Drake Tops iTunes’ Year-End Music Lists

Drake’s album Views was the best-seller in iTunes, while his hit “One Dance” was the most popular single. Drake debuted his album on Apple Music’s Beats 1 Radio in the spring.

Rihanna, who collaborated with Drake on her smash “Work,” held the No. 2 spot on the top album’s list with Anti, while Adele’s 25, Frank Ocean’s Blonde, which also debuted on Apple, and Justin Bieber’s Purpose rounded out the top five.

Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling” was the No. 2 song of the year, followed by Rihanna’s “Work,” Flo Rida’s “My House” and Lukas Graham’s “7 Years.”

The list is determined by iTunes downloads and streams from Apple Music, which has over 20 million subscribers.

In an interview, Eddy Cue, senior vice president of Internet Software and Services at Apple, said that 60 percent of those using Apple Music had not purchased any music from iTunes, and noted the growth in its exclusives with artist, from Frank Ocean to Chance the Rapper.

“At the end of the day, we work for the artist. What we are doing is about making sure that we make it easy with our technologies for them to create music, and with our technologies, for them to be able to distribute music and for them to make a great living doing that,” he said.

Cue said one of the biggest lessons learned is Apple Music was making it easier for consumers to use, from access to its playlists to its radio stations on Beats 1.

Zane Lowe, who runs Apple’s Beats 1 Radio, said the integration of all platforms is key for Apple Music as well.

“When you go to browse, you know that there’s an album out, but there’s also an interview that’s just been done that there’s attached to that, and there’s a playlist to that,” he said.

Elsewhere on iTunes in 2016, the top paid app was Minecraft: Pocket Edition, while the most popular free app was Snapchat; the top movie was “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” and the most popular TV show was “Game of Thrones, Season 6.”