Adele
Nielsen Music has released its annual report on the previous year’s music sales, and unsurprisingly Adele tops the list. According to Billboard, 25 was easily the best-selling album in 2015, moving 8.01 million equivalent album units, with 7.44 million in traditional album sales. Additionally, Adele is the first artist to have the #1 album of the year three times in the Nielsen SoundScan era, as she also led the way in 2011 and 2012.
Taylor Swift‘s 1989 was the second-biggest album in 2015, with 3.1 million equivalent album units, 1.99 million of which were pure sales. Purpose from Justin Bieber was #3 (2.22 million equivalent units and 1.27 million in sales), then Ed Sheeran‘s x, with 2.21 million equivalent units and 1.16 million in sales. The top five was rounded out by The Weeknd‘s Beauty Behind The Madness, with 2.04 million equivalent units and 862.000 copies sold. The rest of the top ten for 2015 were Drake, Meghan
Trainor, Sam Smith, Sam Hunt and Fetty Wap.
Nielsen Music also reports that 2015’s music consumption added up to 549.35 million equivalent album units, a 15.2 percent increase over 2014. Overall album sales in 2015 fell by six percent to 241.39 million, down from 257.02 million a year before. Of course, Adele’s 25 greatly contributed to these numbers and Billboard reports there would have been a nine percent drop without her. 25 actually made up 3.1 percent of all album sales last year.
While digital album sales dropped off by three percent in 2015, Adele dominated this category as well. 25 sold 2.31 million copies digital, which was the largest amount of digital albums sold during a year ever, as well as the first time an album has sold over two million digitally in one year. Of course, the previous record holder was Adele with 21.
Vinyl sales were up by 30 percent last year, and you guessed it, Adele’s 25 was the best-selling vinyl album as well, with 116,000 copies.
The #1 digital single of 2015 was Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ smash hit “Uptown Funk,” with over 5.5 million copies sold. “Thinking Out Loud” from Ed Sheeran was at #2, with just under 3.98 million sold. “See You Again” from Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth was third, selling 3.8 million copies. “Hello” from Adele was at #4 with Maroon 5‘s “Sugar” at #5.
The rest of the digital singles’ top ten was made up of “Shut Up and Dance” by Walk The Moon, “Trap Queen” from Fetty Wap, OMI‘s “Cheerleader,” “The Hills” by The Weeknd and Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” remix featuring Kendrick Lamar.
