The unusual music report for mid-year 2024

In many ways, the origins of the modern era of the U.S. recorded music business can be dated to 2015. That was the year that Apple Music and TIDAL made their debut in the United States. That was the year that streaming finally came of age and took the lead as the dominant revenue stream among all formats in the country. And that was the year that the business finally experienced its first spurts of growth after more than a decade of decline, setting off an upward trend that hasn’t slowed down ten years later.

This week, Luminate released its annual mid-year report on its US business, which offers a relatively handy conclusion to the first 10 years of what can reasonably be called the official streaming era. The mid-year charts offered some surprises (the continued success of Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” led to it becoming the most-streamed song of 2024 so far) and some more obvious conclusions (Taylor Swift, of course, dominated the album charts with The “Tortured Poets” section).

But it also revealed several milestones and achievements that weren’t achieved in the last 10 years of Luminate reports (and before that, MRC Data and Nielsen reports). With the caveat that this is still the halfway point and release dates and other factors weigh more heavily on smaller samples, here are five statistics that show the first half of 2024 was the most unusual year of the last decade.

The sheer extent of Taylor’s dominance

Swifts Department for Tortured Poets has effortlessly overtaken every other album at the midpoint of the year and has been at the top of the Billboard 200 for 12 of the 26 weeks of the year. At the midpoint of the year, however, its dominance compared to the last 10 years could also be described as historic. With 4.66 million album units sold TTPD has the No. 2 album, Morgan Wallens One after the otherby more than double – and almost triple – the latter’s 1.776 million, with a total 2.62 times higher than Wallen’s album (which, to be fair, was released in March 2023).

This is the first time in the last decade that the No. 1 album’s first-half total has doubled, let alone more than doubled, like the No. 2 album’s. The difference between the two, 2.884 million units, is over 1.5 million larger than the difference between all other top-two albums during the same period, with 2023 being the only other year in which the difference exceeded 1 million units. (Last year, Wallen’s One after the other amounted to 3.312 million units, 1.33 million more than SZA SOS.) The closest race of the last 10 years? That was in 2017, when Kendrick Lamar’s DAMNED. displaced Ed Sheeran’s split At halftime, the decline was only 23,000 units.

The No. 1 song did not reach No. 1 on the Hot 100

Boone’s “Beautiful Things” was an early breakthrough this year, as the singer seemed to explode out of nowhere with the biggest hit of his career. The song got off to a blazing start, debuting at No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January – and then spent all but two weeks in the chart’s top 10, landing at No. 1 on Luminate’s most-streamed songs of the year so far in its mid-year tally.

The only oddity? “Beautiful Things” peaked at No. 2 on the Hot 100 and never quite reached No. 1. Given that, it might seem odd that it would land at No. 1 in streams at midyear, though that can be explained by its continued dominance in the top 10 and its debut earlier in the year, giving it the full six months to rack up all those streams. What is odd, however, is that it is the only song in the last decade to land at No. 1 at midyear and also never reach the top of the Hot 100. In fact, every other year since 2015, the top song has spent at least five weeks at the top spot at midyear—from the Magical Cast’s “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” in 2022 (five weeks) to Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk!” in 2015, which lasted 14 weeks. (Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” at No. 1 midway through 2019, ultimately spent 19 weeks at No. 1, despite being only halfway through that run at midyear.)

Mid-Year No. 1 Songs by On-Demand Streams (Weeks at No. 1)
2023: Miley Cyrus, “Flowers” ​​(8 weeks)
2022: Magical Cast, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” (5 weeks)
2021: Olivia Rodrigo, “Driver’s License” (8 weeks)
2020: Roddy Ricch, “The Box” (11 weeks)
2019: “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X (19 weeks)
2018: Drake, “God’s Plan” (11 weeks)
2017: Ed Sheeran, “Shape Of You” (12 weeks)
2016: Rihanna feat. Drake, “Work” (9 weeks)
2015: Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars, “Uptown Funk!” (14 weeks)

Warner Records lands top three songs

And what about the most streamed songs? Boones was at No. 1, followed by Zach Bryan featuring Kacey Musgraves with “I Remember Everything” and Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control” at No. 2 and 3. All of these songs were released by Warner Records, giving the label a triple win. No other label has had top-three songs at the midpoint of the year in the last decade, making Warner the sole record holder for this achievement in this era.

Some labels have come close, though: In 2022, Atlantic Records had the top song (“We Don’t Talk About Bruno”), the No. 4 song (“Super Gremlin” by Kodak Black), and one of its stars, Jack Harlow, on the No. 2 song (Lil Nas X and Harlow’s “Industry Baby,” which was released on X’s Columbia label). In 2018, Republic Records had three of the top 4 songs, with one of its artists, Drake, on the No. 3 song: Blocboy JB feat. Drake, “Look Alive.” “Look Alive,” however, appeared on Drake’s OVO Sound label, which was then distributed by Warner. In 2016, Def Jam had the Nos. 2 and 3 (“Panda” by Designer and “Sorry” by Justin Bieber) and a distribution deal with Roc Nation, which distributed the No. 1 song “Work” by Rihanna feat. Drake – even though Def Jam didn’t technically release it.

Republic Records lands in the top 3 albums

Not to be outdone, the mid-year album chart top spot also brought a triple hit for one label: Republic Records, which released Swift and Wallen’s albums (the latter in collaboration with Big Loud), as well as the No. 3 album, Noah Kahan’s Stock season (in partnership with Mercury). Given Republic’s recent dominance in the market share rankings, as well as Wallen and Swift’s overall dominance over the past few years, it’s somewhat surprising that Republic has claimed the top three spots for the first time at the midpoint of the year – and in the last decade, it’s the only time a label has claimed the top three spots at this point of the year.

The only time another label came close was, unsurprisingly, Republic. In 2023, the label had four of the top five albums of the year at the midpoint, but was beaten by SZA’s SOSreleased by Top Dawg/RCA.

Only five albums in the top 10 were released within the last 12 months

The top 10 albums charts by equivalent units offered many well-known titles this year: Swift, Wallen, Kahan, SZA and Bryan, as well as albums by Beyoncé (Cowboy CarterNo. 4) and Future & Metro Boomin (We don’t trust youNo. 6). But incredibly, only five of the top 10 were released within the last 12 months: Swift’s TTPDBeyoncé’s Coachman and Future & Metro’s Trustall released in 2024. Bryan’s self-titled album, which peaked at No. 8, was released last August, while Swift’s No. 9 1989 (Taylor’s version)a re-recording of an album released in 2014 was released last October. This is the smallest number of tracks in the top 10 of any half-year consumption chart in the last 10 years published within the last 12 months (going back to the mid-year of the previous year); no other year since 2015 has had fewer than six tracks.

In fact, that number has been steadily declining for half a decade: Since 2019, when nine of the top 10 were released within the last 12 months, nine (2020), seven (2021), seven (2022) and six (2023) are in the top 10. (In 2017, all 10 met the criteria.) The streaming era has done a lot for the music business, but one thing it has done more than anything else: It has exposed people’s listening habits, not their buying habits. And consumption figures of recent (releases within the last 18 months) vs. catalog (releases older than 18 months) have confirmed the now long-established trend that catalogs drive consumption: This year, Luminate calculated that catalog listening accounted for 72.8% of the listener share, a figure that is unchanged from the halfway point in 2023.

But the sheer staying power of some of these top 10 albums is what is most impressive. Wallen’s One after the other is now over a year old; but his 2021 album, Dangerous: The double albumis still in 7th place. SZAs SOSNumber 2 at the mid-year mark last year, landed at number 5. Kahan’s Stock season originally appeared in October 2022. 1989 (Taylor’s version) is a collection of songs that, in their original form, date back a decade. And at number 10 is Swift’s Lover celebrates its fifth anniversary in August.

Will the charts remain so static in the future? Is this a product of the maturation of the streaming age? Or is it simply because these albums are simply so dominant that they outperformed everyone else? That’s something to keep in mind.