Music Sales Up Again Last Year (2009)

The Nielsen Company 2009 Year-End Music Industry Report


NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nielsen SoundScan, the entertainment industry's data information system that tracks point-of-purchase sales of recorded music product, Nielsen BDS, the music industry’s leading music performance monitoring service, and Nielsen RingScan, which tracks mobile ringtone purchases, have announced their 2009 U.S. year-end sales and performance monitoring data for the 52-week period January 5, 2009 through January 3, 2010.

There are an amazing amount of interesting statistics, stop by the press release for more data here:

http://www.businesswire.com/



2009 TOP TEN VINYL ALBUMS
(12/29//2008-1/3/2010)

1. Abbey Road/ Beatles         34,800
2. Thriller/ Michael Jackson    29,800
3. Merriweather Post Pavilion/Animal Collective 14,000
4. Wilco/ Wilco                      13,200
5. Fleet Foxes/ Fleet Foxes     12,700
6. Backspacer/ Pearl Jam        12,500
7. Veckatimest/ Grizzly Bear    11,600
8. Appetite for Destruction/ Guns N’ Roses    11,500
9. Big Whiskey & the.../Dave Matthews Band   11,500
10. In Rainbows/ Radiohead  11,400



2009 TOP TEN VINYL ARTISTS
(based on vinyl album sales from 12/29/2008-1/3/2010)

1. Radiohead 45,700
2. Beatles 38,800
3. Michael Jackson 30,400
4. Metallica 30,200
5. Wilco 29,600
6. Bob Dylan 24,500
7. Animal Collective 20,600
8. Pearl Jam 19,900
9. Bon Iver 17,100
10. Iron & Wine 16,600




2009 U.S. Year End Factoids

•Music purchases in 2009 reached the 1.5 Billion mark, making it the fifth consecutive year music sales have exceeded 1 billion; 1.5 billion (2008), 1.4 billion (2007), 1.2 billion (2006), and 1.01 billion (2005)

•Music sales exceeded 62 million during week ending December 27, 2009.

•During 2009, once again more vinyl albums were purchased (2.5 million) than any other year in the history of Nielsen SoundScan (since 1991).

◦Note that similar to a year ago, two out of every three vinyl albums were purchased at an independent music store during the year.



2009 Best Seller Album Factoids:

•Taylor Swift’s Fearless ends the year as the biggest selling album with just more than 3.2 million sales; just more than 100,000 than Susan Boyle’s I Dreamed a Dream (3.1 million). Susan Boyle’s I Dreamed a Dream is the best selling album released in 2009.

•Michael Jackson is the biggest selling artist for 2009 with more than 8.2 million album sales for the year.

◦Taylor Swift comes in as the second biggest selling artist for 2009 with 4.6 million album sales and the second straight year of 4 million or more album sales.

•The Beatles is the biggest selling group for 2009 with 3.3 million album sales.

•Susan Boyle’s I Dreamed a Dream is the best selling Internet album for the year with 405,000 sales as well as the biggest selling album during the “holiday season”.

•Susan Boyle’s I Dreamed a Dream album marks the first time in the history of Nielsen SoundScan that an album release by a debut artist sold more than 500,000 copies in each of its first five weeks of release.
2009 Holiday Season Factoids: (11/15/2009-12/27/2009).

•Overall album sales during the 2009 holiday season were up slightly (0.1%) over 2008, with sales of 80.2 million.

•Album sales during the holiday season accounted for 21% of all album sales for the year.


Top-Ten-Selling Artists Of SoundScan Era (based on album sales from 1991 to January 3, 2010)

1. GARTH BROOKS (68,363,000)
2. THE BEATLES (60,370,000)
3. MARIAH CAREY (52,388,000)
4. METALLICA (52,160,000)
5. CELINE DION (50,933,000)
6. GEORGE STRAIT (41,843,000)
7. TIM MCGRAW (38,677,000)
8. ALAN JACKSON (37,447,000)
9. PINK FLOYD (35,867,000)
10. EMINEM (35,326,000)

Top-Ten-Selling Albums Of SoundScan Era (1991 - January 3, 2010):

1. "Metallica" - METALLICA (15,500,000)
2. "Come On Over" - SHANIA TWAIN (15,487,000)
3. "Jagged Little Pill" - ALANIS MORISSETTE (14,642,000)
4. "Millennium" - BACKSTREET BOYS (12,109,000)
5. "Bodyguard" soundtrack - Various Artists (11,815,000)
6. "Supernatural" - SANTANA (11,687,000)
7. "Beatles 1" - THE BEATLES (11,564,000)
8. "Human Clay" - CREED (11,547,000)
9. "No Strings Attached" - 'N SYNC (11,113,000)
10. "Falling Into You" - CELINE DION (10,781,000)