A little over a year ago, the Weeknd's "Blinding Lights" ended "Shape of You" by Ed Sheeran's reign of terror as Spotify's most streamed song. Now, the 2020 track has reached even greater heights.
As reported by Variety, the 2020 mega-hit has become the first to surpass four billion plays on the streaming giant. It's Abel Tesfaye's second track in the all-time Top 10, with 2016's "Starboy" currently holding the No. 6 spot.
This massive amount of streams makes "Blinding Lights" actually profitable, despite Spotify paying between $0.003 and $0.004 per stream. The sound recording itself has garnered between $15.5 million and $17.5 million USD in royalties, with publishing royalties surmounting to about $4.5 million.
Though Tesfaye does not collect all of the above earnings, it seems as though he owns the master recordings while licensing them to Republic Records, meaning a large share is paid directly to him.
The Weeknd was named the world's most famous musician by Guinness World Records last year — an honour that was seemingly bestowed based on number of Spotify streams alone, in case there are any confused Swifties reading.
As reported by Variety, the 2020 mega-hit has become the first to surpass four billion plays on the streaming giant. It's Abel Tesfaye's second track in the all-time Top 10, with 2016's "Starboy" currently holding the No. 6 spot.
This massive amount of streams makes "Blinding Lights" actually profitable, despite Spotify paying between $0.003 and $0.004 per stream. The sound recording itself has garnered between $15.5 million and $17.5 million USD in royalties, with publishing royalties surmounting to about $4.5 million.
Though Tesfaye does not collect all of the above earnings, it seems as though he owns the master recordings while licensing them to Republic Records, meaning a large share is paid directly to him.
The Weeknd was named the world's most famous musician by Guinness World Records last year — an honour that was seemingly bestowed based on number of Spotify streams alone, in case there are any confused Swifties reading.
