Spotify Discover Weekly playlists reach 2.3 Bn streaming hours since launching in 2015 according to a recent blog posting to celebrate its fifth anniversary. The playlist initially started as an idea at Spotify’s annual Hack Week. Since then, it’s become one of Spotify’s flagship offerings, and has introduced Spotify users to some of their new favourite artists.
In the five years since its launch, listeners have also streamed over 2.3 Bn hours between July 2015 and June 25, 2020. According to Spotify 2.3 Bn hours equates to:
- 8.4 trillion seconds
- 140 billion minutes
- 2.3 billion hours
- 97.3 million days
- 13.9 million weeks
- 266.5 thousand years (longer than human civilization has existed!)
Since the playlist updates every Monday with new music based on your personal listening habits, it leads users to find new artists, tracks, and hits to fall in love with. The Moroccan-Dutch DJ R3HAB is the most ‘discovered’ artist in the most markets (16) meaning users across those countries streamed him the most out of any other creator on their Discover Weekly playlist.
R3HAB said, “I love how Spotify allows my music to connect with people across so many cultures. I’ve always considered myself a world artist and it’s amazing to see my music truly traveling. Spotify has broken down the geographical boundaries of music discovery, allowing people from all over to discover my music as soon as it’s released. Thank you, Discover Weekly.”
Halsey takes the spot for most discovered female artist globally. Notably, she released her first album, Badlands, in 2015 – the same year Discover Weekly was created. Now, she’s included on the list of Top Streamed Female Artists on Spotify.
US listeners stream Discover Weekly the most, and have spent a lot of time ‘discovering’ music from RAC and Khalid. In the UK listeners have found Detroit-born house producer MK, and German DJ Alle Farben racks up the streams in his home country. Discovering also includes new genres – everything from EDM to grupera (a regional Mexican style), to indietronica and Lithuanian folk.
