Aphex Twin overtakes Taylor Swift for monthly YouTube listeners

Aphex Twin is currently drawing more monthly YouTube listeners than Taylor Swift, according to official streaming numbers.

• READ MORE: Aphex Twin at Printworks, London: still one of the greatest electronic shows on earth

The Cornwall experimental producer is currently clocking a total of 448million monthly listeners on YouTube’s streaming service YouTube Music as of today (January 17), well out-performing pop superstar Swift, who is currently sitting on 399million monthly listeners.

The numbers on YouTube Music are derived from a metric that includes activity across all parts of YouTube, encompassing audio streams on YouTube Music and music video streams on artists’ official pages on YouTube itself.

Crucially, it also includes music consumed passively on YouTube Shorts and fan-generated content, and it is believed that this is how Aphex Twin has managed to rack up such huge numbers.

Some, including DJ RamonPang, have observed that the widespread viral use of Aphex Twin’s 2001 track ‘QKThr’ on many videos in recent months (via Resident Advisor) is likely to have boosted the figures.

In 2014, writer and artist David Rees released an Aphex Twin-Taylor Swift mashup album, titled ‘AphexSwift’. ““I actually think Richard D. James (Aphex Twin) and Taylor Swift have a lot in common besides their songwriting talents – or, at least, they each have characteristics more commonly associated with the other,” Rees said at the time.

Elsewhere, in November, Aphex Twin surprise-released two new songs via his SoundCloud account, the first sign of new music since the 2024 compilation ‘From The Merch Desk (2016-2023)’, another surprise release.

That followed an expanded edition of his 1994 album ‘Selected Ambient Works II’ to mark its 30th anniversary. He has not released a full-length studio album since 2014’s Grammy Award-winning ‘Syro’.

In 2025, Aphex Twin was focusing on his collaborations with streetwear brand Supreme. This included making a playlist for the company, made up of almost 200 songs and composed of mostly chilled, low-tempo selections.

As for Swift, she has been making headlines for her donations to charitable causes in recent months, including $1million for a US foodbank initiative and children’s hospitals in Nashville and Kansas City.

She released her 12th studio album, ‘The Life Of A Showgirl’, in October. It was officially the best-selling album of the year in the UK, making her the first artist to have the top seller in consecutive years for different albums since ABBA in 1977.

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