The Weeknd’s ‘Blinding Lights’ Becomes First Song to Cross 4 Billion Spotify Streams
The Weeknd's "Blinding Lights" has become the first song to surpass four billion streams on Spotify, a number confirmed to Variety. Don't even try to get it out of your head now!
The power of an inescapable TikTok trend: "Blinding Lights" was released in November 2019 as the second single from The Weeknd's March 2020 album After Hours and became the best-selling global single of 2020. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four non-consecutive weeks and set records regarding the chart, later appearing on the tally for 90 weeks and breaking the record for the longest-charting song on the Hot 100 of all time. It was certified diamond by the RIAA in April 2022 and Billboard has named it the No. 1 Hot 100 hit of all time.
In December 2022, "Blinding Lights" became the most-streamed song in Spotify history, passing Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You." The Weeknd's song "Starboy" is also in Spotify's Top 10, sitting at No. 6 with nearly 2.5 billion streams. The singer is currently the No. 1 artist on the platform with 113 million monthly listeners.
How about those royalties? As Spotify pays between $.003 and $.005 per stream, that amounts to between $15.5 million and $17.5 million in royalties for the sound recording and $4.5 million or so in publishing, give or take. The Weeknd, real name Abel Tesfaye, penned the song with Max Martin, Oscar Holter, Ahmad Balshe and Jason “DaHeala” Quenneville and it was produced by Tesfaye with Martin and Holter. The percentage of royalties each person involved receives from the song is unknown, though it appears that the Weeknd owns the song's master recordings and licenses them to Universal’s Republic Records.
What they’re saying: “I’ll never stop being humbled by anything I create making its way to millions of people let alone billions!” The Weeknd said in a statement to Billboard. “I’m so thankful this song makes people feel a way that they keep going back to listen.”
Jeremy Erlich, Spotify’s global head of music, added, “The Weeknd continues to reach new heights year after year on Spotify. This is one of many records he has broken with us. As our platform continues to grow globally, his music reaches more and more people, and his fandom deepens. The success of ‘Blinding Lights’ is a prime example that nothing connects people more than music. It’s an exceptional song in a class of its own.”