For many months this year you couldn’t go anywhere without hearing Gotye’s earwormy track ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’, and it seems that the radio-friendly tune from 2011 continued to steal the hearts of the online music streaming masses – even ahead of one of this year’s biggest viral sensations.
Perhaps released a month too early, Spotify’s 2012 music charts name Somebody That I Used to Know as the most-streamed track on the service worldwide, as well as the one that was shared most on Spotify, using social networks or sending directly to users’ Spotify inboxes.
The Gotye track topped Carly Rae Jepsen’s Call Me Maybe, which has been a huge hit with the online community, spawning countless parodies, including a sharing-based remake from the Cookie Monster, a Barack Obama mash-up, a Big Bang Theory flash mob, and home-grown lip syncs.
Gotye wasn’t without his internet tributes, though, and the song got an old-school computer remix and a Star Wars parody, while Some Music That I Used to Love by comedian Eric Schwartz poked fun at the song’s somewhat annoying popularity.
But the real viral hit of the year is PSY’s Gangnam Style, which – if you didn’t already know – recently became the most-watched video on YouTube, toppling Justin Bieber’s Baby with more than 800m views, and counting. The new viral king is, however, notably absent in the Spotify charts.
Albums, bands and apps of the year
Gotye also claimed second place in the chart for 2012’s most-streamed album on Spotify with Making Mirrors, pipped at the post by David Guetta’s Nothing But the Beat. Guetta was also named as Spotify’s most popular male artist, while Rihanna was the lady most likely to be listened to on the service.
Embarking on a huge world tour this year seems to have paid off for Coldplay, named Spotify’s most-streamed band of the year, while other bands were making records of their own on the service. Mumford and Sons can claim the most streams of a newly released album in 2012 with Babel seeing more than 8m streams in just one week in the US, while teen heartthrobs One Direction broke the 100m streams milestone shortly before launching their own 1D Music app on Spotify.
And speaking of apps, Tunewiki, which displays a song’s lyrics as it plays, is officially the most popular free app available in Spotify’s app finder, followed by music chatroom Soundrop and trending music app We Are Hunted.
Most-streamed tracks of 2012
1. Gotye featuring Kimbra, Somebody That I Used To Know
2. Carly Rae Jepsen, Call Me Maybe
3. Fun. featuring Janelle Monáe, We Are Young
4. Flo Rida, Whistle
5. Flo Rida featuring Sia, Wild Ones
6. Train, Drive By
7. Nicki Minaj, Starships
8. Maroon 5 featuring Wiz Khalifa, Payphone
9. David Guetta featuring Sia, Titanium
10. Loreen, Euphoria
Most-streamed albums of 2012
1. David Guetta, Nothing But The Beat
2. Gotye, Making Mirrors
3. Drake, Take Care
4. Lana Del Ray, Born To Die
5. One Direction, Up All Night
6. Fun., Some Nights
7. Rihanna, Talk That Talk
8. Coldplay, Mylo Xyloto
9. Carly Rae Jepsen, Call Me Maybe
10. Flo Rida, Wild Ones
Most-shared tracks by Spotify users
1. Gotye, Somebody That I Used To Know
2. Carly Rae Jepsen, Call Me Maybe
3. Fun. featuring Janelle Monáe, We Are Young
4. Flo Rida featuring Sia, Wild Ones
5. David Guetta featuring Sia, Titanium
6. Flo Rida, Whistle
7. Train, Drive By
8. Maroon 5 featuring Wiz Khalifa, Payphone
9. Rihanna, We Found Love
10. Michel Teló, Ai Se Eu Te Pego live
Most-streamed female artists
1. Rihanna
2. Nicki Minaj
3. Adele
4. Lana Del Ray
5. Katy Perry
6. Carly Rae Jepsen
7. Beyoncé
8. Taylor Swift
9. Loreen
10. Kelly Clarkson
Most-streamed male artists
1. David Guetta
2. Flo Rida
3. Eminem
4. Skrillex
5. Gotye
6. Drake
7. Pitbull
8. Jay-Z and Kanye West
9. Chris Brown
10. Avicii
Most-streamed bands
1. Coldplay
2. Maroon 5
3. Fun.
4. Mumford and Sons
5. Florence and the Machine
6. Linkin Park
7. LMFAO
8. One Direction
9. Train
10. Glee Cast
Most popular apps by usage
1. TuneWiki
2. Soundrop
3. We Are Hunted
4. Last.fm
5. Pitchfork
6. Digstr
7. musiXmatch
8. Billboard
9. Filtr
10. Moodagent
