By Steven J. Horowitz
Senior Music Writer
Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Billie Eilish had the most successful years thus far in terms of U.S. album sales, according to Luminate‘s midyear music report for 2024.
The report, which examines trends from the year thus far based on multiple data points, notes that the musicians benefitted not only from streaming but from physical sales, notably from the multiple versions released of a project — “variants,” which generally feature bonus tracks or artwork variations. On average the top 10 U.S. physical albums had an average of seven different LP variants, 13 CDs and two cassettes.
“The Tortured Poets Department” touts the highest sales in the U.S. with 4.66 million total album-equivalent units, followed by Morgan Wallen’s “One Thing at a Time,” Noah Kahan’s “Stick Season,” Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” and SZA’s “SOS.” In terms of total sales, “Poets” leads the pack, followed by “Hit Me Hard,” “Cowboy Carter,” Swift’s “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” and Swift’s “Lover.”
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Benson Boone undoubtedly has the biggest song of the year with “Beautiful Things,” which has accrued 1.434 billion on-demand audio streams worldwide. “Beautiful Things” also tops various singles-focused charts including U.S. top digital song consumption and U.S. top songs: on-demand streaming for both audio and audio plus video.
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On a macro scale, global on-demand audio streams were up 15.1 percent over the same period last year, while U.S. on-demand audio streams were up 8.1 percent and U.S. physical album sales increased 3.8 percent over last year’s first half.
Hip-hop and R&B have the highest share of total volume by format and genre in the U.S., with a 24.6 percent stake, followed by rock, pop, country and Latin. Meanwhile, Latin music is the fastest-growing genre in the U.S., increasing .51 percentage share points over the same period last year. Overall, Latin grew 15.1 percent in on-demand audio streaming.
Elsewhere, Latin has the biggest share of listeners (35%) in the current period, defined as any music released over the past 18 months. R&B and hip-hop accounts for the most catalog streams (18-60 months old) with 26.7 percent, and rock culls the most deep catalog streams (60+ months) with 70.5 percent.
Luminate notes that 43 of the 46 artists with more than a billion U.S. on-demand streams had major distribution on their most-streamed track, while indie artists made up 62.1 percent of all artists who accumulated between one and 10 million streams. Live music also saw a surge, with 64 percent of all money spent on music-related costs among U.S. consumers going to live music events. Gen Z spent the most on concerts (more than 23 percent more than the average U.S. music listener).
It’s also worth noting that usage of YouTube Shorts among U.S. music listeners increased between the second quarters of 2023 and 2024, making it a strong contender against TikTok as the most used short-form video platform.
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