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Lil Nas X’s “That’s What I Want” racked up the most non-interactive streams of any “new” track in the U.S. during a year-long period in 2022, according to a recently published breakdown from SoundExchange.
SoundExchange, which reported a nearly $240 million Q3 2022 distribution, just recently unveiled its list of “new tracks that received the most non-interactive streams” between November 1st, 2021, and November 30th, 2022. Additionally, the two-decade-old entity pinpointed the “top 22 breakout creators of 2022” as part of the same resource.
The text doesn’t identify the precise definition of “new,” but the lion’s share of the featured songs became available to fans in 2021. Only one of the listed tracks (Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves”) dropped in 2020, compared to four works (Harry Styles’ “As It Was,” Jack Harlow’s “First Class,” Lizzo’s “About Damn Time,” and Dove Cameron’s “Boyfriend”) that released as singles last year.
Similarly, the non-interactive stream total of each work isn’t included with SoundExchange’s list. But as mentioned, Lil Nas X led the pack, followed by Latto’s “Big Energy,” Adele’s “Easy On Me,” Justin Bieber’s “Ghost,” and Ed Sheeran’s “Shivers,” respectively.
Rounding out the top-10 songs on SoundExchange’s 2022 list are Doja Cat’s “Need to Know,” “Stay” (released by The Kid Laroi and Bieber), “One Right Now” (by Post Malone and The Weeknd), Styles’ “As It Was,” and Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves.”
In terms of the artists with the largest number of ranked tracks, three of Doja Cat’s releases (“Woman” and “You Right,” aside from the previously mentioned “Need to Know”) generated enough non-interactive streams to place on SoundExchange’s analysis.
The Weeknd, whose “Blinding Lights” is now the most-streamed song in Spotify history, created two of the SoundExchange-ranked tracks (“One Right Now” and “You Right”), as did Lil Nas X, Ed Sheeran, and Jack Harlow. Sheeran is the only artist who did so exclusively with solo releases as opposed to collaborations, however.
Equally as interesting as the included songs and artists are the tracks and professionals that didn’t make the cut. Despite dominating on-demand streaming platforms’ charts in 2022, neither Taylor Swift nor Bad Bunny cracked SoundExchange’s year-end collection of top songs.
Moreover, Steve Lacy’s “Bad Habit,” not to be confused with Sheeran’s “Bad Habits,” ranked highly on Spotify’s list of the most-streamed songs in the U.S. for 2022 but didn’t secure a spot on SoundExchange’s own list.
Plus, the well-documented (and streaming-powered) resurgence of “Running Up That Hill” evidently didn’t produce a large enough non-interactive boost to help the song find its way onto the SoundExchange list.