Billboard

13 Jan 2024

Billboard Expands in Asia With Launch of Billboard Korea

Billboard is expanding its global footprint in Asia with the launch of Billboard Korea.

The expansion, in partnership with Global Entertainment Media Group (GEMG), will be dedicated to the flourishing Korean music scene. Billboard Korea‘s first issue, Billboard K Vol.1, is scheduled for release in June.

“We are thrilled to announce our expansion into Korea,” Billboard president Mike Van said in a statement. “Billboard has long celebrated the rich contribution of Korean music across our platforms. This expansion is a significant milestone for our brand and underscores our dedication to amplifying the voices and talent that shape the vibrant Korean music scene.”

Yuna Kim, chairperson of GEMG and publisher of Billboard Korea, added, “Now that the status of K-artists and K-pop has risen worldwide, Billboard Korea will play a crucial role in promoting K-culture.”

Billboard Korea will offer a comprehensive platform that not only amplifies Korean artists’ visibility but also fosters cultural exchanges and appreciation on a global scale, according to a press release.

Ahead of its first published issue, Billboard Korea is set to launch its official website and digital platform in spring 2024.

Billboard Korea adds to the list of the publication’s international editions, including Billboard Japan, Billboard Arabia, Billboard Español, Billboard Brasil and others.

12 Jan 2024

Billboard Explains: The Rise of ITZY

Tetris Kelly:
ITZY is no stranger to the Billboard charts. The K-pop girl group first charted back in 2019, and since then, have racked up multiple entries across different charts. And with the release of their new album BORN TO BE, it’s just the beginning.

This is Billboard Explains: The Rise of ITZY.

Since ITZY made their mark on the music scene, the girl group has appeared on a bunch of different Billboard charts, including the Billboard 200, thanks to albums like CRAZY IN LOVE, the first album, which peaked at No. 11 and featured the track “LOCO” and Checkmate mini-album, which peaked at No. 8. That same EP also debuted at No. 1 on the World Albums Chart, taking the top spot for a week in July 2022.

Other notable chart highlights include four songs in the Global 200 including “In the Morning,” which peaked at No. 34. 10 songs on the World Digital Song Sales Chart, including “DALLA DALLA” and five songs on the Global 200 Excl. US Chart, including “Not Shy,” which reached No. 70 in September 2020.

It’s clear that ITZY knows how to make a Billboard chart hit, and we can’t wait to see where BORN TO BE takes them next.

Watch the full video above!

12 Jan 2024

Ivan Cornejo On How TikTok Kickstarted His Career, Who He Wants To Work With & More | Billboard Cover

Rising regional Mexican star Ivan Cornejo talks about how he started singing, kickstarting his career on TikTok, how Natanael Cano inspired him to make regional Mexican music, which artists and producers he wants to work with, the future of regional Mexican music and more!

Ivan Cornejo:
It’s a good feeling you know being an influence. And I remember what I used to feel like wanting to be a musician it’s a good feeling when I hear kids telling me that they picked up the guitar because of it.

Ivan Cornejo:
I started playing guitar around seven years old, it was kind of like my way of making like 20 bucks for the weekend or something my dad would tell me to like learn like Joan Sebastian songs and just like oldies songs, he’d be like, and I’ll give you five bucks for each song. And at seven years old five bucks is a lot of money. So I was just collecting my my little royalties back then. Around the time that T3R Elemento was dropping music. “Rafa Caro,” I remember like I heard that.

Ivan Cornejo:
And it like, stood out to me so much I think that I was just like hmm I actually like this. At the time, I wouldn’t really listen to regional music. It was more of like my dad’s Mariachi music and like the old school stuff. A couple of years later, Natanael Cano drops, you know, corridos tumbados. He’s definitely like a pioneer for this new genre that you call salsa reino and like corridos tumbados, so many people got inspiration from that, that he really took a big step and just changed the whole corridor feel like a lot of people just adapted to that quickly. I started with TikTok and Instagram, you know, just posting my videos. After I started getting recognition with the covers, seeing a lot of comments supporting me, as you know, motivates you to just write your own music and I started writing my own songs, I dropped my first song, I got signed to a label, and I dropped two albums with that label. Now I’m just working on my third album, it was a big change. For me, I love those tech talks. And then, you know, there’s like labels reaching out. It was like a mini dream country. You know, it was what I’ve always wanted.

Watch the full video above!

11 Jan 2024

Laufey Talks About Her Grammy Nomination, Taylor Swift’s Songwriting & More | Billboard Cover

Laufey shares how she created her unique sound and how she was inspired to start making Jazz music. She opens up about being discovered on TikTok, the advice she’s received from artists such as Norah Jones and Sara Bareilles, being inspired by Taylor Swift’s songwriting, her Grammy nomination for best traditional pop vocal album, the future of jazz and more!

Laufey:
Being a really big Swiftie, I really want to see Taylor Swift, probably like everyone else there, but that’s one person I really want to meet before I die.

Laufey:
My earliest memories of music or all classical music — given that my mom was a violin player and my grandparents were both violin and piano professors — there was just so much music in the house growing up and it was always classical. And then my father really loved listening to jazz music. So I always heard that it was kind of like a sonic blend of those two.

Laufey:
Ella Fitzgerald was my first, like, vocal inspiration. I always had a lower timbre, and as a little girl with a lower voice, I always felt kind of odd. And when I tried to sing, like, the pop music of that time, it just didn’t fit. Whereas when I’d sing, like, the songs that Ella was singing, it kind of made sense.

I started writing quite late, actually, I think I saw myself as such a performer of music or a player of music and not necessarily a creator, or like a writer of music. I was singing primarily jazz, and then I was playing classical music. But then I loved listening to pop music as well and songwriters. But I just, I couldn’t find a way to mix all of those together. That made sense for me around 19 or 20. That’s when I started writing. I think when I started experiencing life a little bit more and grew more confident, just in myself as a person. The first song I wrote that really felt like I had mixed all of my worlds together was the song “Street by Street,” which ended up being the first song I released.

Watch the full video above!

10 Jan 2024

Teejay On Working With Davido, Afrobeats, Future Of Dancehall & More | Billboard Cover

Jamaican dancehall artist Teejay talks about the success he’s found on TikTok with his song “Drift,” working with Davido and French Montana on the “Drift” remix, the influence of Afrobeats, the difference between reggae and dancehall music, the future of dancehall and more!

Teejay
When people talk about dancehall artists, you don’t have to just say, um, I know Sean Paul or know Shaggy or you can say alright, I know Teejay.

Teejay
Yeah, grew up in Montego Bay, I grew up with my mother, my uncle and my five, my four brothers and one sister. So I was basically the breadwinner in the family growing up I was the one who basically left school at seventh grade just to continue music so I can help the family out. All my brothers is artists. So they have the studio so they would have like FruityLoops, Sonar, Acid Pro I’d watch them learning how to use of all of the user Pro Tools. I start recording myself at the age of nine that’s how determined I was at the time. When I’m not in Jamaica, I stay in Miami more, most of the time just to free the mind, you know as to all the vibes and free the mind, that’s some advice from my song from the past two years, so try to market myself for the younger generation for even my son, my daughter. Yeah, I’m young but most of time age have nothing to do with it because you know.

Watch the full video above!

10 Jan 2024

Morgan Wallen’s ‘One Thing at a Time’ Is Luminate’s Top Album of 2023 in U.S.

Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time closed out 2023 as the most popular album of the year in the U.S., according to music data tracking firm Luminate. The album’s lead single, “Last Night,” was the year’s most-streamed song by on-demand audio streams, while Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” was the most-heard song on the radio. Total music consumption in the U.S. – as measured in equivalent album units – increased by 12.6% in 2023. (View the U.S. 2023 Luminate Year-End Music Report.)

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

See the year’s top 10 albums chart, along with other year-end rankings and overall industry volume numbers, below.

But first, the fine print:

Equivalent album units – for album titles and chart rankings cited below (but not industry volume numbers) – comprise traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album, or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. Album titles and album chart rankings by equivalent album units do not include user-generated content (UGC) streams, but UGC streams are included in Luminate’s industry volume numbers. (UGC streams are not factored into any of Billboard’s weekly charts.)

For the sake of clarity, equivalent album units do not include listening to music on broadcast radio or digital radio broadcasts. All numbers cited in this story are rounded, and reflect U.S. consumption only.

Luminate’s equivalent album unit totals include SEA and TEA for an album’s songs registered before an album’s release, but during the tracking period of Dec. 30, 2022, through Dec. 28, 2023.

Luminate began tracking music sales in 1991 when the company was known as SoundScan. Luminate’s sales, streaming and airplay data is used to compile Billboard’s weekly charts. Luminate’s 2023 tracking year ran from Dec. 30, 2022, through Dec. 28, 2023.

Luminate is an independently operated company and a subsidiary of PME TopCo, a joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and Eldridge. Billboard is an independently operated company owned by PME Holdings, a subsidiary of PME TopCo.

Highlights from Luminate’s 2023 year-end data:

  • Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time was Luminate’s top album of 2023. It’s the second time Wallen has led the year-end list. He also was tops in 2021 with Dangerous: The Double Album.
  • On Luminate’s 2023 U.S. year-end top 10 most popular albums ranking, Taylor Swift has five of the top 10 titles – a single-year Luminate-era record.
  • Total U.S. album consumption increased by 12.6% in 2023.
  • R&B/hip-hop continues to hold firm as the top U.S. core genre by total album consumption; the world music genre – inclusive of the Korean pop (K-pop) genre – had the largest percentage gain year-over-year.
  • Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” tallied 1.015 billion U.S. on-demand audio streams in 2023 — the most U.S. on-demand audio streams a song has earned in a calendar year. It is only the second song ever to exceed 1 billion on-demand audio streams in a calendar year.
  • Yearly U.S. on-demand audio streams surpassed 1 trillion for the second time.
  • 27% of all on-demand audio streams in the U.S. in 2023 were R&B/hip-hop songs, the largest share of any core genre.
  • Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) is the first vinyl album in Luminate history to sell 1 million copies in a calendar year in the U.S.
  • Swift sold more albums in 2023 than any other act, accounting for 6% of all albums sold, industry-wide.
  • The top 10-selling CD albums of 2023 were all by Swift or K-pop acts.
  • Total U.S. album sales grew 5.2% in 2023 – just the second year that album sales grew in the last 10 years.
  • U.S. vinyl album sales outsold CDs for the third year in a row. 2023 marked the 18th consecutive year vinyl album sales grew in the U.S., and the largest year for vinyl album sales since Luminate began tracking data in 1991.
  • 47.1% of all albums sold in 2023 in the U.S. – across all configurations, physical & digital combined – were vinyl LPs. 57% of all physical albums sold were vinyl.
  • Total U.S. album sales for the year (physical and digital download purchases combined) grew by 5.2%.
  • Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) sold 1.975 million in traditional album sales in the U.S. in 2023 – the biggest-selling album of any year since 2015.

One Thing at a Time debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart dated March 18, 2023, and spent 16 nonconsecutive weeks atop the tally. That marked the most weeks at No. 1 for any album since Adele’s blockbuster 21 spent 24 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 in 2011-12. One Thing at a Time is the second Wallen album to be named Luminate’s year-end No. 1 album, after his previous release, Dangerous: The Double Album, in 2021. Wallen is the first artist to have Luminate’s year-end No. 1 album twice in a three-year span since Drake led the year-end ranking in 2018 (with Scorpion) and in 2016 (with Views).

Nearly all of One Thing at a Time’s units earned in 2023 were powered by on-demand streams of its 36 songs. Its collected tracks generated 6.657 billion on-demand streams in the U.S., equaling 92.5% of the album’s total activity for the year (or, 4.962 million SEA units of its total 5.362 million units). One Thing at a Time was also the most-streamed album of 2023.

One Thing at a Time sold 326,000 in traditional album sales in 2023 (making it the No. 13-biggest-selling album of the year). The set also generated 745,000 in individual digital track sales, equaling nearly 75,000 in TEA units.

2023 marks the eighth year in a row in which Luminate’s year-end top album is by a solo male artist. The last time a solo male didn’t finish at No. 1 was in 2015, when Adele’s 25 ruled.

One Thing at a Time’s 5.362 million equivalent album units earned in 2023 is the largest sum for any album measured in a calendar year since 2015, when Adele’s 25 tallied 8.008 million and was the year’s top album.

One Thing at a Time spun off the massive multi-format chart hit “Last Night,” which spent 16 weeks atop the all-genre Billboard Hot 100. The tune also closes 2023 as the most-streamed song by on-demand audio streams.

TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2023 IN U.S., BY TOTAL EQUIVALENT ALBUM UNITS
1. Morgan Wallen, One Thing at a Time (5.362 million)
2. Taylor Swift, Midnights (3.209 million)
3. SZA, SOS (3.172 million)
4. Taylor Swift, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) (2.872 million)
5. Morgan Wallen, Dangerous: The Double Album (2.179 million)
6. Taylor Swift, Lover (1.875 million)
7. Travis Scott, Utopia (1.782 million)
8. Taylor Swift, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) (1.775 million)
9. Taylor Swift, Folklore (1.612 million)
10. Metro Boomin, Heroes & Villains (1.573 million)

Source: Luminate, for the tracking period Dec. 30, 2022, through Dec. 28, 2023. UGC streams are not included in this chart, but are included in Luminate’s on-demand streaming charts (below).

While Wallen has a pair of titles in the year-end top 10, Taylor Swift looms even larger. Swift has five albums among Luminate’s year-end top 10 – the first time any act has placed that many albums among Luminate’s year-end top 10 since the company began tracking data in 1991. Previously, the most titles any single act had among the year’s top 10 was three, achieved by Garth Brooks in 1993.

On Luminate’s year-end top 10 albums ranking, Swift is found at No. 2 (Midnights, 3.209 million units), No. 4 (1989 [Taylor’s Version], 2.872 million), No. 6 (Lover, 1.875 million), No. 8 (Speak Now [Taylor’s Version], 1.775 million) and No. 9 (Folklore, 1.612 million). Just two of those albums were released in 2023: Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) and 1989 (Taylor’s Version). Midnights was issued in late 2022, while Folklore bowed in 2020 and Lover arrived in 2019. All of Swift’s catalog in 2023 was buoyed by her stadium-filling The Eras Tour and its film adaptation Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour.

Swift also has five of the top 10-selling albums of 2023, five of the year’s top 10-selling vinyl albums and three of the top 10-selling CD albums. She’s also No. 1 on each of the three rankings. (See lists, below.)

TOTAL ALBUM CONSUMPTION INCREASES 12.6%: Equivalent album units increased by 12.6% in 2023, to 1.097 billion (up from 974.9 million in 2022). There were 28 albums that earned at least 1 million equivalent album units in 2023 – up from 19 in 2022.

R&B/HIP-HOP LEADS AMONG GENRES: R&B/hip-hop continues to hold firm as the top genre by total album consumption, with 277.27 million units earned in 2023 – equating to 25.3% of total volume (1.097 billion units) last year across all of Luminate’s core genres measured. R&B/hip-hop consumption increased by 5.9% in 2023 over its volume in 2022 (261.72 million). However, R&B/hip-hop’s share of total consumption decreased from 26.8% in 2022 to 25.3% in 2023. (R&B/hip-hop is an umbrella genre for Luminate that contains most titles categorized as R&B and/or rap.)

2023’s second-largest genre, by total album consumption, was rock with 212.42 million units (up 9.1% from 194.72 million in 2022). Pop music was third, with 135.32 million (up 9.4% from 123.72 million in 2022), country was fourth, with 92.19 million (up 21.8% from 75.69 million in 2022) and Latin was fifth, with 75.26 million (up 21.9% from 61.73 million in 2022).

In terms of the largest percentage gains among Luminate’s core genres, year-over-year, the world music genre had the biggest increase in 2023. The genre’s 34.1% gain last year (29.94 million units vs. 22.32 million in 2022) is inclusive of Korean pop (K-pop) music. (K-pop is one of the many music genres housed within the larger world music core genre.) The second-and-third-largest percentage increases in 2023 among Luminate’s core genres belonged to Latin (up 21.9%, to 75.26 million in 2023, vs. 61.73 million in 2022) and country (up 21.8%, to 92.19 million, vs. 75.69 million in 2022).

TAYLOR SWIFT’S ‘1989 (TAYLOR’S VERSION)’ IS 2023’s TOP-SELLING ALBUM: Taylor Swift’s most recent release, and her fourth re-recorded project, 1989 (Taylor’s Version), was 2023’s top-selling album in the U.S., with 1.975 million copies sold across all configurations (physical and digital combined: CD, vinyl LP, cassette, digital download album). See the top 10-selling albums, below.

TOP 10-SELLING ALBUMS OF 2023 IN U.S. (PHYSICAL & DIGITAL SALES COMBINED)
1. Taylor Swift, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) (1.975 million)
2. Taylor Swift, Midnights (973,000)
3. Taylor Swift, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) (908,000)
4. Travis Scott, Utopia (575,000)
5. Stray Kids, 5-STAR (526,000)
6. Taylor Swift, Folklore (466,000)
7. TOMORROW X TOGETHER, The Name Chapter: TEMPTATION (444,000)
8. Taylor Swift, Lover (425,000)
9. Olivia Rodrigo, Guts (404,000)
10. Stray Kids, ROCK-STAR (229,000)
Source: Luminate, for the tracking period Dec. 30, 2022, through Dec. 28, 2023.

With 1.975 million copies sold, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) is the biggest-selling album of any year since 2015, when Adele’s 25 sold 7.441 million copies. An album by Swift has been the year’s top-seller in six of the last 10 years: 1989 (Taylor’s Version) in 2023, Midnights in 2022, Folklore in 2020, Lover in 2019, Reputation in 2017 and 1989 in 2014. She also had the top-seller in 2009 with Fearless. Swift is the only act to have the top-selling album of the year at least seven times since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991.

1989 (Taylor’s Version) was also the top-selling vinyl LP of 2023 (1.014 million sold) and the top-selling CD album of the year (800,000 sold). 1989 (Taylor’s Version) is the first album to sell a million copies on vinyl in a calendar year since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991.

Sales of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) were bolstered by its availability across 15 physical configurations: five color vinyl variants, eight CD editions and two cassette albums. Further, of the five vinyl variants, Target carried a color edition that includes one bonus track (“Sweeter Than Fiction”). The set was also issued in two download editions – a standard 21-song version and a deluxe 22-track edition which adds a re-recorded version of the album’s “Bad Blood,” featuring Kendrick Lamar.

Swift, like many acts, leaned into creating additional versions of an album for purchase by superfans. All of the top 10-selling albums of 2023 were aided by their availability across multiple iterations, including many that contained collectible branded merchandise or color vinyl.

Swift by far sold the most albums of any act in 2023 in the U.S., as her collected catalog sold 6.172 million copies (across all configurations, physical and digital combined). Her sales accounted for 6% of all album sales last year across all albums by all artists. The second-biggest selling act, in terms of album sales in 2023, was K-pop group Stray Kids with 1.205 million copies sold.

TOTAL U.S. ALBUM SALES INCREASE BY 5.2%: Total U.S. album sales increased by 5.2% in 2023 to 105.32 million copies sold (up from 100.09 million in 2022). 2023 marked just the second year album sales increased in the last 10 years, following 2021. Album sales declined in every year from 2012-20, and again in 2022, as fans increasingly adopt streaming services as a means to consume music.

Total U.S. physical album sales (CD, vinyl LP, cassette, etc.) increased by 8.9% to 87 million in 2023 (up from 79.89 million in 2022). Digital album sales declined by 9.3% to 18.32 million in 2023 (down from 20.2 million in 2022).

VINYL REIGNS: For the third consecutive year, and the third year since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991, vinyl albums outsold CD albums in the U.S. Vinyl once again is the leading configuration for album purchases for the third year in a row.

Vinyl was the dominant configuration for album purchases in the U.S. up until the early 1980s. After that, cassettes took hold until the early 1990s, when the CD configuration blossomed and remained king until 2021, when vinyl retook the top slot.

49.61 million vinyl albums were sold in 2023 (up 14.2% from 43.46 million in 2022). 2023 marked the 18th consecutive year vinyl album sales grew in the U.S., and the largest year for vinyl album sales since Luminate began tracking data in 1991.

TOP 10-SELLING VINYL ALBUMS OF 2023 IN U.S.
1. Taylor Swift, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) (1.014 million)
2. Taylor Swift, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) (510,000)
3. Taylor Swift, Midnights (492,000)
4. Travis Scott, Utopia (373,000)
5. Taylor Swift, Folklore (308,000)
6. Olivia Rodrigo, Guts (267,000)
7. Taylor Swift, Lover (256,000)
8. Lana Del Rey, Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (215,000)
9. Fleetwood Mac, Rumours (206,000)
10. Lana Del Rey, Born to Die (192,000)
Source: Luminate, for the tracking period Dec. 30, 2022, through Dec. 28, 2023.

The top-selling vinyl album of 2023 is Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) with 1.014 million sold. That marks the largest yearly sales total for a vinyl album, and the first vinyl set to sell a million in a calendar year, since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991. The effort also scored the largest sales week for a vinyl set since 1991 when it debuted with 693,000 copies sold in its first week.

Swift closed 2023 with five of the top 10-selling vinyl albums. Further, her catalog of albums sold 3.484 million copies on vinyl in 2023 – the most of any artist. (Lana Del Rey was the second-biggest selling act on vinyl in 2023, with 646,000 sold.) Swift’s vinyl sales accounted for 7% of the industry’s total vinyl album sales in 2023.

Vinyl album sales comprised 47.1% of all album sales in the U.S. in 2023 (49.61 million of 105.32 million). Vinyl LPs accounted for 57% of all physical album sold last year (49.61 million of 87 million). Both sums are Luminate-era records for vinyl’s share of the album sales market in the U.S.

In 2023 a total of 99 albums each sold at least 50,000 copies on vinyl – up from 88 in 2022. Comparatively, 65 albums on the CD configuration sold at least 50,000 copies in 2023 (up from 56 in 2022).

CD ALBUM SALES INCREASE, SWIFT & K-POP DOMINATE: 36.83 million CD albums were sold in 2023 (up 2.7% compared to 35.87 million in 2022), making it the second-most popular configuration for album purchases.

The top 10-selling CD albums of 2023 are comprised entirely of releases by Swift and K-pop artists. All profit from their availability across multiple collectible editions for superfans.

Swift sold the most CD albums in 2023, with 1.985 million copies sold across her entire catalog of titles. Stray Kids wrap as the No. 2-seller on CD, with 1.188 million sold. Swift’s CD sales represented 5.4% of all CD albums sold in 2023, industry-wide.

TOP 10-SELLING CD ALBUMS OF 2023 IN U.S.
1. Taylor Swift, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) (800,000)
2. Stray Kids, 5-STAR (520,000)
3. TOMORROW X TOGETHER, The Name Chapter: TEMPTATION (442,000)
4. Stray Kids, ROCK-STAR (381,000)
5. NewJeans, 2nd EP Get Up (332,000)
6. TWICE, Ready to Be (303,000)
7. SEVENTEEN, SEVENTEEN 10th Mini Album Fml (288,000)
8. Taylor Swift, Midnights (276,000)
9. Taylor Swift, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) (267,000)
10. Jung Kook, Golden (244,000)
Source: Luminate, for the tracking period Dec. 30, 2022, through Dec. 28, 2023.

Digital album sales were the third-most popular configuration in 2023 for album purchases, and the category dropped by 9.3% to 18.32 million (down from 20.2 million in 2022). The top-selling digital album of 2023 was Swift’s Midnights, with 201,000 downloads sold. Swift additionally was the top-selling artist in terms of digital albums in 2023, with 667,000 downloads sold. Morgan Wallen was the second-biggest-selling artist in terms of download albums, with 187,000 sold. Swift’s digital sales presented 3.6% of all download albums sold, industry-wide.

CASSETTE SALES STEADY: After cassette album sales jumped 28% in 2022, the niche configuration mostly stayed steady in 2023, slipping just 0.75%. In 2023, a total of 436,400 cassette albums were sold – a sliver less than the 439,700 sold in 2022. Cassettes were the leading album configuration for purchases from the early 1980s until the early 1990s. Today, cassette tapes are frequently sold exclusively on an artist’s webstore and in collectible editions. In 2023, the Billboard 200 chart saw No. 1 albums that boasted a cassette configuration from Blink-182’s One More Time, Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts and Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version), Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) and Midnights (which first led the list in 2022).

TOTAL STREAMING INCREASES 14.6%, ON-DEMAND AUDIO UP 12.7%: Total U.S. on-demand song streams (audio and video combined, inclusive of UGC streams) increased by 14.6% to 1.453 trillion in 2023 (up from 1.268 trillion in 2022). Yearly on-demand audio streams (again, inclusive of UGC) surpassed 1 trillion for a second time, with 1.249 trillion (up 12.7% from 1.108 trillion in 2022).

On-demand audio streams comprised 86% of all on-demand streams in 2023, with the remainder generated by on-demand video.

The R&B/hip-hop genre accounted for the most on-demand streams (audio and video combined, inclusive of UGC) in 2023, among Luminate’s core genres, with 26.6% of the year’s volume (387.09 billion of 1.453 trillion).

Rock had the second-largest share of on-demand song streams (audio and video combined, inclusive of UGC) in 2023, with 16.2% of volume (235.11 billion of 1.453 trillion). Pop was third with 12.6% (182.63 billion of 1.453 trillion), Latin was fourth with 8.3% (120.18 billion of 1.453 trillion) country was fifth with 7.8% (113.09 billion of 1.453 trillion).

As for year-over-year growth in total on-demand streams (audio and video combined, inclusive of UGC) among Luminate’s core genres, world music had the largest percentage growth, increasing by 33.3% to 35.97 billion, as compared to 26.98 billion in 2022. The respective second- and third-biggest increases, by percentage, belonged to the genres of dance/electronic (23.2% to 54.37 billion, up from 44.14 billion in 2022) and country (22.2% to 113.09 billion, up from 92.52 billion in 2022).

Looking just at on-demand audio streams for 2023 (inclusive of UGC), R&B/hip-hop was tops with 27% of volume (337.21 billion of 1.249 trillion). Rock (17%; 211.72 billion of 1.249 trillion), pop (11.8%; 147.11 billion of 1.249 trillion), country (8.5%; 106.28 billion of 1.249 trillion) and Latin (8%; 99.71 billion of 1.249 trillion) were Nos. 2-5 for 2023, respectively, as they were in 2022 and 2021.

The genres that saw the largest percentage growth in year-over-year on-demand audio streams (inclusive of UGC) were world music (up 26.2% to 27.52 billion, up from 21.8 billion in 2022), Latin (up 24.1% to 99.71 billion, up from 80.34 billion in 2022) and country (up 23.7% to 106.28 billion, up from 85.91 billion in 2022).

Note: UGC streams are included in Luminate’s industry streaming on-demand volume numbers and its year-end streaming song charts. UGC streams are not factored into any of Billboard’s weekly charts.

‘LAST NIGHT’ SURPASSED 1 BILLION ON-DEMAND AUDIO STREAMS: Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” was the most-streamed song of 2023 in the U.S. by on-demand audio streams (inclusive of UGC), with 1.015 billion – the most U.S. on-demand audio streams a song has earned in a calendar year.

“Last Night” is the second song to surpass 1 billion on-demand audio streams in a calendar year in the U.S., following Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” (featuring Billy Ray Cyrus), which cleared 1.002 billion in 2019.

See the top 10 most-streamed songs, by on-demand audio, below.

TOP 10 MOST STREAMED SONGS OF 2023 IN U.S., ON DEMAND AUDIO
1. Morgan Wallen, “Last Night” (1.015 billion)
2. SZA, “Kill Bill” (802.60 million)
3. Zach Bryan, “Something in the Orange” (656.07 million)
4. Miley Cyrus, “Flowers” (634.42 million)
5. SZA, “Snooze” (550.83 million)
6. The Weeknd, “Die for You” (539.29 million)
7. Eslabon Armado x Peso Pluma, “Ella Baila Sola” (526.34 million)
8. Luke Combs, “Fast Car” (525.51 million)
9. Morgan Wallen, “You Proof” (517.58 million)
10. Taylor Swift, “Cruel Summer” (507.78 million)
Source: Luminate, for the tracking period Dec. 30, 2022, through Dec. 28, 2023. Includes UGC streams.

DIGITAL TRACK SALES DECLINE FOR 11TH YEAR IN A ROW: Digital track sales declined for an 11th consecutive year, falling 11.9% to 133.88 million in 2023 (down from 151.9 million in 2022). The top-selling digital song of 2023 was Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” with 497,000 downloads sold. It was the second year in a row that no song sold more than a half-million downloads. Prior to 2022, it last happened in the early days of downloading, in 2004 (the first full year of the iTunes Store, which launched in mid-2003). Further, 2023 marks the second year in a row that no song sold 1 million copies. Before 2022, the industry last had a year without a million-selling download in 2005.

TOP 10-SELLING DIGITAL SONGS OF 2023 IN U.S.
1. Jason Aldean, “Try That in a Small Town” (497,000)
2. Miley Cyrus, “Flowers” (428,000)
3. Oliver Anthony Music, “Rich Men North of Richmond” (358,000)
4. Morgan Wallen, “Last Night” (302,000)
5. Jimin, “Like Crazy” (296,000)
6. Luke Combs, “Fast Car” (251,000)
7. Jung Kook featuring Latto, “Seven” (228,000)
8. Jelly Roll, “Need a Favor” (181,000)
9. Jung Kook, “Standing Next to You” (163,000)
10. Rema & Selena Gomez, “Calm Down” (159,000)
Source: Luminate, for the tracking period Dec. 30, 2022 through Dec. 28, 2023.

CYRUS’ ‘FLOWERS’ BLOOMED ON RADIO: Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” was tops on radio in 2023, with 3.919 billion audience impressions earned across all monitored radio stations in the U.S. Audience impressions are measured by cross-referencing plays with Nielsen Audio audience data – i.e., a play of a song on a top-rated New York station at 8 a.m. on a Monday has more listeners (audience) than an overnight weekend play in a smaller city.

TOP 10 RADIO SONGS OF 2023 IN U.S. (BASED ON AUDIENCE IMPRESSIONS)
1. Miley Cyrus, “Flowers” (3.919 billion)
2. Rema & Selena Gomez, “Calm Down” (3.643 billion)
3. Metro Boomin, The Weeknd & 21 Savage, “Creepin’” (3.529 billion)
4. The Weeknd, “Die for You” (2.628 billion)
5. SZA, “Kill Bill” (2.623 billion)
6. Taylor Swift, “Anti-Hero” (2.491 billion)
7. David Guetta & Bebe Rexha, “I’m Good (Blue)” (2.448 billion)
8. Morgan Wallen, “Last Night” (2.435 billion)
9. Luke Combs, “Fast Car” (2.358 billion)
10. Harry Styles, “As It Was” (2.199 billion)
Source: Luminate, for the tracking period Dec. 30, 2022, through Dec. 28, 2023.

09 Jan 2024

Sexyy Red On ‘Pound Town,’ Nicki Minaj Collab, Touring With Drake & More | Billboard Cover

Up-and-coming rapper Sexyy Red shares how she started rapping, the success of her song “Pound Town” and collaborating with Nicki Minaj, going on tour with Drake, hiding her pregnancy while on tour, all the viral success she’s had in the last year and more for Billboard’s future of hip-hop cover.

Sexyy Red
They be callin’ me Michael Jackson, so I just be like, okay, whatever but I guess they sayin’ because of the influence I be havin’ on people.

Sexyy Red
I wanted to be everything because I was good at everything. I used to think I was gonna be a painter. I used to be drawin’ a lot designing my Barbie dolls’ clothes. I used to be doing they hair. I knew I could do it. But I just didn’t know this what I would be doing. I always knew because I was just different. I was weird I was quiet. But everybody used to want to be my friend. I was pretty my hair was real long. My mama knew how to dress me. Everybody used to just be like flocking to me. But I was weird I was quiet. Like I was shy. I didn’t want to talk to nobody. But people still just, I don’t know like I always been like that person for real. My ex-boyfriend had cheated on me. So I had made a diss song about him. And then I rapped it to him. He was like, “oh that’s hard, I liked it.” And it is when we would be around his friends, and he had me rap the song to his friends. And they was like oh, you actually can rap, they like you hard, so then I was just like for real, and I went to the studio and made a real song. And then everybody was like send me the song, send me the song and people started booking me for parties.

Watch the full video above!

08 Jan 2024

Republic Records Has 8 of the Top 10 on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart

Republic Records has a big week in the Billboard 200 albums chart’s top 10, as the label is home to a whopping eight of the top 10 titles on the list dated Jan. 13. Since Luminate’s electronically monitored music data began powering the chart on May 25, 1991, no label had previously held eight of the top 10 on the Billboard 200 simultaneously. Republic previously boasted seven of the top 10 on six different occasions – all in 2023. The company first claimed seven of the top 10 on the Feb. 18, 2023-dated chart.

In the top 10 of the Billboard 200, Republic has the following albums: Taylor Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) at No. 1, Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time (released via Big Loud/Mercury/Republic) at No. 2, Drake’s For All the Dogs (OVO Sound/Republic) at No. 3, Nicki Minaj’s Pink Friday 2 (Young Money/Cash Money/Republic) at No. 4, Swift’s Midnights at No. 5, Swift’s Lover at No. 6, Noah Kahan’s Stick Season (Mercury/Republic) at No. 8 and Swift’s Folklore at No. 10.

Republic also stands tall with the Nos. 1-6 titles, marking the second time that the label has achieved the feat. Republic, which formed in 1995, is the only label to have held the entire top six (since August 1963, when the chart combined its previously separate mono and stereo rankings into one overall chart) and last did so on the Dec. 9, 2023-dated list.

The Billboard 200 chart dated Jan. 13 reflects the tracking week of Dec. 29, 2023-Jan. 4, 2024. The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Jan. 13, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Jan. 9. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.

08 Jan 2024

Odetari & 6arelyhuman on Their Biggest Influences, Finding Success on TikTok & More | Billboard Cover

Odetari and 6arelyhuman talk about their biggest music influences, going viral and finding success on TikTok, how they started working and collaborating together, the future of EDM and more.

Odetari
Do we feel like we’re underground? I don’t know. The numbers are…

6arelyhuman
Not really…

Odetari
Kinda not underground.

6arelyhuman
I really started experimenting with a lot of different music styles and stuff early on. Kesha was like my number one inspiration. She really helped me realize that what she was doing is something I really enjoy. Also Lady Gaga, of course.

Odetari
When I heard Tyler, the Creator’s “Jamba,” it was just really unorthodox chords in there. That’s when I was like, oh, I want to make music like that. I want to make it now. What I was putting out there is so much different than now. I feel like I just had that moment this year, where I was like, Okay, this is what I want to do.

6arelyhuman
That’s like the same thing, it felt right. I can say things that I wanted to say and it all kind of just fell in place.

Odetari
I definitely have influence from Houston sound like when I was growing up, I looked up a lot to Travis Scott, cause me and his sister went to the same school were pretty close friends. And she kind of took me along the journey when he was first starting, like going backstage and stuff and seeing where he was with Owl Pharaoh to where he is now just really shaped a lot of the things that I want in life. I always knew with TikTok that going viral, especially with music. It’s usually like a one-time thing if you don’t do it, right. So the first song that I had that went viral I think in like, one day, I had hit 256,000 streams, which was crazy to me because I had never passed like 10k on a song. But I saw how fast it went up. got really excited. And then the next day it dropped like half. So it was like a roller coaster.

Watch the full video above!

04 Jan 2024

Billboard Is Music Sustainability Alliance’s Official Media Partner for February Climate Summit

With climate change having an increasing effect on the music industry, Billboard is partnering with the Music Sustainability Alliance to help foster impactful solutions to this urgent issue.

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

Billboard will be the official media partner of the inaugural Music Sustainability Summit, happening Feb. 5 at the USC Campus in Los Angeles. Produced by the Music Sustainability Alliance, the event marks the first music industry climate summit in North America.

“Billboard is delighted to be partnering with the Music Sustainability Alliance to amplify their essential work in educating the music industry about climate action,” says Billboard‘s Chief Brand Officer Dana Droppo. “Dedicating our attention to environmentalism is an investment in future generations of fans and artists alike, and we can’t wait witness the exchange of ideas at this inaugural Summit.”

The Music Sustainability Alliance provides science-based solutions, business case analyses, best practices, and tools for operational change across the music industry. Tickets for the Summit — running 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. — are available on a sliding scale between $25 and $200 and are available now.

“The MSA is thrilled to partner with Billboard to advance meaningful climate action in the music industry,” adds Music Sustainability Alliance President and Co-founder Amy Morrison. “With the support of Billboard, The Summit will become an annual gathering of the tribes, bringing together the MSA team, our diverse group of stakeholders and new advocates.”

The Summit will feature speakers including Lindsay Arell, head of sustainability at ASM, Maggie Baird the founder of Support + Feed, John Fernandez, the director of the Environmental Solutions Initiative at MIT, Adam Gardner, the co-founder and Co-Director of REVERB (and also the guitarist and vocalist for Guster), Garrett Keraga, the senior manager of sustainability, policy & advisory at ClimeCo, Cassie Lee, the CEO of Sound Future, Michael Martin, the CEO and founder of r.World & Effect Partners, Amy Morrison, the president & co-founder of the the Music Sustainability Alliance, Lesley Olenik the vice president of touring at Live Nation and Jake Perry, the director of operations at C3 Presents. See the complete program here.