AS the 2010s wind to a close, streaming titan Spotify announced that poppy rap sensation Drake is the most-streamed artiste of the decade with more than 28 billion streams.

British crooner Ed Sheeran, hip-hop warbler Post Malone, pop royalty Ariana Grande and rap iconoclast Eminem round out the top five most-streamed artistes between 2010 and this year, said the company yesterday.

Global hit machine Sheeran’s Shape of You snags the top spot for most-streamed track of the decade at more than 2.3 billion, according to the data on more than 248 million global users’ listening habits.

Post Malone is this year’s most-streamed artiste at more than 6.5 billion, followed by Billie Eilish, whose haunting pop sound sees her getting more than six billion streams.

Grande, Sheeran and Latin trap innovator Bad Bunny form the rest of the most-streamed class of artistes this year.

Senorita, the sultry pop duet from real-life couple Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes, is this year’s most-streamed song at more than a billion, closely trailed by Eilish’s smash hit Bad Guy, which got more than 990 million.

Created in 2006, Spotify by 2010 was but a young start-up with fewer than a million paying subscribers. Today, it has some 113 million.

The company’s rise to power – now counting 248 million monthly users, both paying and non-paying members – largely came on streaming’s growing dominance in the industry.

Fellow streaming giant YouTube has not published its most-streamed videos of the decade. Its top-viewed video remains the lilting Latin juggernaut Despacito by Luis Fonsi featuring Daddy Yankee, at more than 6.5 billion. – AFP, December 4, 2019.