Throughout this week, MBW is previewing charts from a new industry report that tell us who the most successful songwriters were, globally, on various streaming platforms last year.
A few days ago, we revealed the first set of charts from music rights data platform Blokur. Those charts showed the global No.1 songwriters in 2020 across multiple leading streaming platforms, as well as specifically on Spotify.
Today (July 8), we can reveal the biggest songwriters of last year on another powerful platform for the music industry: YouTube.
As you might expect, the rankings of top songwriters on YouTube look somewhat different to those on other platforms such as Spotify – not least because of YouTube’s huge popularity in regions such as India.
(Blokur’s songwriter charts take into account factors such as the success of songs on various streaming charts, as well as the percentage of each song that each songwriter is credited with writing. You can read the full methodology behind Blokur’s charts through here.)
The first chart below reveals the top songwriters (including songwriter-artists) behind the biggest songs last year on YouTube worldwide.
At No.1 on that list is Indian rapper Badshah, whose own channel on YouTube has over 2 million subscribers and has attracted over 261 million views.
However, Badshah’s most popular videos on YouTube have been released via Sony Music India’s channel, via hits like She Move It Like (432m views) and Genda Phool (832m views).
The second Blokur chart below reveals the list of most successful songwriters on YouTube in 2020 – but only those who didn’t also feature as an artist.
It is led by S.Thaman, aka Ghantasala Sai Srinivas, a music composer and playback singer who predominantly works in Telugu and Tamil cinema.
The world’s No.1 songwriter across multiple streaming platforms last year – including YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music – was Tones and I (aka Toni Watson), according to Blokur’s data.
The most successful writer in 2020 specifically on Spotify, says Blokur, was Finneas O’Connell.
If MBW readers would like to receive Blokur’s full 2020 songwriters report when it launches next week, you can leave your relevant details over here. Music Business Worldwide