What Spotify and Apple Music’s 2023 lists reveal about the music industry

It's more than just the fact that Taylor Swift had a massive year.

It’s become an annual tradition for music fans as the year comes to a close: Streaming platforms roll out all of the analytics that show us which songs and albums we spent the most time with.

There’s Apple Music Replay and Spotify Wrapped. By now you’ve probably already heard who the most popular artists of the year are — and even if you haven’t, I’m sure you can guess. But there’s more to unpack.

“Marketplace Morning Report” host David Brancaccio took a closer look with Dan Runcie, founder of Trapital, an industry publication that tracks business trends in music. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

David Brancaccio: So, top of both Apple’s and Spotify’s lists is a recognizable name here: Taylor Swift. I mean, we know why.

Dan Runcie: Huge year. She released her latest studio album, “Midnights,” at the end of 2022, which had tons of room to have plenty of streams in 2023. But then she also rereleased two very popular albums of hers in 2023, including “1989,” which was her most popular album that she had released up to this point. Plus, the massive tour and the records that it broke. Plus, the drama and all of the things that happened with Ticketmaster, as well. Plus, the celebrity relationships. So it’s no surprise that she’s at the top of this list and also named Time’s Person of the Year and several other accolades.

Brancaccio: Alright, so I mean, incredible talent, but also an incredible music industry machine behind Taylor Swift. But as you look throughout the lists, a little bit further down, do you see the influence of social media platforms?

Runcie: Definitely. And there’s a few things that stick out with these lists. Because, as you mentioned, you have the Spotify list, you have the Apple Music list, but you also have the TikTok list as well. And while TikTok isn’t a traditional streaming service like the other two, it still is a source where a lot of music discovery happens. And once you get past the big names like Taylor Swift, you do start to see some differences, where, if you are a listener that’s in the U.S., then you’ll see a lot of representation by SZA and Morgan Wallen. If you’re a user that’s in Latin America, you likely saw much more from Bad Bunny or Peso Pluma or Karol G and artists like that. So there’s a number of things we’ve seen that are distinct there.

But we also saw a few other different trends that I want to point out. One, there’s a number of songs that were older that had those distinct rises on these charts as well. I think about songs like Miguel’s “Sure Thing” or Chris Brown’s “Under the Influence.” The Weeknd’s “Die for You” or Taylor Swift’s song herself, “Cruel Summer.” These are all songs — they came out at least 3, 4 years ago, and some of them even older: Miguel’s “Sure Thing” is over 10 years old now. But these are songs that became popular because of memes on TikTok. And this has been a trend. We’ve known how popular TikTok is to help artists that are new breaking through, but it’s also become increasingly popular for some of those songs that people used to love several years ago, or even songs that were decently popular, but they were breathed new life because of TikTok and its popularity. And then they continue to rise up the charts. So it’s been really fascinating to see that come through on these lists as well.

Brancaccio: You mentioned Morgan Wallen of country music fame, most listened to song of the year [on] Apple Music. But over on Spotify, most streamed was “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus. What accounts for that do you think?

Runcie: That’s a fascinating one, because Morgan Wallen is someone that still did quite well in Spotify overall, but he just wasn’t near the same top of those lists. And I think there’s a few things happening, because country music itself — while it’s grown its popularity across the globe — it still is a genre that is most popular in the U.S. And on a platform like Apple Music — Apple Music is much more centered around the users that are in the U.S., just considering the adoption with the iPhone. But they don’t necessarily have the same level of penetration when you look everywhere else around the globe. Meanwhile, Spotify has made stronger efforts and spent more money to expand its product everywhere around the world. And because of that, we see a much more international list, we see a much more expansive list.

Brancaccio: Now we should spare a thought for wonderful artists who aren’t such big names, trying to get some attention on these streaming services. You know, they don’t earn that much from these streaming services, do they?

Runcie: No. And there’s been a few changes that they’ve made with certain rules that have happened, where Spotify had announced that they now have a minimum threshold of 1,000 streams in a year in order to start generating revenue from the services. And this is something that does affect a majority of the artists on these platforms, just considering how many artists have ever put out any type of music on Spotify. A lot of this stems from some of the broader challenges of streaming revenue and trying to figure out how best to split the pie, especially as streaming revenue has slowed down a little bit since the years of the pandemic. So, there’s a number of vested interests that want to see things continue to grow. But as things slow down, we’re seeing a bit more debates around how best to split the current pie.

Brancaccio: As you look at the big songs streamed in 2023 here, I mean, I’m seeing a lot of Latin music. Also, Japan and Nigeria are posting some significant showings here.

Runcie: That was really strong to see as well. And those are countries that Spotify service has continued to grow strong in as well. We know that a group like BTS has had considerable influence in terms of K-pop and its expansion. We’ve seen groups like Blackpink, as well, do the same. And even though a group like BTS may not be actively performing at the moment, just given some of the military requirements, that impact is still felt and that impact carried through all across Southeast Asia.

And we also saw similar success as well with artists across the African continent, where you have artists in West Africa from Afrobeats that have done considerably well. You have the top-level artists like a Burna Boy who has done very large stadium concerts in the United States, in Europe and elsewhere. But then you also have genres in the southern part of the continent as well, like amapiano in South Africa and elsewhere, and these genres and these artists continue to grow. So there is more and more opportunity that we’ve seen there. And I think as streaming continues to grow, especially just given the rapid growth of population and opportunity that we see, especially in places like Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, I think we’ll continue to see African artists and African music continue to rise on these global charts as well.