Spotify announces most streamed song ever

Being that Spotify is still a growing service and predominantly caters to a young, statistically more fleeting listener demographic, rankings such as these are heavily biased towards newer music. Something classic by The Beatles or Michael Jackson perhaps?

It edged out “Thinking Out Loud”, the ballad by English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, which just last month was certified with fanfare as the first song streamed more than 500 million times on Spotify. Or Bing Crosby’s White Christmas, the most popular single of all time?

Spotify has revealed that a relatively obscure independent track released earlier this year which failed to top the charts on either side of the Atlantic is its surprise streaming record holder, having racked up 526m plays.

‘Lean On’, the downbeat electronic track featuring Odense native MØ and Major Lazer that has quickly become a club favorite, has soared to be the most streamed song ever on Spotify.

Speaking on the production process Diplo said: “We wrote this song with MØ very early from an instrumental Jr Blender created in a few sessions in Trinidad”. The track remains the band’s only United Kingdom chart hit to date. It was a strong hook.

And here’s the craziest part: the song landed in Major Lazer’s lap after being turned down by Rihanna AND Nicki Minaj, which is like Sarah-Michelle-Gellar-turning-down-the-role-of-Cher-in-Clueless cray. We’re super proud of this song’. For the future of Spotify, “I’m envisioning it like we own a big, large network”, Ford told us.