The Nielsen Company & Billboards 2010 Music

Industry Report
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nielsen SoundScan, the entertainment industry's data information
system that tracks unit point-of-purchase sales of recorded music product and Nielsen BDS, the
music industry's leading music performance monitoring service- which power many of the Billboard
charts- have announced the 2010 calendar year sales and airplay monitoring data for the 52-week
period January 4, 2010 through January 2, 2011.



OVERALL MUSIC SALES (1/04/10 - 1/02/11)
OVERALL ALBUM SALES (1/04/10 - 1/02/11)
(ALBUMS, SINGLES, MUSIC VIDEO, DIGITAL TRACKS - IN MILLIONS)
(INCLUDES ALL ALBUMS & TRACK EQUIVALENT ALBUMS - IN MILLIONS)
UNITS SOLD
2010
2009
% Chg.
UNITS SOLD
2010
2009
% Chg.
1,507
*1,545
- 2.4%
443.4
489.8
- 9.5%

TOTAL ALBUM SALES (1/04/10 - 1/02/11)
INTERNET ALBUM SALES (1/04/10 - 1/02/11)
(INCLUDES CD, CS, LP, DIGITAL ALBUMS - IN MILLIONS)
(PHYSICAL ALBUM PURCHASES VIA E-COMMERCE SITES, IN MILLIONS)
UNITS SOLD
2010
2009
% Chg.
UNITS SOLD
2010
2009
% Chg.
326.2
373.9
- 12.7%
24.9
25.3
- 1.6%

DIGITAL TRACK SALES
DIGITAL ALBUM SALES
(1/04/2010 - 1/02/2011 - IN MILLIONS)
(1/04/2010 - 1/02/2011 - IN MILLIONS)
UNITS SOLD
2010
2009
% CHG.
UNITS SOLD
2010
2009
% CHG.
*1,172
1,159
1.0%
*86.3
76.4
13.0%

TOTAL LP ALBUM SALES (1/04/10 - 10/2/11)
HOLIDAY SEASON ALBUM SALES (11/08/10 - 12/26/10)
(LP/VINYL ALBUMS - IN MILLIONS)
(Physical & Digital ALBUM SALES DURING HOLIDAY SEASON: IN MILLIONS)
UNITS SOLD
2010
2009
% Chg.
UNITS SOLD
2010
2009
% Chg.
*2.8
2.5
14.0%
71.6
80.2
-10.7%

*Denotes a Nielsen SoundScan sales record


2010 GENRE ALBUM SALES REPORT
CURRENT VS. CATALOG ALBUM SALES
(1/04/10-1/02/11 - IN THOUSANDS)
(1/04/10-1/02/11 - IN MILLIONS)








Genre
2010
2009
% Chg.
Overall Albums
2010
2009
% Chg.
Alternative
53,727
68,195
-21%
Current
187.3
209.9
- 11%
Christian/Gospel+
24,226
27,822
-13%
Catalog
138.9
163.9
- 15%
Classical
8,957
12,140
-26%
Deep Catalog
106.1
123.4
- 14%
Country
43,718
46,130
-5%
Jazz
8,780
11,779
-25%
Physical Albums:
2010
2009
% Chg.
Latin
12,350
16,496
-25%
Current
143.0
170.8
- 16.2%
Metal
32,554
38,734
-16%
Catalog
97.0
126.6
- 23.4%
New Age
1,660
2,354
-29%
Deep Catalog
74.9
95.9
- 21.9%
R&B
57,871
69,889
-17%
Rap
27,328
26,441
3%
Digital Albums:
2010
2009
% Chg.
Rock
103,709
124,164
-16%
Current
44.3
39.1
13%
Soundtrack
16,412
18,980
-14%
Catalog
41.9
37.3
12%
Deep Catalog
31.2
27.5
13%
(Note: Titles may appear in more than one genre.)
+Sales figures tracked by Christian SoundScan


DIGITAL TRACK SALES BY DECADE*
CURRENT VS. CATALOG DIGITAL TRACK SALES
(1/04/10-1/02/11 - IN THOUSANDS)
(1/04/10-1/02/11 - IN MILLIONS)







Decade
2010
2009
% Chg.
% Tot Sales
Overall Track Sales
2010
2009
% Chg.
2010's
251,000
na
21.0%
Current
523.0
507.7
6%
2000's
743,000
979,328
- 22%
64.0%
Catalog
648.5
688.7
- 2%
1990's
85,141
105,470
- 16%
7.0%
1980's
38,316
49,883
- 21%
3.0%
1970's
30,966
36,988
-14%
3.0%
1960's
16,933
15,628
12%
1.0%
1950's
2,977
2,929
4%
0.3%
1940's
652
759
- 12%
0.05%

*Digital Tracks sales of songs recorded during the specified decade.

2010 YEAR-TO-DATE RECORD COMPANY MARKET SHARE (1/04/10 - 1/02/11)
(Reflects the market share for the entire entity, including sub-distributed companies, for the 52-
week year)










TOTAL ALBUMS (Catalog & Current Titles)
CURRENT ALBUMS
CATALOG ALBUMS

2010
2009
2010
2009
2010
2009
UMG
30.84%
30.20%
UMG
34.61%
33.95%
UMG
25.77%
25.41%
SME
27.95%
28.58%
SME
27.48%
27.40%
SME
28.59%
30.10%
WMG
20.01%
20.55%
WMG
18.44%
20.05%
WMG
22.12%
21.19%
EMI
10.18%
9.20%
EMI
9.62%
7.83%
EMI
10.93%
10.94%
OTHERS
11.02%
11.47%
OTHERS
9.85%
10.77%
OTHERS
12.60%
12.36%


PHYSICAL ALBUMS (Catalog & Current Titles)
DIGITAL ALBUMS (Catalog & Current Titles)
DIGITAL TRACKS

2010
2009
2010
2009
2010
2009
UMG
32.06%
31.05%
UMG
27.47%
26.92%
UMG
33.30%
32.99%
SME
29.31%
29.71%
SME
24.18%
24.21%
SME
25.28%
24.95%
WMG
19.07%
19.97%
WMG
22.60%
22.80%
WMG
19.58%
20.23%
EMI
9.99%
9.01%
EMI
10.71%
9.92%
EMI
8.36%
7.85%
OTHERS
9.57%
10.26%
OTHERS
15.03%
16.14%
OTHERS
12.51%
13.42%

BILLBOARD'S TOP SELLING ALBUMS & ARTISTS, BASED ON NIELSEN SOUNDSCAN DATA
*for the 2010 Calendar Year







2010 TOP TEN SELLING ALBUMS
2010 TOP TEN SELLING ARTISTS
(1/04/2010-1/02/2011)
(Based on Album sales from 1/04/2010-1/02/2011)

Title/Artist
Units Sold
Artist
Units Sold
1
Recovery/ Eminem
3,415,000
1
Taylor Swift
4,470,000
2
Need You Now/ Lady Antebellum
3,089,000
2
Eminem
4,317,000
3
Speak Now/ Taylor Swift
2,960,000
3
Lady Antebellum
3,848,000
4
My World 2.0/ Justin Bieber
2,319,000
4
Justin Bieber
3,728,000
5
The Gift/ Susan Boyle
1,852,000
5
Glee Cast
3,603,000
6
Fame/ Lady Gaga
1,591,000
6
Susan Boyle
2,711,000
7
Soldier Of Love/ Sade
1,300,000
7
Lady Gaga
2,591,000
8
Thank Me Later/ Drake
1,269,000
8
Michael Jackson
2,118,000
9
Raymond V Raymond/ Usher
1,183,000
9
Zac Brown Band
1,824,000
10.
Animal/ Ke$ha
1,143,000
10.
Beatles
1,697,000
2010 TOP TEN SELLING DIGITAL SONGS




2010 TOP TEN SELLING DIGITAL ARTISTS
(Combines all versions of same Song -1/04/2010-1/02/2011)
(Based on Digital Track sales from 1/4/2010 - 1/2/2011)


Title/Artist

Units Sold
Artist
Units Sold
1
California Gurls/ Katy Perry feat. Snoop Dogg
4,398,000
1
Eminem
15,673,000
2
Hey, Soul Sister/ Train
4,314,000
2
Ke$ha
13,497,000
3
Love The Way You Lie/ Eminem feat. Rihanna
4,245,000
3
Lady Gaga
11,891,000
4
Dynamite/ Taio Cruz
4,083,000
4
Katy Perry
11,837,000
5
Airplanes/ B.o.B. feat. Hayley Williams
4,004,000
5
Black Eyed Peas
11,337,000
6
OMG/ Usher feat. Will.i.am
3,763,000
6
Usher
10,717,000
7
Not Afraid/ Eminem
3,414,000
7
Glee Cast
10,654,000
8
Just The Way You Are/ Bruno Mars
3,276,000
8
Rihanna
10,099,000
9
Break Your Heart/ Taio Cruz feat. Ludacris
3,245,000
9
Taylor Swift
9,912,000
10.
Need You Now/ Lady Antebellum
3,182,000
10.
B.o.B.
9,118,000




2010 TOP TEN SELLING DIGITAL TRACKS
2010 TOP TEN SELLING DIGITAL ALBUMS
(1/04/10 - 1/02/2011)
(1/04/2010-1/02/2011)



Title/Artist
Units Sold
Artist
Units Sold
1
Hey, Soul Sister/ Train
4,249,000
1
Recovery/ Eminem
852,000
2
Dynamite/ Taio Cruz
4,080,000
2
Speak Now/ Taylor Swift
488,000
3
California Gurls/ Katy Perry feat. Snoop Dogg
4,027,000
3
Animal/ Ke$ha
395,000
4
OMG/ Usher feat. Will.i.am
3,674,000
4
Need You Now/ Lady Antebellum
382,000
5
Love The Way You Lie/ Eminem feat. Rihanna
3,553,000
5
Fame/ Lady Gaga
373,000
6
Airplanes/ B.o.B. feat. Hayley Williams
3,365,000
6
Hope For Haiti/ Various
371,000
7
Just The Way You Are/ Bruno Mars
3,271,000
7
My Beautiful Dark Twisted../ Kanye West
367,000
8
Tik Tok/ Ke$ha
3,033,000
8
Sigh No More/ Mumford & Sons
343,000
9
I Like It/ Enrique Iglesias feat. Pitbull
2,951,000
9
Thank Me Later/ Drake
269,000
10.
Like A G6/ Far East Movement feat. Catar
2,870,000
10.
Suburbs/ Arcade Fire
241,000



2010 TOP TEN SEASONAL ALBUMS
2010 TOP TEN INTERNET ALBUMS
(1/04/2010-1/02/2011)
(1/04/2010-1/02/2011)




Title/Artist
Units Sold
Title/Artist
Units Sold
1
The Gift/ Susan Boyle
1,852,000
1
Speak Now/ Taylor Swift
185,400
2
O Holy Night/ Jackie Evancho
1,010,000
2
The Gift/ Susan Boyle
152,600
3
Music: Xmas/ Glee Cast
917,000
3
My World 2.0/ Justin Bieber
105,000
4
Merry Christmas II You/ Mariah Carey
432,000
4
Need You Now/ Lady Antebellum
103,200
5
My Christmas/ Andrea Bocelli
371,000
5
O Holy Night/ Jackie Evancho
102,500
6
Noel/ Josh Groban
261,000
6
Live At the... /James Taylor & Carol
88,600
7
Merry Little Christmas/ Lady Antebellum
253,000
7
Illuminations/ Josh Groban
78,500
8
Now Christmas 4/ Various
240,000
8
My World/ Justin Bieber
74,200
9
The Holiday Collection/ Taylor Swift
209,000
9
Soldier Of Love/ Sade
72,000
10.
Christmas Cornucopia/ Annie Lennox
178,000
10.
I Dreamed A Dream/ Susan Boyle
71,800



2010 TOP TEN VINYL ALBUMS
2010 TOP TEN VINYL ARTISTS
(1/04/2010-1/02/2011)
(Based on Vinyl Album sales from 1/04/2010-1/02/2011)




Title/Artist
Units Sold
Artist
Units Sold
1
Abbey Road/ Beatles
35,000
1
Beatles
36,700
2
Suburbs/ Arcade Fire
18,800
2
Black Keys
36,000
3
Brothers/ Black Keys
18,400
3
Radiohead
30,500
4
Contra/ Vampire Weekend
15,000
4
Arcade Fire
28,600
5
Thriller/ Michael Jackson
14,200
5
Jimi Hendrix
26,400
6
High Violet/ National
13,600
6
National
24,600
7
Teen Dream/ Beach House
13,000
7
Pavement
24,200
8
Valleys of Neptune/ Jimi Hendrix Experience
11,400
8
Vampire Weekend
21,900
9
Dark Side of the Moon/ Pink Floyd
10,600
9
Metallica
20,000
10.
XX/ The XX
10,200
10.
Bob Dylan
17,000

2010 TOP TEN PHYSICAL ALBUMS
(Based on CD, Cassette and LP album sales from 1/04/2010-1/02/2011)


Title/Artist

Units Sold
1
Need You Now/ Lady Antebellum
2,707,000
2
Recovery/ Eminem
2,563,000
3
Speak Now/ Taylor Swift
2,473,000
4
My World 2.0/ Justin Bieber
2,121,000
5
The Gift/ Susan Boyle
1,820,000
6
Fame/ Lady Gaga
1,218,000
7
Soldier of Love/ Sade
1,107,000
8
Raymond V Raymond/ Usher
1,026,000
9
Thank Me Later/ Drake
1,000,000
10.
O Holy Night/ Jackie Evancho
991,000

BILLBOARD'S MOST PLAYED TITLES AND ARTISTS, BASED ON NIELSEN BDS DATA
*for the 2010 Calendar Year







Top 10 Most Played Songs
Top 10 Artist Airplay

Title/Artist
Detections
Artist
Detections
1
Need You Now/ Lady Antebellum
600,000
1
Taylor Swift
1,128,000
2
Hey, Soul Sister/ Train
540,000
2
Lady Antebellum
1,127,000
3
California Gurls/ Katy Perry feat. Snoop Dogg
503,000
3
Lady Gaga
1,076,000
4
Nothin' On You/ B.o.B feat. Bruno Mars
485,000
4
Ke$ha
1,056,000
5
OMG/ Usher feat. Will.i.am
470,000
5
Black Eyed Peas
1,048,000
6
Dynamite/ Taio Cruz
461,000
6
Rihanna
904,000
7
Tik Tok/ Ke$ha
459,000
7
Train
873,000
8
Bad Romance/ Lady Gaga
449,000
8
Jason Derulo
860,000
9
Break Your Heart/ Taio Cruz feat. Ludacris
447,000
9
Kenny Chesney
850,000
10.
Airplanes/ B.o.B feat. Hayley Williams
430,000
10.
Nickelback
847,000



Top 10 Holiday Songs Airplay
Nielsen BDS: Top 10 Artists - Internet Streams




Title/Artist
Detections
Artist
Streams
1
Rockin' Around the Christmas.../Brenda Lee
34,900
1
Eminem
94,000,000
2
A Holly Jolly Christmas/ Burl Ives
34,400
2
Taylor Swift
77,000,000
3
The Christmas Song/ Nat King Cole
33,300
3
Lady Gaga
58,000,000
4
Jingle Bell Rock/ Bobby Helms
33,000
4
Rihanna
57,000,000
5
Feliz Navidad/ Jose Feliciano
32,900
5
Ke$ha
53,000,000
6
All I Want for Christmas is../ Mariah Carey
32,500
6
Nickelback
52,000,000
7
It's the Most Wonderful.../Andy Williams
29,200
7
Lady Antebellum
52,000,000
8
Happy X-Mas (War is Over)/ John Lennon
28,400
8
Black Eyed Peas
49,000,000
9
Do They Know It's Christmas?/ Band Aid
26,700
9
Beyonce
46,000,000
10.
White Christmas/ Bing Crosby
26,200
10.
Mariah Carey
45,000,000
Nielsen BDS: Top 10 Internet Streamed Songs



Nielsen BDS: Top 10 Music Video Internet Streams




Title/Artist
Streams
Title/Artist
Streams
1
Love the Way You Lie/ Eminem feat. Rihanna
22,366,000
1
Tik Tok/ Ke$ha
6,174,000
2
Need You Now/ Lady Antebellum
22,103,000
2
Love the Way You Lie/ Eminem feat. Rihanna
3,948,000
3
Tik Tok/ Ke$ha
20,218,000
3
Airplanes/ B.o.B feat download mp3 music on phone Hayley Williams
3,324,000
4
Just A Dream/ Nelly
19,491,000
4
Bad Romance/ Lady Gaga
2,699,000
5
Just the Way You Are/ Bruno Mars
18,485,000
5
Give It Up To Me/ Shakira feat. Lil Wayne
2,378,000
6
Airplanes/ B.o.B. feat. Hayley Williams
18,472,000
6
Can't Be Tamed/ Miley Cyrus
2,236,000
7
Breakeven/ Script
18,161,000
7
Baby/ Justin Bieber feat. Ludacris
2,137,000
8
Break Your Heart/ Taio Cruz feat Ludacris
17,471,000
8
In My Head/ Jason Derulo
1,944,000
9
I Like It/ Enrique Iglesias feat. Pitbull
16,887,000
9
Alejandro/ Lady Gaga
1,883,000
10.
OMG/ Usher feat Will.i.am
16,789,000
10.
Sweet Dreams/ Beyonce
1,875,000

BILLBOARD'S TOP TITLES & ARTISTS OF THE NIELSEN SOUNDSCAN ERA







TOP TEN SELLING ARTISTS
TOP TEN SELLING ALBUMS
(based on album sales from 1991-1/02/2011)
(1991 - 1/02/2011)
Title/Artist
Units Sold
Artist
Units Sold
1
Garth Brooks
68,513,000
1
Metallica/ Metallica
15,620,000
2
Beatles
62,066,000
2
Come On Over/ Shania Twain
15,499,000
3
Mariah Carey
53,185,000
3
Jagged Little Pill/ Alanis Morissette
14,673,000
4
Metallica
52,672,000
4
Millennium/ Backstreet Boys
12,115,000
5
Celine Dion
51,162,000
5
Soundtrack/ Bodyguard
11,823,000
6
George Strait
42,396,000
6
Supernatural/ Santana
11,709,000
7
Eminem
39,643,000
7
Beatles 1/ Beatles
11,703,000
8
Tim McGraw
39,396,000
8
Human Clay/ Creed
11,563,000
9
Alan Jackson
38,275,000
9
No Strings Attached/ N Sync
11,117,000
10.
Pink Floyd
36,429,000
10.
Falling Into You/ Celine Dion
10,785,000







TOP TEN SELLING DIGITAL SONGS
TOP TEN SELLING DIGITAL ALBUMS
(7/04/2004-1/02/2011)
(7/04/2004 - 1/02/2011)
Title/Artist
Units Sold
Artist
Units Sold
1
I Gotta Feeling/ Black Eyed Peas
6,627,000
1
Fame/ Lady Gaga
884,000
2
Just Dance/ Lady Gaga feat. Colby O'Donis
5,911,000
2
Recovery/ Eminem
852,000
3
Poker Face/ Lady Gaga
5,840,000
3
Viva La Vida/ Coldplay
795,000
4
Low/ Flo Rida Feat. T-Pain
5,781,000
4
Fearless/ Taylor Swift
700,000
5
Boom Boom Pow/ Black Eyed Peas
5,754,000
5
Only By the Night/ Kings Of Leon
646,000
6
Tik Tok/ Ke$ha
5,483,000
6
Soundtrack/ Twilight
643,000
7
I'm Yours/ Jason Mraz
5,470,000
7
E.N.D. (Energy Never../ Black Eyed Peas
532,000
8
Hey, Soul Sister/ Train
5,001,000
8
Speak Now/ Taylor Swift
488,000
9
Apologize/ Timbaland feat. One Republic
4,880,000
9
Continuum/ John Mayer
487,000
10.
Love Story/ Taylor Swift
4,853,000
10.
In Between Dreams/ Jack Johnson
414,000

TOP TEN SELLING DIGITAL ARTISTS
(Based on Digital Track sales from 7/04/2004-1/02/2011)


Artist

Units Sold
1
Taylor Swift
34,269,000
2
Black Eyed Peas
33,831,000
3
Rihanna
33,673,000
4
Eminem
33,279,000
5
Lady Gaga
29,311,000
6
Kanye West
25,343,000
7
Beyonce
25,136,000
8
Nickelback
23,919,000
9
Michael Jackson
23,218,000
10.
Katy Perry
22,574,000
2010 Year-End Factoids
Music purchases reached the 1.5 Billion mark for the third consecutive year. 1.5 billion in 2010; 1.6
billion in 2009; 1.5 billion in 2008 (1.4 billion in 2007; 1.2 billion in 2006; 1 billion in 2005).
Music purchases reached 60 million during week ending December 26, 2010, making it the third
biggest sales week in the history of Nielsen SoundScan. The biggest sales week in Nielsen
SoundScan history was set during the same week in 2008 with 65 million music purchases.
Overall Album sales (including Albums and Track Equivalent Album sales) declined 9.5% over 2009.
Total album sales declined 12.7% over 2009.
There were 240 million physical album sales in 2010; a decline of 19% over 2009.
The Rap genre was the only genre that experienced growth over the previous year; an increase of
3% in sales.
The only genre (other than Rap) that did not see a double digit decline was Country, which is down
5% over 2009.
For the third consecutive year, more vinyl albums were purchased in 2010 (2.8 million) than any
other year in the history of Nielsen SoundScan. The previous record was in 2009 with 2.5 million LP
album sales.
Note that 71% of all vinyl albums were purchased at an independent music store during 2010.
Vinyl album sales in 2010 were up 14% compared to 2009 and accounted for 1% of all album sales.
The Columbia/Epic label group ends the year with the largest album market share among all label
groups with a 10.96 share.
Digital Factoids:
Digital music accounts for 46% of all music purchases in 2010; up from 40% in 2009 and 32% in
2008.
Digital track sales break the 1 BILLION sales mark for the 3rd straight year with 1,172,000,000
digital track sales in 2010. The previous record was 1,160,000,000 digital track purchases during
2009.
Once again, digital album sales reached an all-time high in 2010 with more than 86 million in sales
(up from 76 million in 2009); an increase of 13%.
Digital album sales accounted for more than 1 out of every 4 album purchases (26%) in 2010;
compared to 20% in 2009, 15% in 2008, 10% in 2007 and 5.5% in 2006.
For the December 26th reporting week of 2010 the following digital sales record was broken:
Digital album sales this week set a new high with sales of 2.8 million sales; breaking the previous
record of 2.6 million (12/27/09).
"California Gurls" by Katy Perry tops the chart for best selling digital song in 2010 with 4.4 million
downloads. Train's song "Hey, Soul Sister" comes in right behind with 4.3 million sales.
Five digital songs broke the 4 million sales mark in 2010. There were 4 songs that achieved this
mark in 2009.
In 2010, 37 different digital songs had sales exceeding 2 million compared to 31 in 2009; 19 in 2008;
and nine in 2007.
86 Digital Songs exceeded the 1 million sales mark for the year compared to 89 in 2009; 71 digital
songs in 2008; 41 in 2007; 22 in 2006; and only two digital songs in 2005.
Eminem is the biggest selling digital artist in 2010 with more than 15.5 million track sales during
the year. This marks the biggest one year digital download track total by an artist for one year.
In 2009, Lady Gaga had more than 15.2 million and in 2008, Rihanna was the biggest selling digital
artist with 9.9 million track sales.
In 2010, nine different artists broke the 10 million digital track sales barrier compared to four artists
in 2009.
There were more than 397,000 different physical albums that sold at least one copy how to
download songs download music from spotify for free over the Internet during 2008 compared to
450,000 in 2008 and 390,000 in 2007.
Best-Selling Album Factoids:
Eminem's Recovery finishes the year as the biggest selling album with more than 3.4 million in sales.
Note that Eminem is the first artist to have the best selling album of the year twice since the
inception of Nielsen SoundScan. (Eminem Show in 2002 with 7.6 million sales).
Recovery also finishes the year as the biggest digital album of the year with 852,000 sales. The
biggest one year total for a digital album and is the 2nd most downloaded album of all time; just
30,000 downloads behind Lady Gaga's Fame.
Due to the success of Recovery, Eminem jumps 3 positions to the 7th best selling artist in the history
of Nielsen SoundScan.
Eminem is the only Rap artist in the top 20 best-selling artists in the Nielsen SoundScan era.
With nearly 16 million track downloads in 2010, Eminem jumps up five positions to #4 on the most
downloaded artists of all time.
For the second time in three years, Taylor Swift is the biggest selling artist for 2010 with more than
4.4 million album sales for the year.
If it wasn't for the passing of Michael Jackson in 2009, Taylor Swift would have been the best selling
artist for three consecutive years; she came in second behind Michael in 2009 with 4.6 million album
sales and was the best selling artist in 2008.
Note that Taylor Swift has sold more than 4 million album sales for three consecutive years; the only
artist to sell 4+ million albums each of the last three years.
Speak Now in the best selling Internet album in 2010 with 185,000 sales.
Taylor Swift ends the year as the most played artist over the airways in 2010 with more than 1.1
million spins; edging out another country act, Lady Antebellum, by 1,000 spins.
Lady Antebellum finishes the year as the biggest selling group of 2010 with more than 3.8 million
album sales.
Lady Antebellum's album Need You Now finishes the year as the top selling physical album with 2.7
million sales.
The song "Need You Now" by Lady Antebellum is the most played song of the year with 600,000
spins over the airways.
Metallica's self titled album remains on top as the best selling album in the Nielsen SoundScan era
with more than 15.6 million album sales.
Garth Brooks continues to be the best selling artist in the Nielsen SoundScan era with more than
68.5 million album sales; 6 million more album sales than The Beatles.
Susan Boyle once again has the biggest selling album during the "holiday season" - The Gift is the
best seller of the 2010 how to download music to ipod touch 2g without itunes holiday season and
her debut album, I Dreamed A Dream, was the best seller of the 2009 holiday season.
Holiday Season Factoids (11/8 - 12/26/10):
Overall album sales during the 2010 holiday season were down 1.6% this year with sales of 71.6
million sales.
Similar to a year ago, album sales during the "holiday season" accounted for 22% of all album sales
for the year.
2010 Strata Factoids:
33% of all albums purchased were at a Mass Merchant outlet (Walmart, Target, etc.).
26% of all albums were purchased through a digital service such as iTunes, Amazonmp3, eMusic,
etc.
23% of all albums were purchased at Chain outlets (Best Buy, etc.).
8% of all albums were purchased at Independent music stores.
7% of all albums were purchased through an e-commerce retailer, such as Amazon and many others.