Major Lazer, DJ Snake and MØ's music video for “Lean On” is the newest YouTube video to reach a total of 1 billion plays on YouTube.
The music video which was uploaded on March 22nd of 2015 has averaged roughly 3,000,000 plays each day and has received about one per play per 7 people on the planet according to Census.gov.
“Lean On” not only has 1 billion plays on YouTube, but also has 131 million plays on SoundCloud and was named the most streamed track on Spotify late last year.
Diplo wrote:
“My first instinct is that we honestly don't belong up here w Tay Tay, Katy Perry, Justin, Psy and all these other videos in the 1 billion view club. We made this video in India on a limited budget during a couple of off days between tour dates in India, no giant label planned it.. It was literally improvised and made up in a few hours.. Actually like 24 hours. We shot from sunrise to sunrise the next morning, it was so tiring that the dancers & everyone on set were sleeping between the takes. In fact, the choreography was more or less created on site and we all were just trying to learn between takes as well. We rented this old palace facade, and while it's looks beautiful on Camera, it was just held up by 2x4s and had people sleeping behind every corner or an animal tied to a post. Originally we had plans to use an elephant in the video but after we went over on another shot and it was time to use the elephant, it had fallen asleep! We thought the trainer was just milking us for more money, but alas, the elephant was sound asleep. I tried to find an atm to get some elephant money out, but the trainer said “no elephant” if I wake him up he will kill everyone. Despite not having an elephant, somehow this video still made it to a billion views and that's because of you! And just as importantly, we did it independently, the first indie Music Video to actually hit this accomplishment. We are feeling like the rebel alliance against the death star of pop youtube. One love.”