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The Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack franchise and Taylor Swift unspooled big numbers on cassette tape in 2023, as the combined sales of the two accounted for 29% of all cassette albums sold in the U.S. last year, according to data tracking firm Luminate. Further, the top five-selling cassette albums of 2023, as well as six of the top 10, were all Swift and Guardians titles (see list, below).

2023’s top-selling cassette album in the U.S. was the Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1 soundtrack, released in 2014, with 18,000 sold. Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version), released last October, was the No. 2-seller, with 17,500 sold.

TOP 10-SELLING CASSETTE ALBUMS OF 2023 IN U.S.

Soundtrack, Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1 (18,000)

Taylor Swift, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) (17,500)

Soundtrack, Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2: Awesome Mix Vol. 2 (16,000)

Soundtrack, Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3: Awesome Mix Vol. 3 (13,000)

Taylor Swift, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) (11,500)

Nirvana, Bleach (8,000)

Metallica, 72 Seasons (7,500)

Soundtrack, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Mix, Vol. 1 (6,000)

Soundtrack, Barbie: The Album (5,500)

Phoebe Bridgers, Punisher (5,500)

Source: Luminate, for the tracking period Dec. 30, 2022, through Dec. 28, 2023.

In total, 436,400 cassette albums were sold in the U.S. in 2023, down just 0.75% as compared the configuration’s volume in 2022 (439,700).

Cassettes accounted for a mere 0.41% of the total 105.32 million albums sold in the U.S. across all configurations combined – cassette, vinyl, CD, digital download, etc. Cassettes were once the leading configuration for all album purchases in the U.S. – from the early 1980s until the early ‘90s. In 1994, for example, 40% of all albums sold were on cassette – with 246 million cassettes sold that year of an overall 615 million albums. Though the configuration now accounts for a tiny slice of total album sales, cassettes have staged a mini-comeback in the last decade. The once nearly dead cassette went from just 50,000 copies sold in the U.S. in 2014 to over 400,000 in each of the last two years. Once widely available at retail stores, cassette tapes are now frequently sold exclusively on an artist’s webstore and in collectible editions.

‘Guardians’ & Swift Sizzle on Tape

In 2023, the four Guardians soundtracks available on cassette (three film soundtracks and one TV soundtrack) sold 52,500 copies. As literal mixtapes factor into the story of Guardians of the Galaxy films, it’s not surprising that Guardians’ soundtracks on cassette sell well.

As for Swift, her catalog of albums available on cassette sold 74,500 in 2023.

Combined, the cassette sales of the Guardians albums and Swift’s albums totaled 127,000 in 2023 – accounting for just over 29% of all cassette album sales last year (127,000 of 436,400).

The Guardians albums have been consistent sellers on cassette tape since the first Guardians album, Awesome Mix Vol. 1, was released in 2014. Overall, the four Guardians albums have sold 295,000 copies on cassette, through Feb. 15, 2024.

It’s work work work work work for Rihanna — according to A$AP Rocky. The “Babushka Boi” rapper was out and about in Paris recently when fans asked him for an update on the singer’s highly anticipated next album. In a video shared on X, fans are snapping photos of the Grammy-nominated rapper when one asks […]

When Drake first debuted at No. 92 on the Billboard Hot 100 dated May 23, 2009 with breakthrough hit “Best I Ever Had,” few could’ve guessed that it would mark the start of one of the successful careers the chart has ever seen. But a little over a decade and a handful of historic chart runs later, the artist born Aubrey Graham has again etched his name in the Billboard record books — as the artist with the most hits in the Hot 100’s 60-plus-year lifespan.

As if that wasn’t enough, “First Person Shooter,” Drake’s blockbuster collaboration with J. Cole from his For All The Dogs album topped the Hot 100 on October 21, 2023. The accolade gave the OVO head honcho the same amount of number ones as the legendary Michael Jackson. It’s a feat many thought would never be topped, but Drake’s career has been a showcase of broken records.

Of course, with Drake’s chart ascent coinciding with the rise of streaming, it’s not like all 328 of these songs were “Drake hits,” at least in the old-fashioned, single-oriented sense. The majority of these entries are album cuts that charted along with the rest of their parent sets, while featured appearances that Drake lent to trusted collaborators like Rick Ross, DJ Khaled, Future, and (of course) Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne over the years are equally numerous.

Yet despite the staggering number of entries Drake has notched on the Hot 100 over his chart run — an average of nearly 20 a year since his mid-2009 chart debut — the rapper’s entire catalog is hardly represented here. Missing of course is anything from pre-fame mixtapes Room For Improvement or Comeback Season, along with such early fan favorites as “Houstatlantavegas,” “Fear,” “Karaoke,” “Lord Knows,” “The Ride” and “Draft Day.” (Also worth noting that despite prominently featuring Aubrey, Travis Scott’s Hot 100-topping “SICKO MODE” does not technically list him on its official artist credit, nor does Young Money’s No. 2-peaking crew cut “BedRock” — thus neither is included here.)

Still, the great majority of the singer-rapper’s best-known work can be found here, spanning from his first pop breakthroughs to his diaristic deep cuts to his harder mixtape tracks to his meme-courting later smashes. Read on below and see how we rank an already unprecedented chart run — one that, by all indications, is still far from over.

“Charged Up” (Hot 100 Peak: No. 78, Date of Peak: 8/22/15)

Usher lands his fifth No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated Feb. 24) as his new studio album, Coming Home, arrives atop the list. The set sold 53,000 copies in the U.S. in the week ending Feb. 15, according to Luminate. Usher previously topped the list with Looking 4 Myself (in 2012), Raymond V Raymond (2010), Here I Stand (2008) and Confessions (2004).
Elsewhere in the top 10 of the new Top Album Sales chart, the latest albums from P1Harmony, Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign, and iTZY arrive.

Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. The new Feb. 24, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Feb. 21, one day later than usual, owed to the Presidents’ Day holiday in the U.S. on Feb. 19. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

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Of Coming Home’s 53,000 copies sold, digital sales comprise 47,500 and physical sales comprise 5,500 (4,000 on CD and 1,500 on vinyl). Its start marks the largest sales week for an R&B album in more than four years, since Lionel Richie’s live set Hello From Las Vegas sold 65,000 copies in its first week (on the list dated Aug. 31, 2019). Richie’s first-week sales were boosted by a concert ticket/album sale redemption offer. Ticket/album bundles ceased to count toward chart sales as of Oct. 9, 2020. (R&B albums are defined as those that have charted on Billboard’s Top R&B Albums chart.)

Coming Home was available to purchase in its first week as a standard digital download, a standard CD, five different vinyl variants, two deluxe boxed sets and a deluxe digital album with a bonus track and alternative cover art. The latter was promoted as a SKIMS exclusive (alongside Usher’s new starring role in a SKIMS campaign) and sold for a limited time via SKIMS’ official store and Usher’s own webstore. Both versions of the digital album were deeply discounted during the set’s opening week.

Coming Home was released on Feb. 9, two days before Usher took the stage as the 2024 Super Bowl halftime headliner. The 2024 Super Bowl was the most-watched broadcast in American TV history, with 123.4 million viewers across CBS and the game’s simulcasts across Nickelodeon, Univision, Paramount+ and other digital platforms. Usher didn’t perform any material from the new album during the halftime show, focusing instead on familiar favorites from the past, such as “My Boo” (with Alicia Keys), “U Got It Bad” (with H.E.R.) “OMG” (with Will.i.am) and the show-closing “Yeah!” (with Lil Jon and Ludacris).

P1Harmony’s Killin’ It debuts at No. 2 on Top Album Sales with 18,000 copies sold – nearly all from CD sales. Like many K-pop projects, the set was issued in collectible CD packages, 16 in total, each containing branded merchandise and randomized elements. It’s the best sales week for P1Harmony, its highest-charting effort, and second top 10.

Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) and Ty Dolla $ign’s collaborative album Vultures 1 starts at No. 3 with 18,000 sold – all from digital downloads.

Vultures 1, released on Feb. 10, was initially only available to purchase as a digital download. The original 16-track set sold through leading digital retailers, as well as Ye’s own official webstore. Physical versions of the album on CD and vinyl are expected to be released at a later date, and Ye’s store is accepting pre-orders for both presently. The set’s first-week sales were boosted by aggressive sale pricing. Vultures 1 is the 12th top 10 for Ye and first for Ty.

Taylor Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) falls 1-4 with 15,000 copies sold (though up 28%).

iTZY’s Born to Be bows at No. 5 with 14,000 copies sold, largely from CD sales. It’s the fifth top 10-charting effort for the Korean pop act. As is customary for many K-pop project, the album was available in multiple collectible CD editions – 10 in total – all containing branded merchandise with randomized elements.

Swift has three more albums in the top 10, as Lover falls 3-6 (12,000; up 13%), Midnights dips 2-7 (11,000; down less than 1%) and Folklore rises 10-8 (9,000; up 57%). Toby Keith’s 35 Biggest Hits drops 4-9 with 7,000 sold (down 35%) and Noah Kahan’s Stick Season climbs 14-10 with nearly 7,000 (up 48%) following its deluxe reissue on Feb. 9 with additional tracks.

In the week ending Feb. 15, there were 1.258 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 7.8% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 906,000 (up 9.3%) and digital albums comprised 353,000 (up 4%).

There were 435,000 CD albums sold in the week ending Feb. 15 (up 11.3% week-over-week) and 467,000 vinyl albums sold (up 7.7%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 2.933 million (down 31.5% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 3.314 million (down 46.7%).

Overall year-to-date album sales total 8.341 million (down 35.5% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 6.279 million (down 40.5%) and digital album sales total 2.062 million (down 12.7%).

The Veronicas will crank up the heat for Gothic Summer, the pop pair’s first via Big Noise Music Group.
Featuring the previously released cuts “Perfect,” “Detox” and “Here to Dance,” Gothic Summer is due for release worldwide on March 22 via Big Noise Music Group, a specialist in alt-pop and rock, whose co-founder and A&R is John Feldmann, longtime collaborator and singer/guitarist with Goldfinger.

Feldmann produced the eight-track LP, which boasts a long-list of collaborators including Travis Barker, Sierra Deaton, Ryan Linville (Olivia Rodrigo, Chappell Roan), Zhone (Troye Sivan, Kim Petras) and Chris Collins (Royel Otis, Matt Corby), all of whom “challenged the duo to explore their expansive musical range more than ever before,” reads a statement announcing the project.

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The Brisbane act, identical twin sisters Lisa and Jessica Origliasso, have released five studio albums, all of which cracked the ARIA top 10. The Veronicas have led the Australian singles chart several times, including 2007’s “Hook Me Up,” 2014’s “You Ruin Me,” and 2016’s “In My Blood.”

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“Untouched” (via EngineRoom/Sire) provided the Veronicas with a U.S hit when it cruised into the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 following its release in 2007.

Combined streams from across their catalog is north of 900 million, say reps.

Speaking with Billboard following their signing with Big Noise in 2022, Jess remarked that they’re “excited to be the first female fronted signing to the label,” adding, “we felt they’re an amazing find for the Veronicas.”

On the new project, the siblings “embrace introspection and challenge societal pressures,” reads a statement, “shining a light on the truth beneath pop music’s shimmering surface”.

In support of Gothic Summer, the Veronicas will perform at Hello Sunshine Festival in Melbourne on March 2, before embarking on a 22-date U.S. headline tour, their first U.S. jaunt in almost a decade.

Gothic Summer tracklist:1. Perfect2. Detox 3. Here To Dance4. Savage (Ft. Kerser)5. Invisible6. Ribcage7. Jungle8. Perfect (Acoustic)

BTS member J-Hope is releasing a new album, Hope on the Street Vol. 1, BigHit Music announced to press and to ARMY on Sunday (Feb. 18). Hope on the Street Vol. 1 is described in the announcement as “a special album” containing six tracks. The new music collection is set to arrive alongside a six-part […]

Guessing which surprise songs Taylor Swift will play during her acoustic section on The Eras Tour just got a little trickier. She’s now serving some unexpected mashups.

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Swift previously told fans she’s given herself permission to repeat songs she’s already played this tour for the trek’s international leg, which she’s currently on. But she’s still set on bringing some element of chaos to her nightly song choices.

“That was to challenge me to really get to all the ones that I just don’t naturally gravitate towards, and I feel really proud about having done that,” Swift said at her Melbourne, Australia, show on Feb. 18, referring to her original plan to avoid surprise song repeats throughout the tour.

“But this is sort of a public service announcement to everyone who might be anywhere else on the tour, or whatever, or watching this — we have a lot of people, we’re very lucky to have a lot of people watch this on the internet and care about these shows if they’re not here,” she continued. “I’ve just been kind of rethinking, and I’ve been thinking I want to be as creative as possible with the acoustic set moving forward.”

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Swift tried to explain further: “I don’t want to limit anything, and I don’t want to just say like, ‘Oh, if I played a song before, I can’t play it again.’”

“I don’t want to take any paint colors out of the paintbox of colors,” the pop star said. “I don’t want to take any tools out of the toolbox. What’s the metaphor I’m looking for? I want to be able to play songs more than once if I feel like it, and I want to be able to make changes to songs.”

In other words, continue to expect the unexpected during the acoustic section of Swift’s shows.

Swift combined “Come Back… Be Here” from her Red era with Lover closing track “Daylight” at Melbourne Cricket Ground on Feb. 18, a day after performing a mashup of “Getaway Car,” “August” and “The Other Side of the Door.”

Swift has wrapped her Melbourne shows and heads to Sydney for four Eras tour dates at Accor Stadium, starting on Feb. 23.

Watch her “Come Back… Be Here” and “Daylight” mashup below. At the concert, Swift’s second surprise song was her debut-era “Teardrops on My Guitar,” played on piano.

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Ariana Grande and Mariah Carey‘s “Yes, And?” remix has topped this week’s new music poll. Music fans voted in a poll published Friday (Feb. 16) on Billboard, choosing the superstars’ latest team-up as their favorite new music release of the past week. The two vocal powerhouses’ “Yes, And?” remix brought in nearly 73% of the […]

Taylor Swift is opening up her emotional state during the pandemic.
Halfway through her Eras Tour stop at Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia, on Saturday (Feb. 17), the 34-year-old pop superstar paused to reflect on being “lonely” while writing her 2020 album, Folklore, during the COVID-19 lockdown.

“[I was] imagining that, instead of being a lonely millennial woman covered in cat hair drinking my weight in white wine, I was a ghostly Victorian lady wandering through the woods with a candle in a candlestick holder,” Swift said in a fan-captured video before performing her song “Betty.”

“And I wrote only on parchment with a feathered quill,” she continued. “That was in my mind, what I thought I looked like writing Folklore.” The Grammy winner added, “So that’s all that matters — the delusion.”

While writing Folklore, Swift spent her time in quarantine with then-boyfriend Joe Alwyn, 32, who helped the artist pen songs including “Exile” and “Betty. The “Cruel Summer” hitmaker reflected on how she and the British actor passed the time during the pandemic in a December 2020 interview.

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“I wasn’t expecting to make an album. Early on in quarantine, I started watching lots of films. We would watch a different movie every night,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “I’m ashamed to say I hadn’t seen Pan’s Labyrinth before. One night I’d watch that, then I’d watch L.A. Confidential, then we’d watch Rear Window, then we’d watch Jane Eyre.”

She added, “I feel like consuming other people’s art and storytelling sort of opened this portal in my imagination and made me feel like, ‘Well, why have I never done this before? Why have I never created characters and intersecting storylines? And why haven’t I ever sort of freed myself up to do that from a narrative standpoint?’”

Swift and Alwyn split last April after six years of dating.

Swift’s three-night stand at Melbourne Cricket Ground launched Friday (Feb. 16) and wrapped Sunday (Feb. 18). Next, she’s scheduled for back-to-back concerts at Sydney’s Accor Stadium (Feb. 23-25). Other international stops include Singapore, France, Sweden, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Europe and Canada.

Welcome to the acoustic section: Taylor Swift crossed eras to play an unexpected mashup of “Getaway Car,” “August” and “The Other Side of the Door” in Melbourne, Australia, on Feb. 17.

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Introducing the acoustic part of her Eras Tour show at the third of four concerts in the city, Swift — who at each tour date performs two tracks that are not often heard during the show — told the Melbourne Cricket Ground crowd she wanted to pick a song “that they really wanna hear, and I think I might’ve achieved it.”

“You have to let me know,” she teased the Melbourne audience. “I really just want you to be happy ’cause you’re making me really happy.”

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Lucky for them, Swift actually gave fans a three-song mashup on guitar that counted as only one of the songs during her acoustic set.

About three minutes into a performance of Reputation standout “Getaway Car,” Swift shifted into Folklore‘s “August,” singing, “I can see us lost in the memory/ August slipped away into a moment in time/ ‘Cause it was never mine/ And I can see us twisted in bedhseets/ August slipped away like a bottle of wine/ ‘Cause you were never mine.”

Swift closed the mashup with the outro of “The Other Side of the Door,” which originally appeared on the platinum edition of Fearless in 2008 and was re-recorded for 2021’s Fearless (Taylor’s Version).

“With your face and the beautiful eyes/ And the conversation with the little white lies/ And the faded picture of a beautiful night/ You carry me from your car up the stairs/ And I broke down cryin’, was she worth this mess?/ After everything and that little black dress / After everything, I must confess I need you,” she sang to loud cheers.

The Midnights star then took to the piano to perform “This Is Me Trying,” from Folklore, as the second surprise song of the set. She’d played “Getaway Car” and “This Is Me Trying” only once before so far on this tour.

Watch Swift’s surprise mashup below. Keep up with a full list of her surprise songs on The Eras Tour here.