Spotify Global 200 Analysis

An exploration of solo vs. collaborative artists.
: Does teamwork make the dream work, or is there really an "i" in team?

Here are the top 2000 songs on Spotify split by solo and collab. Each bubble is a song and the larger the bubble, the more total streams it has. Songs are sorted by release date.

Press play to watch the top 15 songs evolve over time! The line chart tracks the proportion of collab songs in the top 15 and the background color indicates whether the top song was solo or collab.

In which genres do collab songs dominate over solo tracks? The bar chart below shows the proportion of collab songs in each genre, along with the total number of songs. Use the filters below👇 to select a year and explore how genres have shifted over time; both in the number and proportion of songs that are collaborations!

What's the big takeaway?

Whether an artist goes solo or collaborates can impact their success, but trends also vary by time, genre, and individual style. While collaborations often dominate the charts, some solo artists still hold their ground. What surprised you the most?

🎧 Behind every chart is a beat.

Data curated via Spotify Charts, Spotify Web SDK, Chosic Playlist Analyzer, and iTunes API.

Brought to life by Ante Malenica, Edwin Chen, and Jenny Oh.