Ed Sheeran winds up remarkable year, now also announced as most streamed on Amazon Music

After already topping Apple Music and Spotify’s end-of-2017 lists as most streamed act of the year, Ed Sheeran has also been announced as the most played act on Amazon Music Unlimited’s premium subscription service.

Responding to the earlier lists, he had instagramed, "Really happy everyone has enjoyed the album this year, thanks to all who streamed and downloaded. Lots of Love, Ed."

However, unlike the other lists, the Amazon Music list saw ‘Shape Of You’ beaten to top spot by ‘Despacito’.

Top 20 streamed artists on Amazon Music Unlimited

1. Ed Sheeran
2. The Beatles
3. Elvis Presley
4. Coldplay
5. Eminem
6. Queen
7. Little Mix
8. Fleetwood Mac
9. Oasis
10. Drake
11. Taylor Swift
12. Adele
13. Bruno Mars
14. Linkin Park
15. David Bowie
16. Imagine Dragons
17. Michael Jackson
18. Elton John
19. Rag’N’Bone Man
20. Katy Perry

The predominance of classic artists reflects how today’s younger music fans are embracing acts of all styles and eras.

But it begs the question if Amazon Music has, like some of the other streaming services, been effectively targeting the over-35 market as well.

An October 2015 music survey by Jackdaw Research showed the over-35s had deeper pockets, and more likely to translate to subscriptions.

They are, according to the study, less inclined towards music discovery and more to back catalogues.

The record music business has increasingly catered for this demand by issuing previously unreleased tracks from classic albums.

The large amount of classic artists on the list could also reflect how the year-old service’s introducing the Alexa voice control has made it easier for older less-tech savvy listeners to get into the streaming loop.

Top five streamed songs on Amazon Music Unlimited

1. Despacito - Daddy Yankee and Luis Fonsi feat.Justin Bieber
2. Shape of You - Ed Sheeran
3. Galway Girl - Ed Sheeran
4. Something Just Like This - The Chainsmokers & Coldplay   
5. Rockabye - Clean Bandit feat. Sean Paul & Anne-Marie

It finishes off a remarkable 2017 for Sheeran, with a strong possibility that he’ll get the Christmas Number One in the UK with his Beyoncé link up on ‘Perfect Duet’.

Bookmakers Ladbrokes have him as the 8/11 favourite, far ahead of the other contenders.

It has since been revealed that a third version of ‘Perfect’ will be released, featuring Andrea Bocelli.

Midweek figures suggest he could also enjoy a double-whammy Christmas bonus with the Divide album also slipping back to top spot in the UK.

He’ll also appear on the Christmas episode of Top Of The Pops with Dua Lipa, Clean Bandit, Rita Ora and The Script.

He told People magazine that plans over the break is to hang out with his girlfriend Cherry Seaborn and his friends doing their annual 12 Pubs of Christmas – “a pub crawl and you have a pint at every pub ...” – and playing the What Do You Meme? game.

With a heavy 2018 coming up, he stresses the need to unwind and take a break from the industry.

He previously said, "I think you need to, when you get into the industry, adjust to it - and I didn’t adjust because I was constantly working on tour.

“And all the pitfalls that people read about, I just found myself slipping into all of them.

“Mostly, like, substance abuse. I never touched anything.

“I started slipping into it, and that’s why I took a year off and buggered off.

“I focused on work, and I can’t work under the influence, I can’t write songs under the influence, I can’t perform under the influence - so the more I worked the less [that happened]. I’ve worked my whole life to get to where I am and you can’t lose that over something that you do in your spare time."