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Ed Sheeran named as most streamed artist of 2014

Ed Sheeran has been named as the most streamed artist worldwide in 2014, with his album ‘X’ being streamed over 430 million times since it was released in June.

Music streaming service Spotify revealed that the singer/songwriter beat the likes of Eminem and Coldplay to the top spot, based on data collected from over 50 million users across the world. Calvin Harris and Katy Perry make up the remainder of the top five. Speaking about his achievement, Sheeran said, “It’s a great thing to be above so many amazing artists who I’d assume would be streamed more than me.”

However, despite his successes in the streaming charts, Ed Sheeran failed to make the top five tracks globally. Singer/songwriter, rapper and producer Pharrell Williams took the top spot with ‘Happy (from Despicable Me 2)’, which beat off competition from Clean Bandit‘s ‘Rather Be (ft. Jess Glynne)’ and Calvin Harris’s ‘Summer’. Katy Perry’s ‘Dark Horse’ and John Legend‘s ‘All of Me’ complete the top five.

Steve Savoca, head of content at Spotify, said: “This has been a phenomenal year for a rich variety of amazing artists on Spotify. Over 50 million dedicated music fans listened to more than 7 billion listening hours in 2014 alone.” He added: “Huge congratulations to Ed Sheeran on achieving most-streamed album on Spotify for the wildly successful ‘X’, and also for earning the overall most streamed artist of 2014 thanks to his dedicated fans on Spotify.”

Ed Sheeran’s success in the streaming chart is largely down to timing. His album X, which is available on Spotify, was released a couple of weeks before he took to the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury 2014. In the same month, it was announced that the Official Charts Company would be counting audio streams within their chart data. Following his performance on “The X Factor” on Sunday, October 26th, 2014, the singer’s third single ‘Thinking Out Loud’ was streamed over 1,638,000 times in a week. Not bad, eh?

However, not all artists have been as supportive of music streaming services. Quite famously, Taylor Swift made the move to withdraw all of her music from Spotify at the start of November 2014, as she believes artists don’t receive enough money from the service. Other famous artists who are missing from such services include AC/DC and The Beatles.

The streaming results, which includes artists we’ve written a lot on TGTF about including Coldplay, Glass Animals and Hozier, in full:

Top five global artists

1. Ed Sheeran
2. Eminem
3. Coldplay
4. Calvin Harris
5. Katy Perry

Top five global males

1. Ed Sheeran
2. Eminem
3. Calvin Harris
4. Avicii
5. David Guetta

Top five global females

1. Katy Perry
2. Ariana Grande
3. Lana Del Rey
4. Beyoncé
5. Lorde

Top five global groups

1. Coldplay
2. Imagine Dragons
3. Maroon 5
4. OneRepublic
5. One Direction

Top five global tracks

1. Happy (from Despicable Me 2) – Pharrell Williams
2. Rather Be (feat. Jess Glynne) – Clean Bandit
3. Summer – Calvin Harris
4. Dark Horse – Katy Perry
5. All of Me – John Legend

Top five global albums

1. X – Ed Sheeran
2. In the Lonely Hour – Sam Smith
3. The New Classic – Iggy Azalea
4. G I R L – Pharrell Williams
5. My Everything – Ariana Grande

Top five global viral tracks

1. Take Me to Church – Hozier
2. Gooey – Glass Animals
3. Ojos Color Sol – Calle 13
4. Coffee – Sylvan Esso
5. Hey Mami – Sylvan Esso

Most streamed artists in UK

1. Ed Sheeran
2. Arctic Monkeys
3. Eminem
4. Sam Smith
5. Coldplay

Most streamed tracks in UK

1. Rather Be (feat. Jess Glynne) – Clean Bandit
2. Happy – Pharrell Williams
3. Waves (Robin Schulz Radio Edit) – M Probz
4. All of Me – John Legend
5. Stay With Me – Sam Smith

Most streamed albums in UK

1. X – Ed Sheeran
2. In the Lonely Hour – Sam Smith
3. Wanted On Voyage – George Ezra
4. The New Classic – Iggy Azalea
5. G I R L – Pharrell Williams

Top viral tracks in UK

1. Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen) – Baz Luhrmann
2. Gooey – Glass Animals
3. Everyone Is Gay – A Great Big World
4. Take Me To Church – Hozier
5. Far From Any Road – The Handsome Family

MP3 of the Day #822: Prides

Those Prides boys have a dab hand when it comes to covers. Take a listen to their latest, a cover of Katy Perry‘s mega hit ‘Roar’. They turn an otherwise unpalatable top 40 song (to me, anyway)…into something great. Listen to and grab the song for your very own for absolutely nothing below.

Katy Perry / May 2014 UK Tour

In response to overwhelming demand, pop diva Katy Perry has just announced two new dates for the UK leg of her Prismatic World Tour. Swedish synth-pop duo Icona Pop will be Perry’s special guests for this opening run of shows, which begins in Belfast and wraps up with four dates in London. Tickets for the newly added shows will go on sale tomorrow, Friday the 29th of November, at 9 AM.

Wednesday 7th May 2014 – Belfast Odyssey Arena
Saturday 10th May 2014 – Newcastle Metro Radio Arena
Sunday 11th May 2014 – Nottingham Capital FM Arena
Tuesday 13th May 2014 – Birmingham LG Arena
Wednesday 14th May 2014 – Birmingham LG Arena*
Saturday 17th May 2014 – Glasgow SSE Hydro
Sunday 18th May 2014 – Glasgow SSE Hydro
Tuesday 20th May 2014 – Manchester Phones 4 U Arena
Wednesday 21st May 2014 – Liverpool Echo Arena
Friday 23rd May 2014 – Sheffield Motorpoint Arena
Saturday 24th May 2014 – Manchester Phones 4U Arena*
Tuesday 27th May 2014 – London O2 Arena
Wednesday 28th May 2014 – London O2 Arena
Friday 30th May 2014 – London O2 Arena
Saturday 31st May 2014 – London O2 Arena
*newly added dates

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CevxZvSJLk8[/youtube]

Katy Perry / March and April 2011 UK Tour

California dreamin’ Katy Perry will be playing 7 dates in 5 different UK cities in March and April. Tickets go on sale Saturday (16th of October) at 9 AM.

Thursday 17th March 2010 – London HMV Hammersmith Apollo
Friday 18th March 2010 – London HMV Hammersmith Apollo
Monday 21st March 2010 – Manchester 02 Apollo
Tuesday 22nd March 2010 – Manchester 02 Apollo
Thursday 31st March 2010 – Bournemouth International Centre
Friday 1st April 2010 – Cardiff International Arena
Sunday 3rd April 2010 – Newcastle Metro Radio Arena

Preview: V Festival 2009

It’s undeniable that V Festival is a lot more commerical than other music festival’s across the country, and while the bash has certainly recieved the odd bit of criticism for it’s uber radio-friendly line up, the fest is no less fun in our eyes. Certainly – going by the awesome line-up, it’s unsurprising that the event managed to sell out in just two hours this year.

The summer bash – which is happening on Saturday 22nd to Sunday 23rd August – will be taking place across it’s two usual sites this ’09: Hylands Park, Chelmsford and Weston Park, Staffordshire.

Oasis (pictured right) and The Killers are the two big name headliners confirmed to be playing the festival’s top spot this year. Other major acts gracing the fest’s main stage (aptly titled ‘V Stage’) across the weekend include Razorlight, Snow Patrol, The Specials, Elbow, Biffy Clyro, Lily Allen, James, Seasick Steve and, intriguingly, Taylor Swift.

The smaller sized ‘4Music’ stage will also be featuring further super cool artists including Fatboy Slim, Pendulum, The Ting Tings, The Wombats, Keane, The Enemy, Katy Perry and Dizzee Rascal.

If nothing has still managed to catch your eye (or ear!), why not head over to ‘The Arena’ where you can check out a varied selection including MGMT, Lady GaGa, Happy Mondays, The Streets, Pete Doherty, and latest girl band sensation, British Sea PowerThe Saturdays.

If that’s still not enough, the festival has another 50 acts up its sleeve to announce in the coming few weeks. Exciting!

As I told you earlier, tickets for the Chelmsford leg have sadly sold out. There are still some available for the Staffordshire event, however. For more information regarding ticket outlets, check out V Festival’s website.

Top photo comes from stevec77’s flickr stream, and side photo from John Griffiths’ flickr stream under the Creative Commons License.

Preview: The 51st Grammy Awards

It’s that time of year again, readers, when the who’s who in music gather together at the Staples Centre, in Los Angeles, to celebrate the world famous ceremony that is the Grammy Awards. This year’s bash has been a particular success for British artists. Home-bred talent such as Coldplay (pictured top), Radiohead (pictured right), Duffy, Leona Lewis and Led Zepplin’s Robert Plant are all up for coveted gongs ranging from ‘Album of the Year’ to ‘Best New Artist’. Brits performing at the awards include Adele, Paul McCartney, Estelle and M.I.A – who has riskily decided to go on with the show despite the fact her baby is due that very night!

Further performances come from Rihanna, Stevie Wonder, Katy Perry, Jonas Brothers, U2 and even a potential surprise appearance from Green Day. The band have hinted on their website, that they may be showing at this year’s awards despite a near 5 year hiatus since releasing hit-album, American Idiot.

The nominees and consequent winners of the gongs’ are decided by a board of around 10000 members made up of artists, songwriters, producers and music engineers. American rapper, Lil Wayne, is the artist to receive the greatest amount of nominations this year, claiming a cool eight nods. Jay-Z, Kanye West, John Mayer, The Eagles and Metallica are other name’s that will be featuring across a significant array of awards tonight. Meanwhile, Neil Diamond is set to be awarded the acclaimed MusiCares Person of the Year title, which aims to recognise those who have made both an outstanding contribution to music as well as charity-work. Previous winners of the award include Bono, Sting and Aretha Franklin.

Catch all the Grammy action tomorrow night (Monday 9th), at 9pm on ITV2.