Quick Hits: Holiday and year-end round-up edition

Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web:

2018 at Pandora: Pandora has published its year-in-review, with a list of how listeners reacted to major cultural moments of 2018. For instance, Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill saw a spike in listens after the Eagles’ Super Bowl win while Childish Gambino posted a 740% increase in station ads after his appearance on Saturday Night Live.

Christmas at YouTube: YouTube has released the names of its top ten most-played holiday songs. Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You was the number one with 4.5 million daily views already this year. The list had a mix of classics and contemporary hits. Idina Menzel, Pentatonix, and Ariana Grande all had songs on the list alongside familiar favorites such as Gene Autry and Brenda Lee.

2018 at Shazam: The audio identification platform, now owned by Apple, has released a list of the most-Shazamed songs of the year. “Solo” by Clean Bandit and featuring Demi Lovato was the track with the most hits on Shazam.

Anna Washenko