


Vinyl LPs had another record-breaking year, with 9.2 million sales, surpassing last year’s record of 6.1 million units.The top 10 albums in 2014 were virtually flat versus 2013, thanks to the strength of Taylor Swift and Frozen. While the top two albums this year performed significantly better than last year’s top two albums, 2014 saw just four albums surpass 1 million units, compared to 13 last year.2014 had two albums that sold over 3.5 million units during the calendar year (Taylor Swift’s 1989 and the Frozen Soundtrack) – this is the first time since 2005 that two albums have sold over 3.5 million albums in a calendar year.
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In its debut week, 1989 comprised a full 22% of all album sales for the week. 1989 also had the second biggest digital album sales week in history. The album also had the best debut week of the year and the biggest opening week for an album since 2002 with nearly 1.3 million albums sold in the first week. Taylor Swift had the best-selling album of the year with 3.66 million sales for her album 1989.Taylor Swift/1989 ranked second with 4.40 million units.
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The soundtrack to the movie Frozen ranked #1 for overall consumption this year (Album Sales + Track Equivalent Albums + Streaming Equivalent Albums) with over 4.47 million album equivalent units.On-Demand Streaming grew 54.5% over 2013, with Audio On-Demand (+60.5%) and Video On-Demand Streaming (+49.3%) both experiencing significant increases.NIELSEN MUSIC 2014 YEAR-END HIGHLIGHTS AND ANALYSIS Nielsen’s airplay, sales and streaming data represents music consumers of all ethnicities and languages, and is featured weekly in Billboard’s charts, including the iconic Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200, and is widely cited as the standard for music measurement. Nielsen provides music research and monitoring services for the entertainment industry. “The continued expansion of digital music consumption is encouraging, as is the continued record setting growth that we are seeing in vinyl LP sales.” “Music fans continue to consume music through on-demand streaming services at record levels, helping to offset some of the weakness that we see in sales,” says David Bakula, SVP Industry Insights, Nielsen.
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Total consumption for the year, based on Albums plus Track Equivalent Albums and Streaming Equivalent Albums, was down slightly versus 2013. Digital Albums and Digital Tracks also showed declines versus 2013, although digital consumption overall (sales and streams) showed growth. Physical album sales declined, with weakness in CDs despite record-setting strength in Vinyl LPs. Streaming continued to show significant growth in 2014, with over 164 billion songs streamed on-demand through audio and video platforms. Music year-end report for the 12-month period of Decemthrough December 28, 2014.

NEW YORK – Nielsen, the music industry’s leading data information provider today released the 2014 U.S. Radio Remains Top Source for Music Discovery Vinyl LP Sales Increase 52% – Now Comprise over 6% of Physical Album Sales ON-DEMAND STREAMING UP 54% WITH 164 BILLION STREAMS IN 2014
