The first half of 2024 in the United States, by Taylor Swift Department of Tormented Poets was the most popular album, while Benson Boone's “Beautiful Things” was the most-streamed song (from audio-on-demand streams), respectively, according to data tracking company Luminate.
Read more about midyear metrics in the Luminate Midyear 2024 Music Report.
“Poets” who climb to the top: For the monitoring period from 29 December 2023 to 27 June 2024, Swift's Department of Tormented Poets was the most popular album in the U.S. The pop superstar's studio set was released on April 19 via Republic Records and earned 4.66 million equivalent album units in the first half of 2024. (See the full top 10 chart, below.) Poets spent its first 12 weeks at the top of the weekly Billboard 200 chart – the first album by a woman to spend its first 12 weeks at No. 1.
Poets it is also the best-selling album, with traditional album sales, at mid-year, with 2.47 million sales. The set is the best-selling album on CD (1.07 million), vinyl (988,000) and digital download (395,000) of the first half of 2024.
The most streamed song from on-demand audio streams (including user-generated content [UGC] streams) was Boone's hit “Beautiful Things,” with 448.7 million clicks in the first six months of the year. “Beautiful Things,” released through Night Street/Warner Records, marked Boone's first top 40 hit on the weekly Billboard Hot 100 chart and peaked at No. 2 on the chart in March.
Equivalent album units – for album titles and chart positions listed below (but not industry volume numbers) – include traditional album sales, track album equivalents (TEA) and streaming album equivalents (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale or 10 singles sold from an album or 3,750 official ad-supported audio and video on-demand streams generated by songs from an album or 1,250 official paid/subscription on-demand streams generated of songs from an album.
The equivalent album units listed for album titles in this story and in the “Top 10 US Albums” chart do not include streams of user-generated content (UGC). UGC streams are included in Luminate's industry volume numbers and mid-year song streaming rankings. (UGC streams are not considered in any of the Advertising signweekly charts of.)
For clarity, equivalent album units do not include listening to music on radio or digital radio broadcasts. All numbers in this story are rounded and for the US only. Planned flows are not included in any of the data in this story.
Luminate (formerly MRC Data, Nielsen Music and SoundScan) began tracking music consumption in 1991. Luminate's sales, streaming and playback data is used to compile Advertising signweekly charts of.
Of Department of Tormented Poets4.66 million equivalent album units earned at mid-year, album sales total 2.47 million, SEA units include 2.16 million (equivalent to 2.82 billion official audio and video on-demand streams of the 31 songs on the deluxe edition of the album) and TEA units include 23,000.
The top five most popular mid-year albums in the US are Department of Tormented PoetsMorgan Wallen release in March 2023 One thing at a time (1.78 million), Noah Kahan release in October 2022 Stick Season (1.22 million), Beyoncé's March release Cowboy Carter (1.10 million) and SZA's December 2022 release warning sign (1.06 million). In 2023, One thing at a time and warning sign were the No. 1 and No. 3 most popular albums of the year in Luminate's year-end report.
Top 10 Midyear Albums of 2024 in the US (by album equivalent units)
1. Taylor Swift, Department of Tormented Poets (4.660 million)
2. Morgan Wallen, One thing at a time (1.776 million)
3. Noah Kahan, Stick Season (1.224 million)
4. Beyonce, Cowboy Carter (1.105 million)
5. SZA, warning sign (1.064 million)
6. Future & Metro Boomin, We Don't Trust You (1.046 million)
7. Morgan Wallen, Dangerous: The Double album (1.010 million)
8. Zac Bryan, Zac Bryan (984,000)
9. Taylor Swift 1989 (Taylor Edition) (953,000)
10. Taylor Swift Lover (948,000)
Source: Luminate, for the tracking period from December 29, 2023 to June 27, 2024. UGC (user-generated content) streams are not included in this chart, but are included in Luminate's on-demand stream charts (below). Luminate's equivalent album unit totals include SEA and TEA for an album's songs recorded prior to an album's release, but only during the tracking period.
The 10 Best-Selling Midyear Albums of 2024 in the US (Combining Physical and Digital album Sales)
1. Taylor Swift, Department of Tormented Poets (2.474 million)
2. Billie Eilish, Hit with hard and soft (306,000)
3. Beyonce, Cowboy Carter (257,000)
4. Taylor Swift, 1989 (Taylor Edition) (250,000)
5. Taylor Swift, Lover (208,000)
6. TOMORROW X TOGETHER, Minisode 3: TOMORROW (193,000)
7. ATEEZ, Golden Hour: Part 1 (191,000)
8. Taylor Swift, Folklore (174,000)
9. TWICE, Together with YOU (174,000)
10. Taylor Swift Midnight (171,000)
Source: Luminate, for the monitoring period December 29, 2023 to June 27, 2024.
The Top 10 Selling Midyear Vinyl Albums of 2024
1. Taylor Swift, Department of Tormented Poets (988,000)
2. Billie Eilish, Hit with hard and soft (160,000)
3. Taylor Swift, 1989 (Taylor Edition) (117,000)
4. Taylor Swift, Folklore (108,000)
5. Taylor Swift, Lover (106,000)
6. Taylor Swift, Midnight (100,000)
7. Beyonce, Cowboy Carter (94,000)
8. Taylor Swift, Forever (88,000)
9. Noah Kahan, Stick Season (87,000)
10. Olivia Rodrigo, Offal (74,000)
Source: Luminate, for the monitoring period December 29, 2023 to June 27, 2024.
Total album Consumption Up 7.4% Mid-Year: Year-to-date, total equivalent album units are up 7.4% (to 527.3 million) compared to the same period in 2023 (491.1 million between December 30, 2022 and June 29, 2023 ). However, Luminate notes in its interim report that due to changes in methodology and provider reporting, there was a trend change in the first half of 2024 and it is unable to provide an accurate representation of year-over-year changes relative to independent retail physical sales. In turn, for the total equivalent album unit comparison above, independent retail sales are excluded from the above numbers in mid-2024 and mid-2023, as there is no comparable historical data to provide an accurate year-over-year trend. Indie store album sales are among the top 10 album charts in this story. (In January 2024, Luminate retired a weighted data modeling method that previously measured physical sales in the independent retail sector. In April, Luminate began a partnership with data provider StreetPulse to collect music sales from independent retailers.)
On Demand Audio stream Up 8% Most Streamed Song “Beautiful Things”: Boone's “Beautiful Things” was the most-streamed audio-on-demand song in the first half of 2024 in the US (see list, below), with 448.7 million streams (including UGC). Zach Bryan's “I Remember Everything” featuring Kacey Musgraves (437.3 million) and Teddy Swims' “Lose Control” (409.7 million) round out the top three.
Total on-demand audio streams at mid-year were up 8% in the US compared to the same point a year ago (665.8 billion vs. 616.5 billion).
UGC streams are included in Luminate's industry on-demand streaming volume numbers (above) and Luminate's interim streaming song charts (below). UGC streams are not considered in any of them Advertising signweekly charts of.
Generally, all the songs on the charts below combine the various remixes of a song into one overall set.
Top 10 US Midyear Songs of 2024 (Audio on Demand)
1. Benson Boone, “Beautiful Things” ($448.7 million)
2. Zach Bryan featuring Kacey Musgraves, “I Remember Everything” ($437.3 million)
3. Teddy Swims, “Lose Control” ($409.7 million)
4. Tommy Richman, “Million Dollar Baby” ($374.9 million)
5. Future, Metro Boomin & Kendrick Lamar, “Like That” (374.9 million)
6. Kendrick Lamar, “Not Like Us” (362.1 million)
7. Noah Kahan, “Stick Season” ($342.9 million)
8. Jack Harlow, “Lovin On Me” ($340.8 million)
9. Shaboozey, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” (333.1 million)
10. Hozier, “Too Sweet” ($333.1 million)
Source: Luminate, for the tracking period from December 29, 2023 to June 27, 2024. Includes UGC streams.
11% decline in digital song sales: Digital song sales fell 10.9% in the first half of 2024 to 61.96 million, compared to 69.57 million sold in the first half of 2023. The best-selling digital song at mid-year is “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey )” with 219,000 sales.
Top 10 Midyear 2023 US Digital Selling Songs.
1. Shaboozey, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” (219,000)
2. Benson Boone, “Beautiful Things” (200,000)
3. Teddy Swims, “Lose Control” (195,000)
4. Beyoncé, “Texas Hold 'Em” (178,000)
5. Post Malone featuring Morgan Wallen, “I Had Some Help” (156,000)
6. Megan Thee Stallion, “Hiss” (107,000)
7. Jack Harlow, “Lovin On Me” (95,000)
8. Tom MacDonald & Ben Shapiro, “Facts” (93,000)
9. Eminem, “Houdini” (88,000)
10. Hozier, “Too Sweet” (85,000)
Source: Luminate, for the monitoring period December 29, 2023 to June 27, 2024.
Harlow Hot on the Radio: The most played song at US radio in the first half of 2024 was Harlow's 'Lovin On Me', with a cumulative 1.743 million audience impressions across all formats tracked by Luminate. “Flowers,” with a cumulative 2.409 billion audience impressions across all formats tracked by Luminate. The track led Advertising signRadio Songs weekly TV chart for 12 consecutive weeks (from 27 January 2024 to 13 April 2024).
Top 10 Midyear Radio Songs of 2024 in the US (Based on Audience Impressions)
1. Jack Harlow, “Lovin On Me” ($1.743 billion)
2. Teddy Swims, “Lose Control” ($1.692 billion)
3. Doja Cat, “Agora Hills” (1.544 billion)
4. Taylor Swift, “Cruel Summer” ($1.402 billion)
5. Tate McRae, “Greedy” ($1.388 billion)
6. Luke Combs, “Fast Car” ($1.248 billion)
7. Tyla, “Water” ($1.210 billion)
8. Benson Boone, “Beautiful Things” ($1.142 billion)
9. Sabrina Carpenter, “Feather” ($1.123 billion)
10. SZA, “Snooze” ($1.111 billion)
Source: Luminate, for the monitoring period December 29, 2023 to June 27, 2024.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/taylor-swift-benson-boone-luminate-2024-midyear-charts-1235731708/
