Who are the busiest musicians?
Source: Natalie Morin/Graphiq
Being a popular musician can be exhausting. Between national or world tours, TV and radio appearances, and recording new music in the studio, there's little time to relax.
Busy schedules don't just increase exposure and build an artist's brand, however. Now that single streaming has virtually replaced physical album sales, playing concerts (with hiked up prices) pays the bulk of the bills.
With this in mind, PrettyFamous, part of the Graphiq network, found the 25 busiest artists. Using data from Songkick, the entertainment data visualization team identified the musicians who have had the most events (tours, shows) over the past five years (2011-2015). To exclude more obscure artists, they only looked at those with over 5 million all-time song plays on Last.fm.
#25. Every Time I Die
Events in the past five years: 499
Playcount: 16,165,699
#24. Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Events in the past five years: 503
Playcount: 7,643,859
#22. The Word Alive
Events in the past five years: 521
Playcount: 6,776,613
#22. Sabaton
Events in the past five years: 521
Playcount: 33,341,540
#21. Luke Bryan
Events in the past five years: 523
Playcount: 7,974,343
#19. Borgore
Events in the past five years: 532
Playcount: 5,526,990
#19. Motionless In White
Events in the past five years: 532
Playcount: 5,493,095
#18. Elton John
Events in the past five years: 536
Playcount: 41,592,306
#17. Frank Turner
Events in the past five years: 537
Playcount: 19,530,801
#16. Reel Big Fish
Events in the past five years: 542
Playcount: 22,148,009
#15. Tiesto
Events in the past five years: 545
Playcount: 34,793,365
#14. Halestorm
Events in the past five years: 546
Playcount: 10,490,932
#13. The Ghost Inside
Events in the past five years: 547
Playcount: 10,276,733
#12. All Time Low
Events in the past five years: 549
Playcount: 54,130,470
#11. David Guetta
Events in the past five years: 564
Playcount: 76,927,500
#10. Skrillex
Events in the past five years: 565
Playcount: 43,432,411
#9. Boyz II Men
Events in the past five years: 566
Playcount: 6,397,903
#7. Ed Sheeran
Events in the past five years: 577
Playcount: 54,542,879
#7. Buddy Guy
Events in the past five years: 577
Playcount: 5,362,869
#6. We Came As Romans
Events in the past five years: 582
Playcount: 12,429,362
#5. Tech N9ne
Events in the past five years: 615
Playcount: 14,779,036
#4. Buckcherry
Events in the past five years: 616
Playcount: 6,970,876
#3. Steel Panther
Events in the past five years: 618
Playcount: 5,271,635
#2. Willie Nelson
Events in the past five years: 643
Playcount: 9,613,814
#1. Steve Aoki
Events in the past five years: 747
Playcount: 5,427,479
This story was originally published May 12, 2016 at 9:36 AM with the headline "Who are the busiest musicians?."