By Taylor Swift Department of Tormented Poets has sold more copies than any other album this year so far, and it's not particularly close according to Luminate's figures interim report released Tuesday morning.
Measuring only net sales, Department of Tormented Poets sold 2.474 million copies in the first half of 2024. Billie Eilish's Hit with hard and soft took second place with sales of around 306,000 copies and Beyonce Cowboy Carter came in at number three with around 257,000 sold. The rest of the Top 10 included Swift's four other albums as well as Tomorrow X Together Minisode 3: Tomorrow, who took the sixth, of Ateez Golden Hour: Part One in the seventh and Twice With You-th taking ninth. Those other nine albums combined for about 1.924 million units, about half a million less than that TTPD.
Part of this success is attributed to many different things TTPD variants released by Swift, eclipsing three dozen. Swift has captured some critics and Internet stans who have argued that the sheer volume of releases takes advantage of her devoted fan base or is part of a gauche charting strategy to prevent other albums from dethroning her.
Luminate highlighted the rise of physical album variants in particular in its report on Tuesday, noting that the trend started to pick up about four years ago. The 10 best-selling physical albums this year so far have had about seven different vinyl variants, 13 CDs and two cassettes, Luminate said. Eilish called the practice “wasteful” in one Billboard interview earlier this year. Swift's fan base had pushed back on the statement, and Eilish later clarified that she wasn't calling out any artists, but was calling attention to the strategy as a whole.
“When it comes to variations, so many artists release them — ME included! Which I clearly state in the article,” Eilish said in April. “The climate crisis is now and it's about all of us being part of the problem and trying to do better. Sheesh.”
While Swift has impressive sales, her latest album is also a streaming behemoth. At 2.753 billion streams, Department of Tormented Poets holds a 500 million stream lead over Morgan Wallen's One thing at a time as the most streamed album in the United States in the first half of 2024.
Between sales and flows, Department of Tormented Poets has a total of 4.66 million equivalent album units in the first half of the year, per Luminate. One thing at a time took second place with 1.776 million, followed by Noah Kahan Stick Season in the third with 1.224 million Cowboy Carter is in fourth place with 1.105 million, and SZA's warning sign came in fifth place with 1.064 million euros.
On the individual song side, Benson Boone's “Beautiful Things” is the biggest song of the year through the first half of 2024, with 1.434 billion streams worldwide. Teddy Swims' “Lose Control” is the second biggest with 1.117 billion, while “Cruel Summer” came in third with just over a billion streams. In the US alone, “Beautiful Things” remains No. 1 with 448 million streams, while Zach Bryan and Kacey Musgraves' “I Remember Everything” was second with 437.3 million streams. “Lose Control” took third place with 409.7 million.
Luminate's report also included data on live music as well as the fastest growing genres in the country. Sixty-four percent of all monthly music spending came from live music, Luminate said. Latin, inspired by Música Mexicana, was the fastest growing genre in the US. measured by audio streams, per Luminate, followed by rock, pop and country.
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