Whether you love it or hate it, there’s no denying that Spotify is king of music streaming.
Boasting over 626 million total users and 246 million subscribers, Spotify dominates the music streaming industry, taking up around 31% of total market share according to the Seattle Times, so it’s a pretty good litmus test to see how well an artist or a song is doing based off Spotify streaming numbers alone.
Of course, that doesn’t tell the entire picture as some artists work the system and have their label get them on highly followed playlists which can artificially inflate their numbers while not being able to do the actual most important thing in music, get asses in seats, but none the less, it’s a good metric, especially when looking at just how big of a hit a certain song is.
To date, there’s been 6 country songs that have hit the 1 billion streams mark on Spotify, though I will qualify that not all of them are country in the strict sense.
Zach Bryan – “Something In The Orange”
That’s right, the Navy man turned superstar was the latest to crack this short list. From his 2022 American Heartbreak album, “Something In The Orange” has become the biggest song in Zach Bryan’s short career and is bound to be a fan favorite for a long, long time.
thank you guys so much for a billion on Something in The Orange.
Never in a million years could I of ever dreamed it. I love you guys so much and can’t explain how much it means— Zach Bryan (@zachlanebryan) August 29, 2024
Chris Stapleton – “Tennessee Whiskey”
Not many people remember that this one’s a cover at this point… What’s become Chris Stapleton’s signature song is one of the few country songs to ever be certified Diamond, so it’s no surprise that it crossed the billion streams mark earlier this month.
Morgan Wallen – “Last Night”
Thus begins the part of the list that can be referred to as “Questionable”.
The streaming success of Morgan Wallen’s last two albums is something that’s going to be studied by music historians but nothing has been quite as successful as the third single from his 2023 album One Thing At A Time, which became the first song to stream a billion times in a single year, just the mark just 6 months after it had been released.
Noah Kahan – “Stick Season”
Is this actually a country song? No, but it’s a heck of a lot more country than the song before it and the two after, so I’m going to include it here.
“Stick Season” was the lead single and title track for Noah Kahan’s 2023 album and his ticket to superstardom. Country artists like Kelsea Ballerini and Zach Bryan have collaborated with him in the past and quite honestly I think his catalogue would fit nicely in the country genre, if only so he get added to country festival lineups so I can see him easier…
Bebe Rexha, Florida Georgia Line – “Meant To Be”
And the award for least country of the country songs on the list goes too…
I guess it’s hard to argue against success but the lyrics on this one are just so painfully hard to listen to. It’s hard to imagine it being written by four fully grown adults and not a third grader.
This is an actual section of the song in case you’re somehow unfamiliar.
So, come on, ride with me, ride with me
See where this thing goes
So, come on, ride with me, ride with me
Baby, if it’s meant to be
Maybe we do
Maybe we don’t
Maybe we will
Maybe we won’t
But if it’s meant to be, it’ll be, it’ll be
Baby, just let it be (sing it, Bebe)
If it’s meant to be, it’ll be, it’ll be (come on)
Baby, just let it be (let’s go)
Poetic genius.
Dan + Shay, Justin Bieber – “10,000 Hours”
And finally, the moment we’ve all been waiting for, the Justin Bieber song!
Admittedly, this is one of Dan + Shay’s better tracks in my opinion, but it may just be the fact that Malcom Gladwell’s Outliers played such a major roll in my early reading.
This was the first country song to ever reach the 1 billion streams mark, which was good for the genre but a little disappointing that it took a Justin Bieber feature to get us there.