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ArtBusinessInternet

The highest-earning songs in the world, mapped

There’s no doubt about it: streaming media services like Spotify have revolutionized the process we listen to music. Where once enjoying music suggested first rifling through a heap of CDs or paying and waiting for a download, Spotify instead provides 100 million tracks at the touch of a button. Spotify has also transformed how we search for music. For instance, personalized playlists, powered by algorithms based on the user’s music preference, meant that Spotify recommended over 30 percent of overall listening in 2017. Tracks by little-known artists that otherwise would remain unknown are moved to the forefront and up the charts, thanks again to Spotify’s playlists.

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Cultural cartographyInternet

The world’s most streamed artists on YouTube

In 2022, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) acknowledged that YouTube is now one of the “pillars in people’s music discovery.” And they created a framework for the official pop charts worldwide to include YouTube plays in their estimates. So which music — new and old — are the listenerships from country to country discovering? And then sticking on replay, free from the risk of wearing out the record?

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Internet

The Most Uniquely Popular Word on Each Country’s Wikipedia Page Mapped

Every country’s Wikipedia page is filled with important information detailing the nation’s economy, culture, and geography. Still, the world continues to read and represent itself on Wikipedia. There are 27 countries with hundreds of millions of monthly page views each (the U.S. and Japan are top, with three and one billion, respectively). Even in China, where Chinese-language Wikipedia is banned, the website counts over three million monthly hits.

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