Yahoo Autos Drivers' Most-Listened-To Songs on Spotify in 2023
It's no Kwanzaa or Christmas, but there's something about Spotify's end-of-the-year Wrapped that has that special holiday twinkle about it. The annual summary is a rap sheet of everything you've listened to over the past year. Within that nugget of info, the platform shows its users some interesting facts such as what artists they listened to the most, how many total minutes they listened to music, and other listening trends and behavior.
A new feature for this year matched users' streaming habits to 12 possible characters. If you were a Vampire, you listened to "emotional and atmospheric music." Cyclops users devoted their listening to one genre. Fanatics listened to their favorite artist for more than a third of their total listening time. We asked Spotify to provide data from the folks headbanging to their favorite tunes in traffic, using the app's in-car streaming mode. According to Spotify, the increased popularity of podcasts in the last three years, growing by 40 percent in just the past year, has only bolstered the platform's popularity.
The audi0-streaming app's library is home to some 100 million songs, 5 million podcasts, and more than 200,000 audiobooks. Spotify, which lives natively within infotainment screens as a media app inside newer models from BMW, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Mercedes-Benz, Mini, Polestar, Tesla, Volkswagen and Volvo, also can be found on the smartphone devices of most audiophiles.
Here's how people in cars listened to music in 2023. Not content to stop with the lists of those most popular with the masses, we've shared the lists of artists and tunes some Car and Driver editors listened to most this year.
Most Popular Songs in 2023
"Flowers" by Miley Cyrus
No surprise here, but 2023's top song globally was also the most popular choice of people enjoying it from behind the wheel. "Flowers" debuted on January 13 and was streamed 1.6 billion times globally throughout 2023.
"Cruel Summer" by Taylor Swift
The sixth-most streamed song globally takes the podium in the United States as the second most popular jam during in-car streaming. Taylor Swift's "Cruel Summer" was released in 2019 on Swift's Lover album, but recently gained more popularity than her other notable hits such as "Shake It Off" and "Anti-Hero," thanks to increased use on TikTok and the song's repromotion as the first song during her wildly successful Eras Tour, which Swifties can relive on the big screen as it's streamed on Apple TV+, Prime Video, and YouTube Movies.
"Last Night" by Morgan Wallen
Third place on this list, and Spotify's most streamed song in the United States, belongs to country star Morgan Wallen. Wallen's "Last Night" was the most popular song in cities including Chicago, Minneapolis, Detroit, Charlotte, Atlanta, Denver, St. Louis, and Seattle.
"Calm Down" by Rema and Selena Gomez
According to Spotify, the Afrobeats genre, which combines chanted vocals, American funk, and jazz and soul, has grown in popularity by 550 percent since 2017. Rema also earns the honor of performing the first Afrobeats artist-led track to reach a billion streams on Spotify.
"Kill Bill" by SZA
A modern take on the 2002 film Kill Bill, SZA (pronounced siz-ah) sings about good old-fashioned revenge. Apart from in-car streaming, "Kill Bill" was the second-most streamed song globally, played more than 1.5 billion times.
Most Played Artists in 2023
Taylor Swift
We feel safe making this statistic up, but one in three people is likely a Swiftie. Taylor Swift was popular in the cars of commuters in the U.S. and pretty much everywhere else on earth. With 21.6 billion streams globally in just 2023, Swift's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" is also the all-time most popular song around Valentine's Day.
Drake
If you noticed the rearview mirror vibrating in the car ahead of you, it's probably Drake's fault. Drake was the fourth most often streamed artist globally, but the second most frequently streamed from cars. Despite this, none of his songs appeared on Spotify's most streamed lists.
Morgan Wallen
Earlier this year, country music star Morgan Wallen took a break from his tour after injuring his vocal cords. While they weren't able to listen to him live, country fans kept on streaming. Spotify was unable to tell us how many of Wallen's streams came from fishing boats.
