Music Stats for 2009: Fab Four, ‘King of Pop’ Among Top-Selling Artists

Michael Jackson, Taylor Swift and The Beatles were the top-selling artists in the US in 2009, according to Nielsen SoundScan, which recently released (pdf) a treasure trove of album, artist and genre statistics for the American music industry.

For the year, Nielsen said that music purchases were  up 2.1% over 2008 figures, marking the second year in a row that sales exceeded 1.5 billion units sold.

Digital downloads drove the majority of music-industry growth and experienced a record-breaking year. Nielsen said that consumers picked up 1.16 billion digital tracks  (an 8.3% jump from the prior year) and 76.4 million digital albums  (up 16.1%).

Top-Selling Artists

The late “King of Pop” Michael Jackson was the top-selling artist for the year, after interest in his music (and online chatter) skyrocketed in the wake of his death. Contemporary artist Taylor Swift - who also had the year’s top-selling album - clocked in at #2, while remastered versions of The Beatles catalog - in the wake of the release of the Beatles Rock Band video game - secured the fab four a third-place spot nearly40 years after their heyday.

To round out the top five, “polar opposites” Susan Boyle and Lady Gaga took the #4 and #5 spots, Nielsen said.

Vinyl Revival

While gains in digital sales are signaling a shift away from sales of physical music, sales of vinyl albums nonetheless grew by 33%, with 2.5 million vinyl units sold. Many of the top-selling vinyl artists such as The Beatles, Michael Jackson and Bob Dylan are household names, but others are lesser-known independent artists well-known in the indie-rock blogosphere such as Animal Collective, Bon Iver and Iron & Wine  - who round out the top 10 with critical darlings Radiohead and Wilco.

Nielsen also noted that two out of every three vinyl albums were purchased at an independent music store.

Additional findings from the Nielsen SoundScan report:

• Digital music accounted for 40% of all music purchases in 2009.
• Four digital songs broke the 4 million unit sales mark in 2009.
• Lady Gaga sold more digital tracks (more than 15 million) in 2009 than any other artist; last year’s top digital seller Rihanna sold just under 10 million tracks.

About the data: The data covers a 52-week period from January 5, 2009 through January 3, 2010.