Chris Tomlin Becomes First Christian Artist To Receive Pandora Billionaire Award

Pictured (L-R): Anthony Piedmonte/Piedmonte & Co., David Sylvester/ VP, Marketing & Operations, Capitol Christian Music Group (CCMG), Beville Darden/ Sr. Director of Artist Marketing Pandora, Chris Tomlin, Melissa Chalos/ Programming Curator, Christian/Gospel Music | Pandora, Hudson Plachy/ Chief Marketing Officer CCMG, Brad O’Donnell/ Chief Creative Officer CCMG and Grace Watson/ Manager, Commercial Partnerships CCMG

Chris Tomlin has reached another career milestone as the first Christian artist to reach the Billion streams threshold on Pandora. He was presented with their Billionaire award during an exclusive album preview event in Nashville this week for loyal Pandora listeners.

Tomlin is one of only a handful of artists in any genre to reach this impressive benchmark, and to date, has 1.8 Billion lifetime spins and averages 4.5 million streams per week.

“The level of Chris Tomlin’s performance on Pandora is extremely rare and exceptional in the Christian/Gospel genre, with 1.8 BILLION lifetime streams, 2.6M unique listeners and 20M+ streams each month,” says Melissa Chalos, Programming Curator, Christian/Gospel Music Pandora. “Fifteen of the Top 100 worship songs sung in churches around the globe have his name on them, and 8 of his 11 album releases have reached No. 1. We are excited to welcome worship artist Chris Tomlin to the Pandora Billionaire’s Club and to acknowledge the millions of fans engaging with his music here on Pandora. It’s our loyal Pandora listeners who determine which artists become Billionaires, and we honor them and their pick in Chris.”

“I’m so honored to represent this amazing genre of music that features so many incredible artists,” said Tomlin. “What this ‘billion’ honor reminds me of is that every week there are billions of people who gather together in worship. Anywhere there is dirt on this earth people are worshipping God. I’m so thankful to be a part of that.”

Last Fall Tomlin also made history when he became one of only four artists ever to receive the Sound Exchange Digital Radio Award for over one billion digital radio streams, along with Justin Timberlake, Pitbull and Garth Brooks.