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Music's #YearOnTwitter

10 Dec 2015

Every year, one tweet is crowned the 'Golden Tweet' - the most re-tweeted tweet of the year. One Directioners will be ecstatic to know that they launched Harry Styles to the top in 2015. When news broke that One Direction member Zayn Malik was parting ways with the group, Harry Styles expressed gratitude toward fans with the following tweet.

Here's a sampling of this year's most re-tweeted artist tweets:

*Click artist's name to view each Tweet*:

@Harry_Styles: "All the love as always. H"
@zaynmailk: Launch of new One Direction single
@Real_Liam_Payne: 5 years of One Direction
@Louis_Tomlinson: Support of One Direction Fans
@NiallOfficial: Wishing Liam a Happy Birthday
@kanyewest: "Please: Do everything you possibly can in one lifetime"
@justinbieber: 21st birthday tweet
@ladygaga: Announces her starring role on "American Horror Story" season 5
@meekmill: Meek Mill Tweets about his beef with Drake
@adele: Adele shares the name and inspiration for her new album '25'
@taylorswift13: Taylor Swift tweets her perspective on 'The Dress' debate

What were the top-10 global music trends in 2015?

#OneDirection
#GOT7
#NowPlaying
#EXO
#FifthHarmony
#?????
#iHeartAwards
#MTVEMA
#VMA
#BigBang

Artists continue to attract some of the highest follower counts on Twitter, with artists currently accounting for six out of the 10 most followed Twitter accounts in the world. Katy Perry led this year's list of most followed artists with over 78.4 million followers, and Taylor Swift had the highest increase in followers, adding 20 million new followers in 2015.

Who are the most followed artists?

@KatyPerry - 78.4 million
@JustinBieber - 70.6 million
@TaylorSwift13 - 66.8 million
@Rihanna - 53.1 million
@LadyGaga - 52.8 million
@JTimberlake - 50 million
@BritneySpears - 43.4 million
@Shakira - 35.7 million
@SelenaGomez - 35.4 million
@ArianaGrande - 34.3 million

Who gained the most new followers in 2015?

@TaylorSwift13 - gained 20 million followers
@KatyPerry - gained 18 million followers
@JustinBieber - gained 14 million followers
@Rihanna - gained 14 million followers
@ArianaGrande - gained 13 million followers

One of the biggest music releases on Twitter in 2015 was Adele's Hello. This release generated more than 1.3 million tweets in the five days leading up to the release of the new song.

What were the top-five 2015 debuts according to the Billboard Twitter Charts:

*Billboard Twitter Real-Time Charts track the most popular songs being shared on Twitter in the U.S.

Hello - Adele
Sorry - Justin Bieber
Love Yourself - Justin Bieber
What Do You Mean? - Justin Bieber
Hey Everybody! - 5 Seconds of Summer

What were the top 10 albums of 2015 based on tweet volume?

Made in the AM - One Direction
Purpose - Justin Bieber
Sounds Good Feels Good - 5 Seconds of Summer
Handwritten - Shawn Mendes
Revival - Selena Gomez
25 - Adele
To Pimp a Butterfly - Kendrick Lamar
Beauty Behind the Madness - The Weeknd
Dark Sky Paradise - Big Sean
Honeymoon - Lana del Rey

Most tweeted non-sports programme ever: VMAs (Source: Nielsen)

According to Nielsen, the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards on August 30 is the most tweeted program since Nielsen Social began tracking Twitter TV activity. (since October 2011, ranked on tweets, excluding sports events) In the US, 2.2 million people sent 21.4 million tweets about the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards, increasing 69% from 2014, and almost 11.8 million people saw those tweets a total of 676 million times (impressions).

What was the most tweeted minute of 2015?

The most tweeted minute of 2015 occurred at 10.49pm on the night of the VMAs with 247,525 tweets following @KanyeWest's announcement that he was running for President and sparking the hashtag #Kanye2020. (See the whole speech in this tweet or check out this Vine for a six-second summary).