Ed Sheeran leads Spotify’s top young artists

FILE - In this June 8, 2015 file photo, musician Ed Sheeran attends the American Institute for Stuttering's 9th Annual Freeing Voices Changing Lives Gala in New York. Sheeran topped Spotify’s list of the top 25 most influential artists under the age of 25 as the company’s most streamed artist of 2014. The music streaming service released their list on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015, which had Ariana Grande, Sam Smith, Miley Cyrus and One Direction rounding out the top five young artists.  (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

In this June 8 photo, musician Ed Sheeran attends the American Institute for Stuttering’s 9th Annual Freeing Voices, Changing Lives gala in New York. Sheeran topped Spotify’’s list of the top 25 most influential artists under the age of 25 as the company’’s most streamed artist of 2014. The music streaming service released their list on Aug. 18. AP

NEW YORK—British singer Ed Sheeran topped Spotify’s list of the top 25 most influential artists under the age of 25 as the company’s most streamed artist of 2014.

In the list released Tuesday by the music streaming service, Ariana Grande, Sam Smith, Miley Cyrus and One Direction rounded out the top five young artists. The list is based on total streams, but also on No. 1 hits, volume and growth of streams over the past year and Spotify’s viral chart.

The 24-year-old Sheeran also has Spotify’s most streamed song ever with “Thinking out Loud,” streamed 450 million times.

Pop music dominated with artists like Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, Meghan Trainor and Justin Bieber. New electronic and hip- hop artists such as Disclosure, Rae Sremmurd and Charlie Puth also made the cut.

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