Eminem, Taylor Swift Top Year-End Online Retailers’ Sales Charts
The two most prominent online music retailers, iTunes and Amazon, released their rundowns of 2010’s top-selling albums and singles Thursday. Eminem’s Recovery was the best-selling album on iTunes during 2010, while Taylor Swift’s Speak Now rang up the virtual cash registers at Amazon.
On the singles side, Train’s ubiquitous “Hey, Soul Sister” topped the iTunes chart, while the best-selling song on Amazon was Katy Perry’s Snoop Dogg-assisted ode to the Golden State “California Gurls.”
iTunes also named Eminem its artist of the year; in addition to Recovery topping the albums chart, he had two singles, “Love the Way You Lie” and “Not Afraid,” in the store’s year-end top 20.
Below are the top 20 albums and singles lists for Amazon and iTunes. First, though, a note of caution: These lists shouldn’t be held up for apples-to-apples comparisons as far as trying to deduce raw sales numbers. For one thing, Amazon’s album tally includes both records sold via its mail-order unit and its digital music store. And Billboard reported last week that Amazon’s MP3 store has about two percent of the overall market for music, compared to an estimated 28 percent share for iTunes.
iTunes’ Top-Selling Albums Of 2010
1. Eminem, Recovery
2. Ke$ha, Animal
3. Lady Gaga, The Fame
4. Lady Antebellum, Need You Now
5. Taylor Swift, Speak Now
6. Drake, Thank Me Later
7. Mumford & Sons, Sigh No More
8. The Black Eyed Peas, The E.N.D.
9. Jack Johnson, To The Sea
10. Sade, Soldier of Love
11. Zac Brown Band, The Foundation
12. Lil Wayne, I Am Not A Human Being
13. Glee: The Music, Journey To Regionals
14. Justin Bieber, My World 2.0
15. Vampire Weekend, Contra
16. B.o.B, B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray
17. Glee: The Music, Volume 3
18. The Black Keys, Brothers
19. Usher, Raymond vs. Raymond
20. Kings of Leon, Come Around Sundown
Amazon’s Best-Selling Albums of 2010
1. Taylor Swift, Speak Now
2. Lady Antebellum, Need You Now
3. Arcade Fire, The Suburbs
4. Susan Boyle, The Gift
5. Eminem, Recovery
6. Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
7. Sade, Solder Of Love
8. James Taylor, Live at the Troubadour
9. Vampire Weekend, Contra
10. Mumford & Sons, Sigh No More
11. Jackie Evancho, O Holy Night
12. Various Artists, Crazy Heart: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
13. Gorillaz, Plastic Beach
14. The Black Keys, Brothers
15. Glee: The Music, Volume 3
16. The National, High Violet
17. Broken Bells
18. Bruce Springsteen, The Promise
19. Kid Rock, Born Free
20. Sara Bareilles, Kaleidoscope Heart
A few extra facts about the albums chart:
The charity album Hope For Haiti Now — which contained Bruce Springsteen’s version of “We Shall Overcome”; “Stranded,” Jay-Z’s collaboration with Bono, the Edge and Rihanna; and other songs that were performed on the January telethon to benefit the earthquake-stricken nation — was iTunes’ second-best-selling album of the year, although it’s not listed on the year-end chart because it’s no longer for sale.
Kid Rock is a notorious iTunes holdout, hence his absence from Apple’s music store’s list.
The singles charts, which are based on digital download data:
iTunes’ Top-Selling Singles of 2010
1. Train, “Hey Soul Sister”
2. Katy Perry feat. Snoop Dogg, “California Gurls”
3. Eminem feat. Rihanna, “Love the Way You Lie”
4. B.o.B feat. Hayley Williams, “Airplanes”
5. Taio Cruz, “Dynamite”
6. Usher feat. will.i.am, “OMG”
7. Taio Cruz and Ludacris, “Break Your Heart”
8. Ke$ha, “Tik Tok”
9. Lady Antebellum, “Need You Now”
10. Eminem, “Not Afraid”
11. The Black Eyed Peas, “Imma Be”
12. Enrique Iglesias feat. Pitbull, “I Like It”
13. B.o.B feat. Bruno Mars, “Nothin’ On You”
14. Ke$ha, “Your Love Is My Drug”
15. Travie McCoy feat. Bruno Mars, “Billionaire”
16. Justin Bieber and Ludacris, “Baby”
17. Katy Perry, “Teenage Dream”
18. Bruno Mars, “Just the Way You Are”
19. Jason Derülo, “In My Head”
20. Lady Gaga feat. Beyoncé, “Telephone”
Amazon’s Top-Selling Singles of 2010
1. Katy Perry feat. Snoop Dogg, “California Gurls”
2. Eminem feat. Rihanna, “Love The Way You Lie”
3. Bruno Mars, “Just The Way You Are”
4. Nelly, “Just A Dream”
5. Enrique Iglesias feat. Pitbull, “I Like It”
6. Cee Lo Green, “Fuck You”
7. Rihanna, “Only Girl (In The World)”
8. Flo Rida feat. David Guetta, “Club Can’t Handle Me”
9. Katy Perry, “Teenage Dream”
10. Far East Movement, “Like A G6”
11. Jason Derülo, “Ridin’ Solo”
12. Travie McCoy feat. Bruno Mars, “Billionaire (single version)”
13. Justin Bieber and Ludacris, “Baby”
14. Taio Cruz and Ludacris, “Break Your Heart”
15. Trey Songz feat. Nicki Minaj, “Bottoms Up”
16. 3Oh!3 feat. Ke$ha, “My First Kiss”
17. Travie McCoy feat. Bruno Mars, “Billionaire (album version)”
18. Diddy – Dirty Money, “Hello Good Morning”
19. Cali Swag District, “Teach Me How To Dougie”
20. The Band Perry, “If I Die Young”
A few extra facts about the singles charts:
iTunes’ Number One single, Train’s “Hey, Soul Sister,” is not on Amazon’s 100-place Top Singles of 2010 chart.
The most-represented artist on iTunes’ 100-place singles chart was Lady Gaga, who had six singles (“Telephone,” “Bad Romance,” “Alejandro,” “Poker Face,” “Paparazzi” and “Just Dance”) make the list. Ke$ha appeared on six songs on the tally as well; on five songs, she was top-billed, while on 3OH!3’s “My First Kiss” she has a “featured” credit.
The lower reaches of both charts have a few songs that became well-known in 2009; among them are including Owl City’s “Fireflies” (No. 50 on iTunes, No. 79 on Amazon), Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” (No. 39 on iTunes) and the aforementioned Lady Gaga tracks (none of which show up on Amazon’s singles chart).
Rewind 2010 [iTunes; launches application]
Best Music Of 2010 [Amazon]