The year that’s about to end has been a very good one for soulful British sensation Adele. Not only did her album 21 end the year having sold more than 5 million copies, a feat no U.S. album has achieved since Usher in 2004, but she also was nominated for six Grammy Awards. It therefore comes as no surprise that she also appears in Spotify’s country-by-country top ten more than any other artist.
Spotify once again posted charts showing what its users have been listening to during the past 12 months, viewable separately for Finland, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and the U.S.A.
Not all artists were as internationally popular as Adele, although Rihanna and Pitbull (with and without Jennifer Lopez) came close to crossing every border. The United States, one of the five new countries Spotify launched in during 2011, singled out Foster the People, Gym Class Heroes and Maroon 5. The United Kingdom particularly went for Bruno Mars, Jessie J and Katy Perry. Sweden, where Spotify first launched, paid special attention to local talent including Veronica Maggio and the Kenya-born Swedish rapper Daniel Adams-Ray.
Sub Pop Records, Merge Records and SC Distribution were among the 300,000 independent music labels added to Spotify this year. The need for services to have indie labels should be obvious, but it’s still worth noting that Adele is signed to XL Recordings.
Spotify further reports that it added about 20,000 tracks per day during 2011 and now has over 2.5 million paying users.
Related links:
http://www.spotify.com/us/about-us/2011
