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Don’t expect Live Nation’s Joe Berchtold to be quoting Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on ticketing Tuesday. Unlike the pop star’s “I’m the problem it’s me” chorus-turned-meme, the company’s president and CFO plans to take aim at who he says are the real culprits behind Swift’s disastrous Nov. 15 presale — scalpers.
While the Live Nation-owned Ticketmaster was villianized for weeks following the presale for Swift’s upcoming The Eras tour that both broke single-day sales records and threw fans into a fury over service issues, according to a prepared opening statement reviewed by Billboard, Berchtold plans to lay much of the blame on scalpers who used illegal bots to attack the online sale. The statement, to be delivered Tuesday in Washington, D.C., to the committee led by ranking member Dick Durbin (D-Ilinois), details Ticketmaster’s ongoing “arms race” against scalpers illegally using autonomous software to disrupt and attack high profile ticket sales. Country music legend Garth Brooks is lending his support to Berchtold’s testimony as well, with a letter defending Ticketmaster and attacking ticket scalpers who use illegal methods to buy up tickets.
“We knew bots would attack [Swift’s] onsale, and planned accordingly,” reads Berchtold’s planned statement. “We were then hit with three times the amount of bot traffic than we had ever experienced, and for the first time in 400 Verified Fan onsales they came after our Verified Fan access code servers. While the bots failed to penetrate our systems or acquire any tickets, the attack required us to slow down and even pause our sales. This is what led to a terrible consumer experience that we deeply regret.”
Following the Nov. 15 presale, Ticketmaster eventually canceled its general onsale for the remaining 170,000 tickets to Swift’s tour. In December, the company announced a new strategy to sell the passes over the course of four weeks and recently concluded that effort. At the time, the company said “historically unprecedented demand” caused the failure, but blamed bots then, too — saying, 14 million fans and more than 3 billion bots hit the site. That excuse did little to satisfy the more than 100,000 fans who kicked out of line during the bot attack, and even the singer spoke out blaming the company. With many fans calling for Ticketmaster’s punishment, Berchtold also plans to apologize directly to Swift and her followers.
“As we said after the onsale, and I reiterate today, we apologize to the many disappointed fans as well as to Ms. Swift,” his statement reads.
While Berchtold notes Ticketmaster “accepts its responsibility to be the first line of defense against bots in this ever- escalating arms race,” he intends to shift the hearing’s focus to policy changes that could tamp down on scalpers.
“In this forum where we are here to discuss public policy, we also need to recognize how industrial scalpers breaking the law using bots and cyberattacks to try to unfairly gain tickets contributes to an awful consumer experience,” his statement reads. “We are doing everything we can to fight the people who attack our onsales and steal tickets meant for real fans, but we need help passing real reforms to stop this arms race.”
Brooks, in his statement, supports this notion.
“The crush of bots during an on-sale is a huge reason for program failure NO MATTER WHO THE TICKET SELLING COMPANY is,” writes the country icon in his letter addressed to Congress. “And the one who ALWAYS pays for this atrocity is the customer, the LAST one on whom that burden should fall.”
Brooks notes in his letter that he forced Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones to allow him to use Ticketmaster to sell tickets to his April concert at AT&T Stadium, instead of SeatGeek which held the exclusive contract to ticket the stadium.
“I had grown to love and trust the people at Ticketmaster so much,” he explained in his letter, noting, “this was not because of Ticketmaster, but a choice I made.”
Berchtold will be joined on the witness stand by SeatGeek chief executive Jack Groetzinger and longtime Chicago promoter Jerry Mickelson with JAM Productions, along with recording artist Clyde Lawrence and representatives from the James Madison Institute and American Antitrust Institute.
Ticketmaster officials are expecting a pile on, both from Congress and the other testifying witnesses. SeatGeek has filed a number of complaints against Ticketmaster with the Department of Justice for alleged anti-trust violations, and Mickelson testified before Congress in 2010, condemning the merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster. While company officials aren’t expecting any standing ovations, Berchtold’s testimony will be an important preview of the company’s framing of the challenges facing the business over the next couple of years and promises to be the most detailed defense of Live Nation by an executive in its 18-year history.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) originally called for this hearing in response to public anger over the technical failures of the Taylor Swift Eras ticket sale. But the witness list and the name of the hearing, “That’s the Ticket: Promoting Competition and Protecting Consumers in Live Entertainment,” released Monday (Jan. 23) suggest that the hearing is more likely to focus on long-simmering dissatisfaction over the 2010 consent decree governing the merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation. That consent decree has had mixed success creating a level playing field for competition in the ticketing business, and critics consider it a failure because it didn’t prevent Ticketmaster from becoming the dominant ticketing company it is today.
“We hear people say that ticketing markets are less competitive today than they were at the time of the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger. That is simply not true,” reads Berchtold’s statements, claiming Ticketmaster’s market share has decreased since the DOJ estimated it held 80% of the market in 2009.
At the time, Ticketmaster “did not face the level of competition we face today from new competitors including SeatGeek, AEG’s AXS, and Eventbrite, along with established competitors including Tickets.com and Paciolan,” Berchtold continues. “Today, there is intense competition for every ticketing contract that goes out to bid — far more than there was in 2010. Ticketmaster has lost, not gained, market share, and every year competitive bidding results in ticketing companies getting less of the economic value in a ticketing contract while venues and teams get more. The bottom line is that U.S. ticketing markets have never been more competitive than they are today, and we read about new potential entrants all the time.”
Berchtold plans to present the threat posed by bad actors and malicious software as an issue both the government and the private sector must address together. The strategy shifts part of the criticism for the Taylor Swift ticket debacle onto the Senate — which unanimously voted to pass the BOTS act in 2016, effectively outlawing automated ticket-buying technology. Since its passage, the law has only been enforced twice by the FBI and the Federal Trade Commission, despite pleas from Ticketmaster officials that bot attacks on high profile ticket sales are increasing in frequency and complexity, sources tell Billboard. Berchtold also plans to detail how the company has spent more than $1 billion developing technology to prevent bot attacks on the company’s ticket sales using software like Verified Fan and digital ticketing.
A ‘blame the bots’ strategy is not likely to satisfy the members of the Senate Judiciary committee, which include such conservative and liberal firebrands such as Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Josh Hawley (R-Missouri), John Kennedy (R-Louisiana), Diane Fienstein (D-California), Corey Booker (D-New Jersey) and Richard Blumenthal (D-New Jersey). Anti-Ticketmaster sentiment and criticism of the 2010 merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation is one of the few issues of bipartisan agreement on Capitol Hill.
Berchtold will end his testimony laying out calls to action he believes Congress can take to combat bad actors in the ticketing industry: First, is empowering private parties like Ticketmaster to bring civil actions against ticket sellers who knowingly sell tickets obtained by bots. Second, Berchtold believes Congress should act to outlaw deceptive sales practices like speculative ticket sales “offering for sale tickets you don’t own or have an existing right to obtain,” or deceptive sites that mislabel themselves as “the official” ticket seller for shows they aren’t contracted to work with.
The Senate Judiciary Committee’s “That’s the Ticket: Promoting Competition and Protecting Consumers in Live Entertainment” begins at 10 a.m. EST on Tuesday. Click here to watch the hearing live.
Taylor Swift’s Midnights continues its hot streak atop Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart, as the set spends its 12th consecutive, and total, week at No. 1 on the list dated Jan. 21. The album sold 25,000 copies in the U.S. in the week ending Jan. 12 (down 58%) according to Luminate.
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Midnights now has the most weeks at No. 1 on the Top Album Sales chart since the Frozen soundtrack ruled for 13 nonconsecutive weeks in 2014. Midnights has the most weeks in a row at No. 1 since the Titanic soundtrack logged all 16 of its No. 1 weeks consecutively in 1998.
Midnights’ total U.S. album sales now stand at 1.140 million.
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. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
BTS’ Love Yourself: Her re-enters Top Album Sales at No. 2 following the set’s Jan. 6 release on vinyl. The effort, initially released in 2017, bounds back onto the chart with 20,000 sold (up 2,130%), with most of that sum from vinyl sales (18,000). It’s the first time BTS has released an album on vinyl in the U.S., though the group has issued singles on vinyl.
Love Yourself: Her also debuts at No. 1 on Billboard’s Vinyl Albums chart, the first time a K-pop title has led list. It also halts Swift’s stranglehold of the top spot with Midnights, pushing the album down to No. 2 after 11 straight weeks at No. 1.
Back on Top Album Sales, ATEEZ’s Spin Off: From the Witness falls one spot to No. 3 (14,000; down 66%) while French Montana’s Coke Boys 6: Gangsta Grillz, hosted by DJ Drama, debuts at No. 4 (11,000).
Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours dips 4-5 (just over 7,000; down 17%), RM’s Indigo descends 3-6 (7,000; down 22%) and Michael Jackson’s Thriller falls 6-7 (nearly 7,000; down 16%). Stray Kids’ former No. 1 MAXIDENT re-enters the chart at No. 8 with nearly 6,000 sold (up 378%) after a new Target-exclusive CD edition of the album was released on Jan. 6.
Rounding out the top 10 are two former No. 1s: Harry Styles’ Harry’s House (5-9 with nearly 6,000; down 32%) and Tyler, the Creator’s Igor (7-10 with 5,000; down 23%).
In the week ending Jan. 12, there were 1.837 million albums sold in the U.S. (down 13.5% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.512 million (down 14.7%) and digital albums comprised 325,000 (down 7.5%).
There were 589,000 CD albums sold in the week ending Jan. 12 (down 13.6% week-over-week) and 915,000 vinyl albums sold (down 15.4%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 1.27 (up 3.4% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 1.996 million (up 33.2%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 3.961 million (up 11.8% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 3.285 million (up 19.8%) and digital album sales total 676,000 (down 15.4%).
Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” holds at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart this week, logging an eighth total week on top. The achievement also marks the superstar’s longest Hot 100 reign, surpassing “Blank Space,” which stayed at the summit for seven weeks in 2014-15.
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To celebrate, Swift’s co-writer and producer Jack Antonoff took to his Instagram Stories on Tuesday (Jan. 17) to share a film-style photo of the two pouring drinks. “Remembering right before anti hero came out Taylor saying it’s her favorite song lyrically and that’s why it’s [the] first single,” he wrote under the picture. “But it’s a strange and personal one and we shouldn’t expect it to ever go number 1…. anti hero 8th week at 1 .. insane ..”
Antonoff is credited with co-writing 11 of the 13 songs on the original version of Swift’s most recent studio album, Midnights, and even recorded a remix of “Anti-Hero,” featuring Antonoff’s solo project Bleachers.
In an Instagram post, Swift elaborated on the duo working on the project. “We’d been toying with ideas and had written a few things we loved, but Midnights actually really coalesced and flowed out of us when our partners (both actors) did a film together in Panama,” she wrote. “Jack and I found ourselves back in New York, alone, recording every night, staying up late and exploring old memories and midnights past.”
See below Antonoff’s celebration of eight weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 thanks to “Anti-Hero.”
Jack Antonoff vía Ig“Recuerdo que cuando Anti-Hero se estrenó Taylor dijo que era su canción favorita en cuanto a composición y eso es por lo que fue el primer single, pero es una canción extraña y personal y no esperábamos que fuera #1 pic.twitter.com/AXxJEtFeX8— La Tia Puercaylor (@LaPuercaylor) January 17, 2023
ATEEZ captures its third top 10 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated Jan. 14) as Spin Off: From the Witness debuts at No. 2. The set sold 40,000 copies in the U.S. in the week ending Jan. 5, according to Luminate. The eight-member South Korean group previously visited the top 10 with The World EP.1: Movement (No. 2 in 2022) and Zero: Fever Part.3 (No. 6 in 2021).
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CDs comprise a little over 39,000 of Spin Off’s sales for the week, while digital album purchases comprise 1,000. Like many K-pop releases, the CD configuration of Spin Off was issued in collectible deluxe packages (six), each with a standard set of items and randomized elements (photocards and posters).
Meanwhile, at No. 1 on Top Album Sales, Taylor Swift’s Midnights spends an 11th consecutive, and total, week atop the list (58,000 sold; up 7%). Midnights has the most weeks at No. 1 since Adele’s 25 collected 11 total nonconsecutive weeks in late 2015 and early 2016. Midnights has the most consecutive weeks atop the list since the Titanic soundtrack scored 16 weeks in a row at No. 1 (the entirety of its No. 1-run) in 1998. Midnights also ties Fearless as Swift’s albums with the most weeks at No. 1 on Top Album Sales.
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. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
RM’s Indigo falls 2-3 on Top Album Sales (9,000; down 41%), Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours rises 5-4 (9,000; down 26%), Harry Styles’ former No. 1 Harry’s House dips 4-5 (8,000; down 38%) and Michael Jackson’s Thriller descends 3-6 (nearly 8,000; down 45%). Tyler, the Creator’s chart-topping Igor is a non-mover at No. 7 (7,000; down 39%), Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, m.A.A.d city falls 6-8 (nearly 7,000; down 44%), Arctic Monkeys’ AM climbs 15-9 (6,000; down 28%) and SZA’s Ctrl jumps 21-10 (5,000; down 27%).
In the week ending Jan. 5, there were 2.123 million albums sold in the U.S. (down 22.4% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.772 million (down 24.6%) and digital albums comprised 351,000 (up 8.3%).
There were 681,000 CD albums sold in the week ending Jan. 5 (down 11.4% week-over-week) and 1.081 vinyl albums sold (down 31.1%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 681,000 (up 9% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 1.081 million (up 36.8%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 2.123 million (up 16.4% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 1.772 million (up 24.5%) and digital album sales total 351,000 (down 12.4%).
Looks like Taylor Swift is getting ready for her The Eras Tour with a little stage time. Unsuspecting fans at The 1975‘s concert in London on Thursday (Jan. 12) were beyond surprised when Swift took the stage at the O2 arena to not only perform one of the rock band’s classic tracks, but also to live-debut her latest hit single.
In fan-captured video, Swift is seen emerging onstage in a sparkling silver dress, taking in the screaming crowd of fans. In other moments, the singer takes a shot covering The 1975’s “The City” — a fan-favorite track from the band’s self-titled first album — with the help of her trusty acoustic guitar.
“Yeah, counting cards was the best job he ever had/ Cleaning up/ He got good with his fours and his twos/ Community service was the best job he ever had/ Cleaning up/ He got sick on the floor and his shoes,” Swift sang, before launching into the track’s catchy pre-chorus.
But that wasn’t all Swift came prepared to sing. Shortly after, the mega-star surprised fans even further by giving “Anti-Hero” its first-ever live performance. Considering how big of a splash the track has made — its currently in seventh week atop the Billboard Hot 100, after all — the entire stadium hung onto every word Swift sang, joining her for the track’s catchy refrain: “It’s me, hi/ I’m the problem, it’s me.”
Swift won’t have to wait for long before dusting off her best acoustic guitars: She’s scheduled to head out on the road for The Eras Tour, which is scheduled to kick off March 17 in Glendale, Ariz.
Watch Swift perform during The 1975’s show in the videos below.
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.
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.
Kim Kardashian and her nine-year-old daughter North West were back at it again on TikTok on Thursday (Jan. 5), taking part in their usual fast-paced choreographed clips.
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This time, however, the mother-daughter duo are singing along to Taylor Swift‘s 2014 hit, “Shake It Off,” which is surprising given Kardashian and Swift’s tumultuous history. After the SKIMS founder’s ex-husband Kanye West interrupted Swift on stage at the 2009 VMAs, which sparked their decade-plus feud, he called her out in his 2016 song “Famous” by rapping, “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that b—h famous.
That year, Kardashian defended Ye in an episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. In 2019, however, she revealed that the beef was finally over. “I feel like we’ve all moved on,” she said during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, adding that the two still had not spoken.
In 2021, Kardashian revealed in an interview on Honestly With Bari Weiss that she’s actually a fan of Swift’s music. “I mean, I really like a lot of her songs,” the billionaire reality TV star revealed. “They’re all super cute and catchy. I’d have to look in my phone to get a name.”
Upon Swift releasing her 10th studio album Midnights in 2022, many fans believed that “Vigilante S—,” while not mentioning anyone directly, may be about her public feud with West and Kardashian, flipping the script and now siding with Kim K.
Todrick Hall is sharing a heartwarming story about his good friend Taylor Swift just in time for the holidays.
On Monday, the singer and actor recognized Swift’s kindness toward a superfan who was recently diagnosed with cancer.
“I don’t feel like these stories get shared enough,” Hall begins his video on Instagram. “Seeing as it’s the holidays, I thought this story might warm your heart.”
In the minute-long clip, the 37-year-old artist explains that he received a message in early December from his good friend Holly, who mentioned that her friend Estelle — a “gigantic Taylor Swift fan” — was recently diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in the eye, brain and spine. Holly added that Estelle even had a Swift-themed bridal shower and said her friend’s dream was to receive a personalized message from the “Anti-Hero” singer.
“When I saw the footage of this incredible bridal shower, I was like, ‘OK, Taylor has to see this,’” Hall continues. “So I sent the videos, the footage and the message to Taylor and [she] responded so sweetly and said, ‘I would love to send her something. What is her address?’”
Swift followed through on her promise, according to Hall, and sent Estelle a huge box full of an assortment of merchandise, including colorful Midnights-branded T-shirts and hoodies.
“I know that she has a smile from ear to ear,” Hall says. “She’s been DM’ing me all day. I just wanted you to know there are so many stories like this that that I could tell, but this story in particular warmed my heart. I hope it touched your heart, I hope it put a smile on your face.”
Billboard has reached out to Swift’s representatives for further details about Hall’s touching post.
See Hall’s post on Instagram below.