Rihanna, Drake, Desiigner And More: Songs Of Summer 2016

Summer is officially upon us, and the question of which hits will be blaring ad nasuem at every beach party and barbecue is at the forefront of everyone's mind. Here we look at which tracks the data suggests will be the receiving the most airplay as summer kicks into full gear.

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Guest Post by Liv Buli on Next Big Sound

There are just a few short days until Memorial Day weekend is upon us, and the summer season has officially began. That means it’s time for predictions about what songs will dominate the airwaves as we roll out the beach towels and sunblock. Looking at Pandora spins and station adds, as well as social data across all major platforms, we determined which songs are on track to be the top ten songs of the summer. From major hits to rising stars, here are the hits you will probably be tired of by the time September rolls around.

1. Desiigner’s “Panda”

Ok, so the track might have gotten a kick start from Kanye’s nod on The Life Of Pablo, but by now Desiigner has come into his own. After climbing the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in April, he was able to fend off both Beyoncé and Drake in the midst of a flurry of press coverage surrounding their high profile album releases. You might think that the track has already reached it’s shelf-life, but the ones with staying power tend to have a slow and steady climb, and “Panda” is still climbing . The first two weeks the track was on Pandora back in February it spun on average 45,000 times a day. Over the past two weeks that number was up to more than a million.

2. Drake’s “One Dance” (feat. Wiz Kid and Kyla)

Yup, Drake is back. And if you caught his Saturday Night Live performance, you’ll know he has no plans to retire the tennis racket dance for this album.Views has already been an unprecedented success in terms of overall stream counts, and now you can expect lead single “One Dance” to appear on every summer soundtrack worth spinning. In a little more than a month, the track has already racked up close to 40 million plays on Pandora, as well as more than 165,000 track station adds.

3. Rihanna’s “Needed Me”

Rihanna is not done releasing hits off Anti, and now that “Needed Me” has been introduced into the rotation we can expect to hear it until it sounds as indecipherable in our minds as the rest of the lyrics on “Work.” Having already hit more than 50 million plays in total, spins for the track are increasing week over week. In March, she was knocking back on average 1.6 million spins a week for “Needed Me.” In April that number was closer to 4 million. And last week it spun about 5.6 million times.

4. The Chainsmoker’s “Don’t Let Me Down” (feat. Daya)

Remember when The Chainsmokers taught us how to take a self-indulgent selfie and set the internet on fire a few years back? Well they’re back for more and have teamed up with rising star Daya on inescapable earworm “Don’t Let Me Down.” You’ve probably heard it 20 times already, but expect to hear it another 2,000 times before September rolls around (if you live on planet earth that is). Why? Because it’s really good. And because more and more people are listening to it. Counting about 45 million spins on Pandora in total at this point, the track has gone from an average of of 20,000 spins a day its first week on the platform to more than 800,000 a day over the past week.

5. Meghan Trainor’s “No”

No, Miss Trainor is not taking a break, thank you very much. Following up her 2015 hit album (Title) with a second studio effort (Thank You) a little more than a year later, lead single “No” is already charging up the charts and racking up the spins. The track was an instant hit on Pandora, with more than 5.5 million spins in the first two weeks. Expect the single to stay in rotation as the warm weather rolls in.

6. Grace’s “You Don’t Own Me” (feat. G-Eazy)

Grace is the up-and-comer on this list. The young Australian (who happens to be siblings with fellow pop prodigy Conrad) released a modern take on Lesley Gore’s “You Don’t Own Me.” And what a move to team up with G-Eazy for this one. The result is a familiar yet avant-garde hit song that will be riding the airwaves all summer. The tipping point for the track was actually late February, when it went from a few hundred spins a day on Pandora to tens of thousands. Since then it has continued to climb at a staggering rate. Last weekend, it topped close to half a million spins in a single day, a feat that is impressive (to say the least) from an artist that is still relatively unknown.

7. Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop The Feeling”

Justin Timberlake is in a good mood, and damn if it isn’t infectious. He just dropped his first track in three years (granted The 20/20 Experience was really, really long), and it is unsurprisingly going to be one of the most popular tracks of the season. It has already racked up about 10 million spins on Pandora in less than three weeks, not to mention the fact that in true Justin Timberlake style, the more times you hear it, the more you like it.

8. Twenty One Pilots’ “Ride”

Blurryface is the album that took Twenty One Pilots from relative (indie) obscurity to mainstream act. As the fifth single off the album, now it’s time for “Ride” to have its moment in the sun as it steadily builds up momentum on streaming services. Since the beginning of April, what was a fairly flat trajectory has started trending upwards, with spin counts and station adds increasing week over week. An average of 75,000 spins a day in February has grown to more than 415,000 so far in the month of May.

9. Calvin Harris’ “This Is What You Came For” (feat. Rihanna)

It wouldn’t really be summer without a Calvin Harris/Rihanna smash hit to play obsessively, so Harris went ahead and dropped one in the end of April. And of course, when you are a pair as popular as these two (they have a combined 85 million Facebook page likes) you don’t need a few months for the track to build up momentum, so “This is What You Came For” has already pulled in close to 12 million spins on Pandora and counting.

10. Justin Bieber’s “Company”

Is it possible that we’re not done with Bieber’s Purpose? The latest single off his album has started spinning up, and if the rest of his singles off this album have been anything to go by, we’ll be hearing “Company” everywhere this summer. At more than 46 million spins on Pandora already, the track was spinning about 100,000 times a day back in January (he is Justin Bieber after all), but by April was up to more than five times that. I doubt Justin is sorry. What do you mean? Ok I’ll stop.