The most popular artist on Spotify right now hasn’t released a new solo album for eight years. Quite a stat, right?
That artist is Bruno Mars, who’s riding high off both his evergreen catalog of hits, plus two new-ish global smash duets:
- Die With A Smile with Lady Gaga, released in August, has just surpassed a billion Spotify streams;
- APT. with ROSÉ, released in October, is closing in on half a billion Spotify streams.
Mars overtook The Weeknd as Spotify’s No.1 artist in terms of monthly listeners on October 29.
A day later, Mars officially broke the all-time record for monthly listeners on the platform, topping 126 million (beating the previous record, set by The Weeknd, of 120.7 million.)
Since then, Atlantic-signed Mars’ popularity on Spotify has continued to mushroom, setting multiple new records for monthly listeners on the platform.
On November 12, Mars became the first artist in Spotify history to surpass 130 million monthly listeners.
Then, on Monday this week (November 25), he pushed that record past another major milestone, topping 135 million monthly listeners.
As things stand today (November 29), Mars has 135.54 million (see below) – a figure that seemingly keeps on moving skywards.
With Spotify’s total Monthly Active User figure now standing at 640 million, Mars’ music is being listened to by just over a fifth of the service’s entire global user base.
Not only that, but earlier this week Die With A Smile – recently nominated for Song of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 2025 Grammys – officially became the fastest-ever track to hit a billion Spotify streams.
That was good news for Universal Music Group and Interscope, Lady Gaga’s label, which released the record.
But the current wave of Mars-mania on the world’s largest music audio streaming platform is also pretty huge news for Atlantic Records and its new CEO, Elliot Grainge.
Not only does Mars’ multi-billion-streaming catalog reside with Atlantic, but the Warner Music Group label also released the ROSÉ collaboration, APT.
According to Spotify’s credits, the recording copyright for APT. is owned by ROSÉ under exclusive license to Atlantic worldwide outside Korea.
ROSÉ, a member of Korean supergroup BLACKPINK, recently inked a new publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music.
(Bruno Mars’ long-time publisher is BMG, though he sold a portion of his song catalog to Warner Chappell in 2021.)
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Bruno Mars’ current domination of Spotify, though, is that a new album simply doesn’t feature in the equation.
Mars’ most recent LP is An Evening With Silk Sonic, his 2021 collaboration with Anderson .Paak.
Mars’ most recent solo studio LP was his third, 24K Magic, released in 2016.
One music biz figure who’s particularly excited about Mars’ surge to the top of Spotify’s popularity rankings is his long-time co-songwriter and collaborator, James Fauntleroy II.
Fauntleroy has co-written past Bruno Mars smashes including That’s What I Like. He’s also a co-writer (alongside the likes of Andrew Watt) on Die With A Smile.
Celebrating Die With A Smile’s record-breaking escapades, Fauntleroy wrote on X last week: “Fastest song to a billion in Spotify history with some of my DAY ONES THOUGH. Like, we were all broke with not a single hit to our names when I met these guys. Crazy.”
Fauntleroy features in MBW’s new book How To Write A Hit, which you can download here. (It also features APT. co-writers Amy Allen and Theron Thomas.)
How To Write A Hit, supported by BMI, compiles priceless advice for creators, all taken from MBW’s World’s Greatest Songwriters interview series. (James Fauntleroy’s full interview from that series was a particular corker, and explains his ‘DAY ONES’ relationship with Bruno Mars. It can be read here.)
Meanwhile, Bruno Mars’ recent rise on Spotify appears to have his army of global fans asking one question more than any other: is this a sign he might be cooking up the release of his fourth studio album (aka ‘BM4’)?
If so, this Thanksgiving holiday, Elliot Grainge and his new-look team at Atlantic Records may well be treating themselves to some… pie with a smile.
Sorry. Not sorry.Music Business Worldwide
