Photo credit: Kevin Burg / CC from 2.0
The Beatles reach another milestone: “Here Comes the Sun” is the first Beatles song to reach 1 billion Spotify streams.
“Here Comes the Sun,” a song written by George Harrison and penned by The Beatles. Abbey Road album, that became 406. Song to join Spotify’s Billions Club – the first Beatles song to reach this milestone.
In 2016, Drake became the first single-song artist to reach one billion streams on Spotify with his hit song “One Dance” from the album views. As the platform has grown, songs can quickly generate huge streaming numbers, such as Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers,” which she retired in January. Last week, the track became the fastest song on Spotify, hitting one billion streams.
But why did it take so long for the Beatles to have a song of this magnitude on Spotify? First, the Fab Four were among the industry giants who were hesitant about distributing music online. Their catalog was not available on iTunes until 2010, where it remained exclusive until December 24, 2015.
The fact that the Beatles are a classic group and the demographic that typically uses Spotify play a role. Many older music enthusiasts still listen to physical versions of albums, such as CDs and vinyl. While younger listeners may also enjoy The Beatles, they tend to listen to newer artists whose staying power is already evident on streaming platforms, like Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Bad Bunny.
Notably, “Here Comes the Sun” is the first Beatles song to reach one billion streams, and the first song from the ’60s to reach that milestone. But it won’t stay alone for long — the 1967 single “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell is estimated to achieve this goal within ten days.
Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son” is expected to be the third in mid-June, although CCR already has one ’70s song on that list: “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” from the 1970 album pendulum. This track joined the prestigious club in March of this year.