Recently, Madonna hit a personal best on Spotify. The release of her new single brought in over 11 million streams in a single day, marking a new streaming peak of her career. And it is still not as good as a regular day for Eminem, way outside of his album cycle.
Pop queen
Madonna is officially the best selling female artist in the world, one of only two females to surpass 250 million records sold. Admittedly, she belongs to the cohort of artists whose success in the pre-streaming era stemmed from physical sales. And to this day, a physical sale still outweighs a stream by a wide margin, securing the dominance of acts such as The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, Elton John, Queen, Madonna, and Led Zeppelin. These seven are the best selling artists ever.
At the same time, this commercial success does not always translate to streaming platforms, as Madonna’s recent achievement shows.
Modern metrics
The decline in physical sales that labels mourn is a direct consequence of the rise of streaming platforms. A new generation has not stopped listening to music; it has simply changed how people consume music. Streaming platforms offer more variety and discovery, greater accessibility, and less loyalty to a single artist. Also, they show what the audience tunes into at any given moment. So, for Madonna, it is good news that users play her new record. Yet the contrast with a steady performance of an artist like Eminem, who has already built his online audience, is striking.
Comparing numbers
On May 1, Madonna earned her biggest streaming day of all time on Spotify. On the day of the new single release, she recorded over 11 million streams.
Meanwhile, Eminem clocked in over 18 million Spotify streams the same day. While Madonna promotes her upcoming album with a new single, “Bring Your Love”, Eminem keeps going about his life, paying little attention to his media presence. It has been almost two years since his latest album, The Death of Slim Shady, dropped in July, 2024. The tour that many hoped for did not happen. Eminem has not even released a feature with anyone since 2025. Yet his catalogue continues to perform at a high level, with the listeners actively streaming songs from his every era.
Sometimes, amid the persistent buzz about who has more hype now and whose camp has more following, repeated attempts to downplay Shady’s legacy, we forget that Eminem is an artist who extends beyond hip hop. He belongs in discussions of the greatest artists in music history, across all genres and generations. And honestly, he stands tall among them.