personal memories about one or more of Adele's billion streamers.  Rolling in the Deep was literally inescapable for about 18 to 24 months.  Likewise for Hello, which was her lead single from 25 (Rolling in the Deep was on 21.)  That is two years of total domination for two different songs.

   She's also got at least two more songs poised to make the leap within a year or so- Set Fire to the Rain- which features prominently in her Vegas show:

   Is at 980 million streams so it should be any day now.  Send My Love, from 21, has 905 million streams.  So even if she never releases another new song she will eventually have seven songs in the Billions Club. 

Published 4/3/23

Sam Smith (5/389)

141/389=  36%

     Sam Smith is a pure pop play, an Artist born and bred for the Spotify Billions Club as much as Ed Sheeran, Adele and Ed Sheeran.  Witness Unholy, his latest Billions Club member- it just made the list today, which is impressive because it was released in September of last year, meaning it took about 7 months from release to the Billions Club.  Unholy was a monster smash all over the globe but particularly in the UK and the US where it was a number one and a Grammy winner.  It marked the first in both categories for a transgender performer, Kim Petras, and also her only appearance in the Billions Club.

  Smith has shown an ability common to the more succesful repeat players on this list, which is that they can score Billions Club members via an album single OR from a one off collab OR from a track from movie/tv show etc, or even from songs that are in two of those three categories.  Smith has done it both ways and it isn't hard to imagine he could put out another hit tomorrow.  Can a Las Vegas residency be far away?   Smith is the 16th biggest act in the world according to Spotify.

Published 4/5/23
Kendrick Lamar (3/389)

144/389 = 37%

   And just like that it is a struggle to find any artist with more than three songs in the Billions Club.  Since I've run out of high number artists, I'm going to work backwards from songs and artists who have been added recently.  Two weeks ago Kendrick Lamar got his third song in the Billions Club,  LOVE. FEAT ZACARI from Damn.  It joined Humble, which is closing in on two billion streams with a little over 1.8 billion  streams right now.   His final Billions Club song is from the Black Panther soundtrack and it features SZA who is a three song Billions Club member herself- all three songs have features or she is the feature.  Lamar also has another track from Damn. ready to cross over-  DNA.- which has 962 million streams.

   But you'd have to say that Lamar is clearly an artist with a capital A and that like a Beyonce, he is not doing it for the hits.  A good example of this is the streaming figures from his last record,  Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers, which came out about a year ago, was highly rated by critics and was followed by an arena filling headlining tour- the most streamed track on that record is still at 255 million streams which is...not great. 

   Like everyone, I respect Kendrick Lamar as an artist, but I'm not a huge fan- as a criminal defense attorney and avid reader of literary fiction I have plenty of experience with the "real life" that Lamar raps about in my art intake, and I've never connected with his rap, even though it is obviously superior stuff from an artistic standpoint.

Published 3/23/23
Maroon 5 (9/381)

114/381 =  30%

   30% done!  So the Artists who got profiled between 20 and 30 percent are: Adele (5), Rhianna (6), Bad Bunny (6), Coldplay (6), Billie Eilish (5) & Maroon 5 (9).  Apologies to Maroon 5- they belonged in that top 10 percent- nine billions club members puts them above Drake, Dua Lipa and everyone except Sheeran, Post Malone and Ariana Grande.   So the chart would look like this:

0-10%

Ed Sheeran (11)

Post Malone (9)

Drake (8)

Dua Lipa (7)

10-20%

Ariana Grande (9)

Bruno Mars (8)

XXXtensasion (6)

Eminem (7)

Queen (5)

20-30%

Adele (5)

Rhianna (6)

Bad Bunny (6)

Coldplay (6)

Billie Eilish (5)

Maroon 5 (9)

     That is...a pretty grim list.  The majority of these fifteen artists are still in hit making mode.  Only two are no longer in existence and three (Eminem, Rihanna & Adele) are arguably past their prime.  The rest are still raring to go.   It is amazing that only 15 artists could comprise 30 percent of the BILLIONS CLUB but there you go.

       As for Maroon 5 themselves.  25th biggest Act in the world on Spotify and the last band standing from a generation of Adult Contemporary/Rock hitmakers.  I think, at one point, they probably still could have been considered a rock band, these days they are the very definition of a pop band as seen by their 2010 hit, Moves Like Jagger which sounds more like a pop song made by an AI than anything a rock band would put out.  Even if you compare them to rockish acts in the Billions Club, they are at the pop end of any rock spectrum.  Maroon 5 also continues to plop out billion streamer hits- including one from their 2021 record- featuring Wiz Khalifa of all people.

    

Publishe 4/13/23

The Chainsmokers (4/389)

147/389=  38%

(one of the four songs was already counted under the total with Coldplay.)

    The good news is that I found another act with more than three songs in the Billions Club.  The bad news is that the act is The Chainsmokers.  The Chainsmokers make up for their  bland, radio/streaming friendly electronic pop by being super duper annoying in interviews- the interviews they did in the first flush of their breakout era are a stark illustration of the importance of making a good first impression.  I found my way to The Chainsmokers by working my way backwards from the most recently added songs to the Billions Club playlist on Spotify- their track Paris was added in September of 2022, which means that all of the remaining artists who are unprofiled and had tracks added to the Billions Club between September of last year and today either have one or two songs in the Billions Club.  In numerical order, Paris is 94th of the 389 songs

Published 4/13/23

Imagine Dragons (8/391)

148/391 = 38%

   Another week, another Imagine Dragons tune lands in the Billions Club.  This week it is Whatever it Takes from their 2017 album, Evolve.  Whatever it Takes is the third song from that album to make it to the billions club joining Believer- a two billion streamer and Thunder which is soon to become a two billion streamer.  Fortunately for this blog, that should be the last song from this record to cross a billion streams for the foreseeable future.  The next highest song after Whatever it Takes is only 250 million.

   

Published 4/3/23

BILLIONS CLUB

Imagine Dragons (7/389)

136/389 = 35%

  Ok, we are back to 35% which is where we were with Artic Monkeys before the total list value was updated from 381 to 389.  Imagine Dragons added their seventh cut this week,  Natural, which was the first song off their otherwise forgettable 2018 record, Origins.  The majority of the songs on this record are well under one hundred million streams.  Three songs fall between one and three hundred million streams and Bad Liar has 850 million streams.  I can honestly say I've never heard this song and wouldn't be able to identify it in a line up.   I didn't write this down last time but they are the 20th biggest act in the world on Spotify with 65 million something monthly listeners. Embarassing!

Published 3/24/23

BILLIONS CLUB

Imagine Dragons (6/381)

120/381 = 31%

   One observation I should have on the post yesterday is that- the 15 artists who comprise the first 30 percent of the BILLIONS CLUB, only 9 of them are in the top 15 artists on Spotify.  This suggests that the BILLIONS CLUB takes time to achieve, like years because even if you have the hottest song on the planet you are talking maybe 15 million plays in a week's time which means sustained plays over the course of YEARS not just a year.

   Which brings me to Imagine Dragons- at this point I am simply trying to pick out all the artists who have more than five songs in the BILLIONS CLUB.  This band... of all the acts I've written about up till now this would be the only act I actively dislike.  I can't even Imagine how I'd behave if I ran into a fan and had to talk to them about their fandom.   I even dislike their non-album efforts which have made it to the Billions Club- a song from Suicide Squad, a film I found unwatchable and something from League of Legends, which I understand as a video game for children and incels. Yeah, I just can't even be bothered to come up with something for these guys.

Published 4/13/23

Post Malone (10/391)

149/391 = 38%

  Post Malone is back, and into double digits with White Iverson, which was added to the Billions Club playlist earlier this week.  Like the Imagine Dragons tune I just wrote about, White Iverson is the third song from his 2016 album, Stoney to make it into the Billions Club, and also like that last Imagine Dragons song, there doesn't appear to be a fourth song ready to make the list.  One song has 450 million streams, a few have 300-350 million and the rest are at 200/100 million, meaning this is the last Post Malone tune from this record that will be added to the Billions Club for a minute.

 

Posted 3/5/23

BILLIONS CLUB

Post Malone (9/372)

Total: 20/372- 5%

   So here's a lesson- the top two artists comprise, between them, five percent of the 372 songs that have reached one billion streams on Spotify.   Whereas Ed Sheeran is the top representative of artists whose fans don't listen to many other artists, I think Post Malone's success with billion stream songs represents the fact that he put out the biggest record of the year inside the Spotify era- eight of his nine BILLIONS CLUB tracks were on the original list on July 21st, 2021.  Since that time he's only added one more track,  Goodbyes, with Young Thug, from his 2019 record.  That last track was added to the playlist in July 2022.

   None of the songs on his June 3rd, 2022 record, Twelve Carat Toothache, are even close.  His two top songs from that record BOTH have 473,000,000 plays- which is almost uncanny- that they would BOTH have 473,000,000 plays at the exact same time.  Those numbers suggest that he won't add another song to the BILLIONS CLUB for at least a year and a half if not two years. 

  One principle of the BILLIONS CLUB that seems apparent in the first two artists is that even at the highest level there is a big difference between the stream totals of the hits vs. the album cuts.   It's not like EVERY Ed Sheeran and Post Malone song is over or close to one billion streams- far from it.

   I don't have any personal experience listening to Ed Sheeran beyond what I over here in public spaces where there is piped in music and even then I wouldn't be able to identify a specific song by him if I heard one- only that it "sounds like Ed Sheeran."  With Post Malone, on the other hand, I actually listen to two of these nine songs.  Those are Circles and Sunflower.  Sunflower is his top song with 2.5 billion streams and Circles is close to crossing the two billion play threshold.   Those two songs are undeniable hits and frankly, they might as well be by Ed Sheeran or even Frank Sinatra for that matter in terms of the simple song structure and sentimental lyrics.  Nothing edgy or groundbreaking to see here.

   Post Malone obviously has legions of dedicated fans who have probably listened to his songs thousands of times.  His fans are young, who are the biggest co-hort of Spotify listeners.  And, most importantly, he has emerged DURING the streaming era, whereas Ed Sheeran straddled the streaming era- emerging in 2011 before Spotify really established itself, but quickly coming to dominate the new platform.

    There is a follow up post about whether the songs from his new record make it to a billion.

Pupblished 4/19/23

Rihanna (8/396)

150/396 = 38%

    Rihanna is back with her eighth Billions Club track, this time it is Stay from Unapologetic.   Stay also features Mikky Ekko- this is his only appearance.  It's only the second song from 2012's Unapologetic to crack the billions club and appears to be the last song from that record that will be making it for some time.  The next highest streamed song on that album is Pour it Up and it barely has 300 million streams.

Published 4/3/23

BILLIONS CLUB

Rihanna (7/389)

135/389 = 34%

   Diamonds is Rihanna's seventh Billions Club track and the sixth she's gotten credit for in the total over-all count.   The major credit in the writing and production of Diamonds is Mikkel Eriksen (of Stargate).  Eriksen is credited with both writing and production alongside others.  Eriksen has six songs in the Billions Club- three by Sam Smith, this Rihanna song and one song each for Julia Michaels and Coldplay.  Is the place to start discussing the impact of Sweden on the Billions Club- when you stop to think that Spotify is, in fact, a Swedish company it starts to make an awful lot of sense.  If anyone in the world understands what it takes to get a song to a Billion streams it would be an established producer in Sweden.  Those guys probably hang out with Daniel Ek, the founder of Spotify.

  Stay should get added next week- it's at 993 million and I think five million plays a week is a pretty solid metric for tracks above 900 million streams. 

From 3/21/23

BILLIONS CLUB

Rihanna (6/376)

88/376 = 23%*

* Rihanna has six songs in the Billions Club but one of them, Love the Way You Lie, has already been counted so the total only moves to 88 instead of 89.

   In addition to Love the Way You Lie, which is listed as an Eminem/Rihanna song but doesn't show up when you search Rihanna's name, Work, which features Drake, does not appear when you punch in Drake's name, so that is another Billions Club track for Drake.  Anyway, you would be hard pressed to find an artist on this list who could give less of a fuck about whether she ever has another hit.  As I write this, she is the #6 artist in the world on Spotify and she's kept her work level at a minimum while maximizing public exposure i.e. song for a Marvel movie, doing the Super Bowl halftime show. 

  It's interesting that she only had one song on the original July 2021 list- Work- the aforementioned Drake featuring track.   She has at least two songs that are poised to join the Billions Club- Stay and Diamonds, both from 2012's Unapologetic LP are right at 980 million streams, so you'd expect them to cross the billion stream mark later this year.  It's interesting that many of her early hits still hover around a half billion streams- do people not groove to Pon de Replay- an early Rihanna bop?    After Stay and Diamonds join the club that will be it for a while.

   Similar to Adele, you'd be hard pressed to be alive in the past twenty years without hearing Rihanna songs, at the very least, dozens of times.  I don't even consider myself a Rihanna fan and I could karaoke five of the six Rihanna Billions Clubs tunes plus maybe another half dozen songs that aren't even close to joining this list.   It's hard to see Rihanna caring enough to ever put up with the bullshit she had would have to go through to make another run at a billion stream track.  People around her might desire it, but if she doesn't care there is no way- it is just too hard of an experience without everyone fully on board to produce the end result.  Like dozens and dozens of rounds of back and forth about different details and creative choices, for years.