Music streaming platform Spotify has announced that “Lean On” by Major Lazer and DJ Snake featuring MØ is now its most streamed song of all time. The song went platinum back in August, reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and has garnered over 526 million global plays on the service since its release – and even though it’s quickly become one of the most overplayed tracks of 2015, it’s hard to deny that it’s deserving of such accolades.
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. “Lean On” just beat out the former most streamed track, “Thinking Out Loud” by Ed Sheeran, which came out in late 2014.
Spotify is among the music streaming services that have received considerable pressure from music labels as well as platforms like Apple Music to abandon its “freemium” services. However, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has gone on the record saying that freemium “is the only thing that’s working,” indicating that perhaps the recording industry’s gradual slide into obsolescence is an inevitable turn of events.
Meanwhile, DJ Snake has followed up the success of tracks like his remix of AlunaGeorge’s “You Know You Like It” with his latest original, “Middle,” and Major Lazer has announced a follow-up to their most recent album, Peace Is The Mission.