Global Top Sellers Of 2013

The latest IFPI report is out outlining the recording industry's health for 2013. We'll cover the numbers more in depth in a future post, but first let's look at the top global sellers of last year.

Global Top Selling Albums of 2013

	ARTIST	TITLE	TOTAL SALES (M)
1	One Direction	Midnight Memories	4.0
2	Eminem	The Marshall Mathers LP2	3.8
3	Justin Timberlake	The 20/20 Experience	3.6
4	Bruno Mars	Unorthodox Jukebox	3.2
5	Daft Punk	Random Access Memories	3.2
6	Katy Perry	Prism	2.8
7	Michael Bublé	To Be Loved	2.4
8	Imagine Dragons	Night Visions	2.4
9	Lady Gaga	Artpop	2.3
10	Beyoncé	Beyoncé	2.3

Global Top Selling Digital Singles of 2013

	ARTIST	TITLE	TOTAL SALES (M)
1	Robin Thicke	Blurred Lines	14.8
2	Macklemore & Ryan Lewis	Thrift Shop	13.4
3	Avicii	Wake Me Up	11.1
4	P!nk feat. Nate Ruess	Just Give Me A Reason	9.9
5	Katy Perry	Roar	9.9
6	Daft Punk	Get Lucky	9.3
7	Imagine Dragons	Radioactive	8.6
8	Bruno Mars	When I Was Your Man	8.3
9	will.I.Am	Scream & Shout	8.1
10	Rihanna	Stay	7.9

One of the things that sticks out is that the sales numbers for these hits are rather anemic when you consider we're talking world-wide. Also, when you consider the amount of hype that artists like Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Beyonce and Daft Punk received, you'd expect the numbers to be much higher.

But that's the music business we live in today, where sales numbers aren't what they once were and probably never will be. That said, I bet if you look at the same artist's YouTube and streaming numbers (which I'll attempt to get), they'd be off the charts.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.