Drake declared Spotify's most-streamed artist of decade    

NEW YORK - AFP

As the 2010s winds to a close streaming titan Spotify announced Dec. 3 that poppy rap sensation Drake is the most globally streamed artist of the decade with more than 28 billion streams.

British crooner Ed Sheeran, hip hop warbler Post Malone, pop royalty Ariana Grande and rap iconoclast Eminem rounded out the top five most-streamed artists between 2010 and 2019, Spotify said.

Global hit machine Sheeran's "Shape of You" won the top spot for most streamed track of the decade with more than 2.3 billion streams, according to the data on more than 248 million worldwide users' listening habits.

Post Malone was 2019's most-streamed artist with more than 6.5 billion, followed by Billie Eilish, whose haunting pop sound saw her win more than 6 billion streams.

Grande, Sheeran, and Latin trap innovator Bad Bunny formed the rest of the most-streamed class of artists of 2019.

"Senorita," the sultry pop duet from real-life couple Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes, was 2019's most streamed song, with more than one billion streams, closely trailed by Eilish's smash "bad guy" that got more than 990 million streams.

Created in 2006, Spotify by 2010 was but a young start-up with less than a million paying subscribers, contrary to today's 113 million.

The company's rise to power -- today counting 248 million monthly users, including paying and non-paying members -- largely came on streaming's growing dominance in the industry.

Fellow streaming giant YouTube has not published its top streamed videos of the decade. Its top-viewed video remains the lilting Latin juggernaut "Despacito" by Luis Fonsi featuring Daddy Yankee, with over 6.5 billion.