Chart Beat
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Skrillex, Fred again.. and Flowdan roar onto Billboard‘s multi-metric Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart (dated Jan. 14) with “Rumble” (No. 15). The collab earned 653,000 U.S. streams in the Dec. 30-Jan. 5 tracking week, according to Luminate.
“Rumble” is the 37th chart appearance for Skillex, the 13th for Fred again.. and the second for Flowdan. It’s Skrillex’s 11th top 15 entry and the first since “En Mi Cuarto,” with Jhay Cortez (No. 8, August 2021). Skrillex has scored five top 10s, including one leader, “Where Are You Now,” with Diplo and Justin Bieber (for two weeks in 2015).
For Fred again.. and Flowdan, “Rumble” marks new career high peaks. Fred again..’s “Turn On the Lights Again..,” with Swedish House Mafia and featuring Future, reached No. 16 last August, and “Gassed Up,” by Zeds Dead x Subtronics, featuring Flowdan, hit No. 26 in January 2022.
Concurrently, “Rumble” arrives on the Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales chart at No. 13.
Additionally on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, SLANDER, Said the Sky and Alison Wonderland start at No. 18 with “Picture,” courtesy of 619,000 streams. The collab is SLANDER’s second-highest-charting song among 15, after “All You Need to Know,” with Gryffin and featuring Calle Lehmann (No. 12, 2019); it’s Said the Sky’s first time in the top 20 among four chart hits. For Alison Wonderland, “Picture” is her 13th appearance, tying “High,” featuring Trippie Redd, for her top position (2018).
Looking at the Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart, a third threesome of acts is making an impact with a third single-word-titled song, as VASSY, Bingo Players and Disco Fries improve after hitting the top 10 a week earlier with “Pieces” (9-8). The track is VASSY’s eighth top 10, Bingo Players’ second and Disco Fries’ third.
“We’ve worked with both Bingo Players and VASSY on previous collaborations, so once we heard about ‘Pieces’ coming together, we had to jump in!” Nick Ditri of Disco Fries tells Billboard. “It’s been awesome to work across the globe on a record like this. It was created in all of our respective studios, from Los Angeles to New York to the Netherlands. Feel-good, melodic dance music is always our sweet spot, and to see this record climb the chart so quickly has been proof that it’s still alive and well. We’re super grateful.”
“Pieces” pockets core-dance airplay on Music Choice’s Dance/EDM channel, KMVQ-HD2 San Francisco and iHeartRadio’s Evolution, among other supporters. (The Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart measures radio airplay on a select group of full-time dance stations, along with plays during mix shows on around 70 top 40-formatted reporters.)
Jeff Beck, the legendary guitarist who died Jan. 10 at age 78, had a Billboard charts history that stretched over a half century whether it was through his solo work or with the band that brought him his initial fame, The Yardbirds.
Beginning in 1965 and running all the way up to 2022’s Johnny Depp collaboration 18, Beck reached the charts dozens of times, rattling off top 40 albums on the Billboard 200 and scoring entries on the Billboard Hot 100.
In fact, beginning in the 1960s, there was never a decade that didn’t feature an album involving Jeff Beck on the Billboard 200, solo or otherwise. As a guitarist in The Yardbirds, he first appeared on the chart with For Your Love, which peaked at No. 96 on the Billboard 200 in August 1965, followed by Having a Rave Up With the Yardbirds (No. 53, February 1966) and Over Under Sideways Down (No. 52, October 1966). Yardbirds Greatest Hits peaked at No. 28 in June 1967 and The Yardbirds hit No. 155 in October 1970, both featuring Beck recordings, but by then he had left the group.
What followed was a multi-decade streak of Beck solo records that reached the chart, beginning with the No. 15-peaking Truth in November 1968. The ‘70s? More albums, paced by the No. 4 peak of Blow By Blow, to date Beck’s highest-charting album on the Billboard 200. The ‘80s brought the No. 21-peaking There and Back in August 1980 as his top-charter, and the ‘90s were accented by Who Else!, at No. 99, in April 1999.
Moving into the 2000s, Beck appeared twice, led by You Had It Coming (No. 110, February 2001), and the 2010s saw four appearances, with Emotion + Commotion leading the group at No. 11 in May 2010. The aforementioned 18 with Depp, Beck’s final release before his death, continued his streak into the ‘20s, hitting No. 183 in July 2022.
On the Hot 100, Beck was best represented by The Yardbirds recordings, accruing a top 10 in 1965 with “Heart Full of Soul” after he replaced Eric Clapton as the band’s lead guitarist (No. 9, September 1965). A cover of Bo Diddley’s “I’m a Man” reached No. 17 that December. “Shapes of Things” hit No. 11 in May 1966. “Over Under Sideways Down” followed at No. 13 that August, the band’s final top 20 with Beck or otherwise. One more appearance with Beck occurred later that year, with the No. 30-peaking “Happenings Ten Years Time Ago.”
Beck reached the Hot 100 three more times as a credited artist, first with Donovan’s “Goo Goo Barabajagal (Love Is Hot)” (credited to Donovan and the Jeff Beck Group) at No. 36 in September 1969. A decade-and-a-half later, he was back with the Rod Stewart collaboration “People Get Ready” at No. 48 (July 1985), and in 2007 he returned one final time to date as a featured artist on Kelly Clarkson’s cover of “Up to the Mountain” (No. 56, May 2007).
But that’s not where Beck’s chart story ends. He was an occasional presence on the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart upon its 1981 inception, first with the aforementioned “Ready,” which peaked at No. 5. In all, he reached the chart five times as a lead artist, most recently with Seal collaboration “Manic Depression” (No. 10, February 1994).
A 28-year break from the chart followed before his return as a featured artist on Ozzy Osbourne’s “Patient Number 9” in 2022. A three-week No. 1, it allowed Beck to set a record for the longest amount of time between first chart appearance (“Ready”) and first No. 1, a 37-year, one-month, two-week wait. It’s a record that, as of January 2023, remains intact.
Beck died Jan. 10 in England after a brief battle with bacterial meningitis. He’s nominated at the 2023 Grammy Awards for both best rock performance and best rock song, on Osbourne’s “Patient.”
Just as Lady Gaga’s “Bloody Mary” arrives on the Billboard charts thanks to activity that originated on TikTok, the platform (which itself does not currently contribute to charts) revives another 2011 track: Miguel’s “Sure Thing,” which returns at No. 20 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
“Sure Thing” drew 8.4 million official U.S. streams in the week ending Jan. 5, according to Luminate, up 14% from the previous week. The sum prompts a No. 20 start on the R&B/Hip-Hop Streaming Songs chart and at No. 46 on the corresponding, all-genre list.
The resurgence isn’t only having impact stateside, either. “Sure Thing” rockets 143-69 on the Billboard Global 200, sparked by 21.2 million global streams in the same period, a 14% bump from the prior frame. It debuts on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. at No. 134. Both appearances mark Miguel’s debuts on the global surveys, which launched in 2020.
“Sure Thing,” first released in 2011, became not only one of the singer-songwriter’s biggest hits, but one of the genre’s biggest smashes of the 2010s. As just his his second appearance on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, “Sure Thing” became Miguel’s first No. 1 on the list and spent 23 weeks in the top 10. It ultimately posted 59 weeks on the chart in it is initial run in 2011-12, and at the time of its departure, was one of only 17 songs to reach that mark since the list began in 1958. In 2019, the track finished at No. 16 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs recap for the 2010s decade.
In addition to the placements above, “Sure Thing” returns at No. 14 on the Hot R&B Songs chart to secure a 47th total week on the list. Plus, the song’s activity helps “Sure Thing” parent album, All I Want is You, score a No. 20 entrance on the Top R&B Albums chart, with 8,000 equivalent album units earned in the latest tracking week, a 13% improvement over the previous week.
Fuerza Regida kicks off the year with a double win, scoring two top 10s on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart: Pa Que Hablen and Sigan Hablando debut at No. 5 and No. 6, respectively, on the Jan. 14-dated ranking. The Mexican corridos group becomes the first act to have two projects bow in the top 10 in the same chart week since 2016.
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“We worked on every track like if it was a single,” Jesús Ortiz Paz, the act’s lead singer, who goes by JOP, tells Billboard. “We spent more than 24 hours on each track, we worked on it with our heart and that is something that I remember a lot.”
Both Pa Que Hablen and Sigan Hablando were released Dec. 30 through Street Mob/Rancho Humilde/Sony Music Latin. While the former was announced on social networks, the latter was dropped unexpectedly right after. Both albums comprise 13 tracks and a collection of collaborators.
“We thought 26 songs in one album was a bit much,” JOP adds. “We picked up the phone and called Jimmy, our manager, who suggested we should split them. We were kind of iffy about it, but thought there was too much fire in one album, so decided to do two. Then, we came up with the name of the second album, and now they’re both charting on Top Latin Albums. Let’s go!”
Most of both sets’ opening sums derive from streaming equivalent album units, starting with Pa Que Hablen, which debuts at No. 5 with 10,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Jan. 5, according to Luminate. That equates to 13.61 million on-demand official streams of the album’s songs.
Meanwhile, Sigan Hablando at No. 6 logged 9,000 equivalent album units, equating to 13.2 million on-demand official streams in its first week.
The San Bernardino, Calif. — by way of Michoacán, Mexico — band formed in 2015. Band members include lead singer JOP, Khrystian Ramos on six-string guitar, José García on tuba, Samuel Jaimez on requinto and Moisés López on tololoche.
The quintet becomes the first act to notch two top 10 debuts on Top Latin Albums in the same chart week since Vicente Fernández achieved the feat with the live sets Un Azteca En El Azteca, Volumen 2 and Un Azteca En El Azteca, Volumen 1, which debuted at Nos. 5 and 9, respectively, in 2016. Fuerza Regida is the first act to have two concurrent top 10 debuts with new studio albums since Larry Hernández in 2012.
Two Top 10 Debuts
Notably, only seven acts have debuted two or more projects in the top 10 concurrently since Top Latin Albums launched in 1993: Los Tucanes de Tijuana, Intocable, Alejandro Fernández, Wisin & Yandel, Larry Hernández, Vicente Fernández and Fuerza Regida. Here’s a look at their double achievements:
Date, Debut Position, Title, Artist, Debut
May 10, 1997, No. 5, Tucanes De Plata, Los Tucanes de Tijuana
May 10, 1997, No. 8, Tucanes De Oro, Los Tucanes de Tijuana
Dec. 2, 2000, No. 6, Corridos De Primera Plana, Los Tucanes de Tijuana
Dec. 2, 2000, No. 8, Me Gusta Vivir De Noche, Los Tucanes de Tijuana
March 1, 2003, No. 1, La Historia (CD), Intocable
March 1, 2003, No. 5, La Historia (CD/DVD), Intocable
Dec. 26, 2009, No. 2, Dos Mundos: Evolución, Alejandro Fernández
Dec. 26, 2009, No. 10, Dos Mundos, Alejandro Fernández
Dec. 26, 20093, No. 3, Dos Mundos: Tradición, Alejandro Fernández
Oct. 9, 2010, No. 5, La Revolución: Live: Volume One, Wisin & Yandel
Oct. 9, 2010, No. 6, La Revolución: Live: Volume Two, Wisin & Yandel
Nov. 17, 2012, No. 3, Capaz de Todo, Larry Hernández
Nov. 17, 2012, No. 6, Larryvolucion, Larry Hernández
Oct. 1, 2016, No. 5, Un Azteca En El Azteca, Volumen 2, Vicente Fernández
Oct. 1, 2016, No. 9, Un Azteca En El Azteca, Volumen 1, Vicente Fernández
Seven Titles on Hot Latin Songs
In the songs’ realm, as Fuerza Regida’s Pa Que Hablen arrives, two of the set’s cuts debut on the multi-metric Hot Latin Songs chart: “Igualito a Mi Papá,” with Peso Pluma, at Nos. 45 and “Mi Vecindario” at No. 49. In total, the group places seven simultaneous songs on the airplay-, digital sales-, and streams-blended tally. Plus, “Bebe Dame,” with Grupo Frontera, from Sigan Hablando takes home the Greatest Gainer/Sales & Streaming honors of the week (jumps 5-3). Here’s the list:
No. 3, “Bebe Dame,” with Grupo Frontera (from Sigan Hablando)
No. 19, “Billete Grande,” with Edgardo Nuñez (from Pa Que Hablen)
No. 21, “Ch y La Pizza,” with Natanael Cano (from Pa Que Hablen)
No. 27, “911 (En Vivo),” with Grupo Frontera
No. 34, ‘Se Acabó,” with Lenin Ramirez & Banda Renovación
No. 45, “Igualito a Mi Apa,” with Peso Pluma (debut from Pa Que Hablen)
No. 49, “Mi Vecindario” (debut from Pa Que Hablen)
“The songs we connect with the most are ‘Mi Vecindario’ and ‘Francotirador’ because they talk about real stuff, about me, about the whole clique, stuff about the hood,” JOP adds.
As both albums launch in the top tier on Top Latin Albums, Fuerza Regida adds a career fourth top 10 there.
In 2022, sales of albums on cassette tape in the U.S. increased by 28% to 440,000 (up from 343,000 in 2021), according to the U.S. 2022 Luminate Year-End Music Report.
While 440,000 a mere fraction of the total album sales market (0.44% to be more precise), it’s a robust figure for a format that was mostly non-existent a few years ago. In 2015, for example, cassettes sold just 74,000.
In 2022, total album sales across all formats — digital and physical — numbered 100.09 million. Physical album sales totaled 79.89 million — thus giving cassettes a 0.55% share of the physical album market last year. (Physical albums include CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes and other niche physical formats.)
While cassettes are now a niche offering marketed to superfans, they were once the leading format for album purchases in the U.S., from the early 1980s until the early 1990s. Today, cassette tapes are frequently sold exclusively on an artist’s web store and in collectible editions. Tapes are often manufactured in specific colors, such as Billie Eilish’s pink-colored Happier Than Ever tape or Ghost’s metallic gold-colored Impera tape.
The top-selling album on cassette in 2022 was the soundtrack to Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2, with 17,000 copies sold. Two more Guardians-related titles dot the top 10 (at Nos. 3 and 6). As actual cassette mixtapes feature prominently in the Guardians’ storyline, it makes sense that a real-world cassette album offering, mirroring those seen in the films and series, could be a solid seller. (The three Guardians tapes that rank in the year-end top 10 have sold, combined, more than 238,000 since their release a number of years ago.)
TOP 10 SELLING CASSETTE ALBUMS OF 2022 IN U.S.1. Soundtrack, Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2: Awesome Mix Vol. 2 (17,000)2. Taylor Swift, Midnights (14,000)3. Soundtrack, Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1 (13,000)4. Harry Styles, Harry’s House (11,000)5. Billie Eilish, Happier Than Ever (8,000)6. Soundtrack, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Mix, Vol. 1 (8,000)7. Nirvana, Bleach (7,000)8. Bo Burnham, Inside (The Songs) (5,000)9. Bad Bunny, YHLQMDLG (5,000)10. Ghost, Impera (5,000)Source: Luminate, for the tracking period Dec. 31, 2021, through Dec. 29, 2022.
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 2022 tracking year ran from Dec. 31, 2021, through Dec. 29, 2022. Luminate is an independently operated company owned by PME TopCo, a PMC subsidiary and joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and Eldridge. Billboard is an independently operated company owned by PME Holdings, a subsidiary of PME TopCo.
Taylor Swift was the queen of vinyl albums in 2022, as the superstar sold more vinyl LPs in the U.S. than any other act by far last year: 1.695 million across her entire catalog of releases, according to the U.S. 2022 Luminate Year-End Music Report.
In fact, she sold more vinyl LPs last year than the next two biggest-sellers on vinyl combined: Styles with 719,000 and The Beatles with 553,000.
Swift loomed so large on vinyl in 2022, nearly one of every 25 vinyl LPs sold last year in the U.S. was a Swift album (1.695 million of 43.46 million total vinyl albums sold by all artists).
Swift’s latest release, Midnights, was the top-selling vinyl album of 2022 in the U.S., with 945,000 copies sold across all of its vinyl variants and editions. The album has the largest yearly sales total for a vinyl album since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991. Midnights also posted the single-largest sales week for a vinyl LP in Luminate history, when it launched with 575,000 copies in its first week.
Swift has six of the year’s top 40-selling vinyl albums – Midnights (No. 1; 945,000), Folklore (No. 7; 174,000), Red (Taylor’s Version) (No. 11; 153,000), Evermore (No. 14; 134,000), Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (No. 30; 97,000) and Lover (No. 36; 91,000). Harry Styles and Kendrick Lamar have the second-most titles among the year’s top 40-selling vinyl LPs, with three each.
Midnights, and Swift’s popular catalog, helped U.S. vinyl album sales grow for a 17th consecutive year in 2022. It was also the second year in a row, and only the second year since Luminate began tracking music sales in 1991, where vinyl albums outsold CD albums. Vinyl continues to be the leading format for album purchases for the second straight year.
Swift’s vinyl album sales, like many acts, benefit from the availability of a range of alternative versions and color-vinyl variants for her vinyl releases.
Midnights, for example, was available in four standard vinyl LP editions, each with a different cover and colored vinyl (dubbed Moonstone Blue Edition, Jade Green Edition, Mahogany Edition and Blood Moon Edition). Target stores also carried an exclusive colored-vinyl Lavender Edition. To further enhance sales, Swift’s official web store sold signed copies of the four standard vinyl LPs during a pre-order window before the album launched. As previously reported when the album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, some superfans may have been motivated to purchase all four vinyl variants, as the back covers of the albums fit together like a puzzle to display a clock face (a literal reference to Midnights). Swift shared the news through her social media in mid-September, saying: “If you put all the back covers together, she’s a clock. It’s a clock… It makes a clock.” (Swift’s official web store previously sold hardware to hold the four CDs or the four vinyl LPs together as a wall clock.)
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 2022 tracking year ran from Dec. 31, 2021, through Dec. 29, 2022. Luminate is an independently operated company owned by PME TopCo, a PMC subsidiary and joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and Eldridge. Billboard is an independently operated company owned by PME Holdings, a subsidiary of PME TopCo.
Official HIGE DANdism’s “Subtitle” continues to steadily extend its record at No. 1 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100, dated Jan. 11, now at 10 weeks with only one more to go to tie the record for longest-leading hit.
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The all-time record for most weeks at No. 1 on the Japan Hot 100 is 11 weeks, held by Gen Hoshino’s “Koi.” HIGE DAN’s current hit dominated three metrics of the chart’s methodology when it ruled the song chart last week — streaming, downloads, and radio airplay — and is down to one this week (streaming). While “Subtitle” continues to hold for the sixth consecutive week at No. 1 on the Japan song chart, total points for the song is down by about 2,000 on the latest list, so it remains to be seen whether it can catch up with Hoshino’s smash hit from 2016 on the next.
Solo music producer Vaundy made a splash nationwide on the year-end live music extravaganza, the 73rd NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen, and the effects are showing on the charts. The 22-year-old singer-songwriter currently charts eight songs on the Japan Hot 100: “Kaiju no Hanauta” (No. 3), “Odoriko” (No. 30), “CHAINSAW BLOOD” (No. 42), “Fukakouryoku” (No. 46), “napori” (No. 72), “Tokyo Flash” (No. 80), “Hanauranai” (No. 95), and “Koikaze ni Nosete” (No. 97). These tracks increased points in streaming, downloads, video views, and karaoke, indicating that his performance of “Kaiju no Hanauta” on the historic music program left a strong impression and spilled over to other songs in his catalog. The young artist also performed “Omokage (produced by Vaundy)” with star singers milet, Aimer, and Lilas Ikuta on the program, which also boosted this track from No. 84 to No. 20 this week.
The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, YouTube and GYAO! video views and karaoke data.
See the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from Jan. 2 to Jan. 8, here. For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan’s English Twitter account.
In 2022, for the second year in a row — and only the second year since Luminate began tracking music sales in 1991 — vinyl albums outsold CD albums in the U.S. Vinyl continues to be the leading format for album purchases for the second straight year, according to figures announced in the U.S. 2022 Luminate Year-End Music Report.
Vinyl was the dominant format for album purchases in the U.S. up until the early 1980s. After that, cassettes took hold until the early 1990s, when the CD format blossomed and remained king until 2021.
Further, vinyl album sales grew for a 17th consecutive year in the U.S., with Taylor Swift’s Midnights ruling as the top-selling vinyl LP in 2022. It sold 945,000 copies last year — the largest yearly sales total for a vinyl album since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991.
Growth for the format is slowing, though. Following a 51.4% year-over-year increase in vinyl album sales in 2021 and a 46.2% year-over-year increase in 2020, sales in 2022 rose just 4.2% over the year. Whether that’s due to slowing demand or supply issues that more pressing plants could help alleviate — it marks a significant deceleration following a pandemic-fueled period of rapid expansion.
17 YEARS OF VINYL GROWTH: 43.46 million vinyl albums were sold in 2022 (up 4.2% from 41.72 million in 2021). 2022 was the 17th 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. Plus, vinyl LP sales posted their single-largest sales week of the Luminate era when 2.232 million vinyl albums were sold in the week ending Dec. 22.
43% OF ALL ALBUMS SOLD WERE VINYL LPS: Vinyl album sales comprised 43.4% of all album purchases in the U.S. in 2022 (43.46 million of 100.09 million total sales across all formats — both digital and physical). Vinyl LPs accounted for 54.4% of all physical albums sold last year (43.46 million of 79.89 million; physical albums include CDs, vinyl LPs, cassette tapes and other niche physical formats). Both sums are Luminate-era records for vinyl’s share of the album sales market in the U.S.
In 2022 there were a total of 88 albums that sold at least 50,000 copies on vinyl — up from 87 in 2021. To compare, only 56 albums in the CD format sold at least 50,000 copies in 2022 (down from 67 in 2021).
ONLY HALF OF U.S. VINYL BUYERS OWN A RECORD PLAYER: While vinyl album sales continue to gain each year in the U.S., only half of those fans buying records actually own a vinyl record player, according to a research survey commissioned by Luminate. Last September, the firm published the statistic as part of its U.S. Music 360 2022 – Wave 2 report. Of those respondents over the age of 13 who had purchased vinyl in the previous 12 months, there was a question asked about which devices they owned, and only 50% said they owned a record player. Total respondents for the Music 360 study: 3,992.
NEARLY HALF OF ALL VINYL ALBUMS WERE SOLD AT INDIE STORES: in 2022, 48% of all vinyl albums sold in the U.S. were purchased at independent record stores (20.92 million of 43.46 million). The second-largest seller of vinyl LPs in 2022 was Luminate’s category of Internet/mail order/venue, which accounted for 32.8% of the market (14.26 million of 43.46 million). Sales included in the Internet/mail order/venue category include those generated by mail-order websites like Amazon, Target.com and Walmart.com, official artist web stores and merchandise stands at concert venues. In third place was the mass merchant category, which includes in-store sales at stores like Target and Walmart. The segment had 13.6% of vinyl album sales in 2022 (5.90 million of 43.46 million).
ROCK RULES: Among Luminate’s core music genres measured, rock music accounted for a leading 51.83% of all vinyl albums sold in 2022 (22.52 million of 43.46 million). That’s essentially the same volume as in 2021 when rock accounted for 51.78% of all vinyl albums sold (21.60 million of 41.72 million). The second-biggest genre for vinyl album sales in 2022 — and in 2021 — was R&B/hip-hop, which accounted for 17.59% of the market last year (7.65 million of 43.46 million). In 2021, R&B/hip-hop held 17.38% (7.25 million of 41.72 million). R&B/hip-hop is an umbrella genre that includes most R&B and/or rap albums.
‘MIDNIGHTS’ IS MASSIVE: The top-selling vinyl album of 2022 is Swift’s Midnights, with 945,000 copies sold across all of its vinyl variants and editions (see top 10 list, below). Midnights has the largest yearly sales total for a vinyl album since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991. The set also posted the single-largest sales week for a vinyl LP in Luminate history, when it launched with 575,000 copies in its first week.
TOP 10 SELLING VINYL ALBUMS OF 2022 IN U.S.1. Taylor Swift, Midnights (945,000)2. Harry Styles, Harry’s House (480,000)3. Olivia Rodrigo, Sour (263,000)4. Kendrick Lamar, good kid, m.A.A.d city (254,000)5. Fleetwood Mac, Rumours (243,000)6. Tyler, the Creator, Call Me If You Get Lost (211,000)7. Taylor Swift, Folklore (174,000)8. Tyler, the Creator, Igor (172,000)9. Michael Jackson, Thriller (168,000)10. The Beatles, Abbey Road (160,000)Source: Luminate, for the tracking period Dec. 31, 2021, through Dec. 29, 2022.
Eight of the year-end top 10-selling vinyl albums saw their sales enhanced by their availability across multiple variants (including assorted color-vinyl editions). Among the top 10 vinyl sellers, only Tyler, the Creator’s Call Me If You Get Lost (No. 6) and Igor (No. 8) were available in one iteration each.
Midnights, for example, was available in four vinyl LP editions, each with a different cover and colored vinyl (dubbed Moonstone Blue Edition, Jade Green Edition, Mahogany Edition and Blood Moon Edition). Target stores also carried an exclusive colored-vinyl Lavender Edition. To further enhance sales, Swift’s official web store sold signed copies of the four standard vinyl LPs during a pre-order window before the album launched. As previously reported when the album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, some superfans may have been motivated to purchase all four vinyl variants, as the back covers of the albums fit together like a puzzle to display a clock face (a literal reference to Midnights). Swift shared the news through her social media in mid-September, saying: “If you put all the back covers together, she’s a clock. It’s a clock… It makes a clock.” (Swift’s official web store previously sold hardware to hold the four CDs or the four vinyl LPs together as a wall clock.)
SWIFT IS QUEEN OF VINYL: Swift sold the most vinyl albums among all acts in 2022 in the U.S., with 1.695 million sold across her entire catalog of albums. (She sold more vinyl LPs last year than the next two biggest sellers on vinyl combined: Harry Styles with 719,000 and The Beatles with 553,000.) Swift loomed so large on vinyl in 2022 that one of every 25 vinyl LPs sold last year in the U.S. was a Swift album (1.695 million of 43.46 million).
Swift has six of the year’s top 40-selling vinyl albums — Midnights (No. 1; 945,000), Folklore (No. 7; 174,000), Red (Taylor’s Version) (No. 11; 153,000), Evermore (No. 14; 134,000), Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (No. 30; 97,000) and Lover (No. 36; 91,000). Styles and Kendrick Lamar have the second-most titles among the year’s top 40-selling vinyl LPs, with three each.
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 2022 tracking year ran from Dec. 31, 2021, through Dec. 29, 2022. Luminate is an independently operated company owned by PME TopCo, a PMC subsidiary and joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and Eldridge. Billboard is an independently operated company owned by PME Holdings, a subsidiary of PME TopCo.
Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up column, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip. This week: Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton reap streaming benefits from their much-watched New Year’s Eve special performance, Gracie Abrams eyes her first crossover hit after a valuable Netflix synch and the recently convicted Tory Lanez hits the Hot 100 for the first time in a couple years.
Miley & Dolly’s Classic Singles Rise After the Ball Drops
Miley Cyrus is about to kick off a new era with the release of “Flowers,” the lead single to her forthcoming album (and Columbia Records debut) Endless Summer Vacation. Two weeks before the scheduled debut of “Flowers,” however, Cyrus kicked off a new year alongside her godmother Dolly Parton, as the host of Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party on NBC, ringing in 2023 on network television with hits, covers and medleys of both.
Cyrus has been covering Parton’s “Jolene” in concert for years, so naturally it made sense to belt out the classic single (which is turning 50 this year!) alongside the legend who wrote and recorded it. “Jolene,” which Cyrus and Parton sang after warbling some of Patsy Cline’s “Walkin’ After Midnight” together on New Year’s Eve, received a bump on streaming services last week as a result, with a 29.6% increase in U.S. on-demand streams (up to 1.71 million), along with a 57% bump in digital sales, in the week ending Jan. 5, according to Luminate.
“Wrecking Ball,” which Cyrus and Parton sang together on the show before segueing into Parton’s “I Will Always Love You,” fared even better. Cyrus’ first career Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper (which is turning 10 this year!) scored a 44.5% rise in streams during the same week, up to 1.79 million for the week ending Jan. 5. “Wrecking Ball” also earned a digital sales increase of over 400% for that week.
Plus, Cyrus used Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party as the network TV platform to announce “Flowers,” dropping a pair of teasers in between hosting and performing duties as 2023 got underway. Widely announcing an upcoming single while also causing an older hit’s streaming revival — now that’s an enviable way to flip the calendar. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Ginny & Georgia Doesn’t “Miss” With Gracie Abrams Synch
Interscope’s Gracie Abrams has steadily built a devoted fan base — and a reputation as your favorite singer-songwriter’s favorite singer-songwriter – over the past few years, but has yet to score the sort of crossover hit enjoyed by some of her more famous supporters. That may be changing with the recent streaming growth of her tear-jerking ballad “I miss you, I’m sorry,” a highlight from her 2020 debut EP, Mirror. The song got a big showcase moment in the finale of the Jan. 5-released second season to Netflix’s hit dramedy Ginny & Georgia, playing over a lovelorn montage of Ginny (Antonia Gentry) and her on/off romantic interest Marcus (Felix Mallard), both getting emotional while separately looking at old photos of the couple together.
As more viewers connected with the finale’s sentimental moment, the song has climbed steadily in streams – from 54,000 daily on-demand official U.S. streams on Jan. 5 to 81,000 by Jan. 8, according to Luminate, a gain of 50%. That number looks to still be growing in the days since, as fans of both Abrams and Ginny & Georgia have begun to spread it on TikTok and other social platforms. The increased exposure should be coming right on time for Abrams, who is set to release her long-anticipated debut full-length, Good Riddance, via Interscope on Feb. 24. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Tory Lanez Returns to Hot 100 Following Trial Guilty Verdict
While Tory Lanez awaits sentencing after being found guilty on three felony counts in the 2020 shooting of star rapper Megan Thee Stallion, he returns to the Hot 100 with his first new entry on the chart since the year of the assault.
“The Color Violet,” a Weeknd-reminiscent pop&B track from his 2021 One Umbrella release Alone at Prom, slowly developed into a prolific streaming hit over the course of 2022, and climbs 22.2% to 5.5 million in weekly official on-demand U.S. streams for the week ending Jan. 5, according to Luminate. While the song does not yet have a radio presence of any kind, as programming directors are likely reluctant to publicly support the disgraced singer-rapper at this point, streaming audiences have not been so dissuaded – and their embrace of “Violet” earns it a No. 87 bow on the Hot 100 this week. — AU
Welcome to The Contenders, a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week (for the upcoming Billboard 200 albums chart dated Jan. 14): SZA’s SOS continues to dominate, while YoungBoy Never Broke Again makes a quick return after a busy 2022 and a half-decade-old BTS album debuts on vinyl.
YoungBoy Never Broke Again, I Rest My Case (Motown/Never Broke Again): After an absurdly prolific 2022 that included seven full-length releases – two collaborative albums, four mixtapes and one official album – star rapper YoungBoy Never Broke Again returns, just two weeks into 2023, with his fifth solo studio album, I Rest My Case. The 19-track set is his first release on his new Motown label, after completing his deal with Atlantic in 2022.
From the early returns, YoungBoy’s previous productivity may be working against him, since the album’s tracks have not taken over the daily DSP charts like past YoungBoy solo albums, the last three of which hit the Billboard 200’s top two. Case will also not be helped by any big-name guests, since the album has no features on its 11 tracks. It will have its work cut out for it getting YoungBoy back to the chart’s top five, let alone threatening the four-week reign of SZA’s SOS blockbuster, which shows little sign of slowing down in its fifth week.
BTS, Love Yourself: Her (Big Hit/Universal): The Love Yourself: Her EP release marked a big U.S. breakthrough for K-Pop superstars BTS back in 2017, reaching the Billboard 200’s top 10 and spawning their first two Billboard Hot 100 hits in “DNA” and “Mic Drop.” The EP is likely to return to the chart’s top tier after making its physical debut on vinyl — the septet’s first-ever release on the format — along with a package that includes seven photo cards (one for each member), two posters, a sticker and a bookmark.
French Montana & DJ Drama, Coke Boys 6 (Coke Boys): Outside of YoungBoy, few hip-hop artists were as prolific on the 2022 charts as DJ Drama, who notched hit albums alongside Jeezy, Snoop Dogg and several other big-name rappers. He’s back this week with veteran New York hitmaker French Montana, for the latest installment in the latter’s signature Coke Boys series. CB6 boasts 20 tracks and a wide variety of big-name guests, including fellow rap stars Kodak Black, Nav and A$AP Rocky, and the set already has its own Money Heist Edition deluxe reissue, adding an extra nine tracks to the total.