Taylor Swift and Benson Boone top the mid-year music charts
Top line
Billionaire Taylor Swift’s latest album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” is the most successful album in the U.S. in terms of both total sales and equivalent sales. However, she does not have the most successful song worldwide, nor in the U.S. This is according to data from tracking firm Luminate, which also showed a 15% increase in on-demand audio streams compared to the previous year.
Taylor Swift performs during the “Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour” at the Letzigrund Stadium in Zurich … (+)
Key data
Swift continued to dominate in the U.S. this year with her April release, “The Tortured Poets Department,” which was by far the highest-selling album, beating Billie Eilish and Beyoncé (#2 and #3, respectively, in sales alone) by more than 2 million each.
“Tortured Poets,” which spent a record-breaking 12 weeks atop the Billboard 200 weekly chart, grossed 4.66 million album-equivalent units, or traditional album sales combined with track sales and streaming metrics, in the first half of 2024, beating the rest of that U.S. top 10 list by nearly 3 million units.
Despite the album’s success, Swift failed to achieve a number one song either worldwide or in the US in the first half of the year: the worldwide title is held by “Beautiful Things” by Benson Boone with 1.434 billion on-demand audio streams and the US title with 448.7 million streams.
Worldwide, “Beautiful Things” is followed by “Lose Control” by Teddy Swim with 1.117 billion streams and “Cruel Summer” by Swift with 1.012 billion streams worldwide.
Overall, on-demand streaming of audio data increased by 15.1% worldwide this year compared to the same period last year, and by 8% in the US.
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Top 10 albums of 2024 by sales equivalents (which combine album sales, track sales and streams)
1. Taylor Swift, “The Tortured Poets Department” (4.660 million album units)
2. Morgan Wallen, “One Thing at a Time” (1.776 million album units)
3. Noah Kahan, “Stick Season” (1.224 million album units)
4. Beyoncé, “Cowboy Carter” (1.105 million album units)
5. SZA, “SOS” (1.064 million album units)
6. Future & Metro Boomin, “We Don’t Trust You” (1.046 million album units)
7. Morgan Wallen, “Dangerous: The Double Album” (1.010 million album units)
8. Zach Bryan, “Zach Bryan” (984,000 album units)
9. Taylor Swift, “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” (953,000 album equivalents)
10. Taylor Swift, “Lover” (948,000 album equivalents)
Who is Benson Boone?
Boone, 22, who holds the most-streamed song on on-demand audio streams through June, released his hit “Beautiful Things” in January. The song was his first top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 2. Boone attempted to launch his career on “American Idol,” but withdrew from the competition after reaching the top 24, according to the Grammys. His debut album is expected later this year, and he is currently on a world tour.
tangent
Luminate’s mid-year report also highlights genre and concert trends from January to June. In the US, hip-hop and R&B have the highest share of total volume by format and genre (24.6%), followed by rock, pop, country and Latin. Although Latin is number 5 on the list, it is the fastest-growing genre in the US. Classical and jazz had the lowest shares in the US, both at around 0.9%.
Big number
23%. That’s how much more Gen Z music listeners spent per month on concerts in the second quarter of the year than the average music listener in the U.S., according to Luminate. The company also reported that this was the first time Gen Z surpassed Millennials in reported monthly spending on concerts.
Surprising fact
Luminate also found that the number of variants released per new album is increasing. The top 10 best-selling physical albums this year in the U.S. had an average of seven different LP variants, 13 CDs and two cassettes, Luminate reported.
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