Compared to a pre-Internet era without illegal downloads, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for artists to sell their work. Recorded sales figures may be just a shadow of their former amounts, but fortunately, according to Billboard, some albums are still selling millions.
As is the case with Recovery, an album by Eminem, launched last June, which has managed to find 3,415,000 buyers to push it the top of the sales charts in 2010.
The trio Lady Antebellum is in second position having also managed to cross the 3 million mark with 3.089 million copies of Need You Now. Unlike Eminem, the early release in January has allowed them to accumulate this number over a longer period.
The real feat of 2010, however, comes from Taylor Swift who, in just two months, sold 2.96 million copies of Speak Now to capture the third place.
Ever present in top sellers of the year, Justin Bieber takes fourth place with My World 2.0 having sold 2.319 million copies. It would be interesting to know the ratio of female-male buyers for this particular disc.
Launched in November and skyrocketing to fifth place with 1,852,000 copies sold, Susan Boyle’s album The Gift is doing extremely well around the world. Her older fan base is accustomed to paying for music, and therefore much less likely to download music illegally – helping to rapidly propel her album to the top of the sales charts.