The International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry - or IFPI to its best buds - will publish its big old Global Music Report for 2025 on 19 Mar, gathering together stats for the worldwide recorded music market, and breaking down the sector’s earnings by revenue stream, region and country.
In recent years the big report has been preceded by a flurry of artist-related stats and charts from IFPI, mainly confirming that Taylor Swift is really fucking popular. And this year is no different, with the record industry trade group publishing no less than five global charts for 2024 earlier today confirming, just in case anybody was in any doubt, that Taylor Swift is really fucking popular.
Indeed, she tops all five charts, making you wonder if there’s even any point distinguishing between formats when charting success anymore.
That includes the IFPI’s overall artist chart, which mashes together consumption across all formats and an artist’s entire catalogue. It’s the fifth time, and third consecutive year, that Swift has topped that total consumption chart, which also gets her the title of IFPI Global Recording Artist Of The Year.
Swift’s success, says the trade group, is partly “thanks to the huge success of her eleventh studio album ‘The Tortured Poets Department’”, but also because the “record-breaking The Eras Tour boosted fan engagement with her entire catalogue on streaming platforms around the world”.
Says IFPI boss Victoria Oakley, “We are immensely proud to award the IFPI Global Recording Artist Of The Year Award to Taylor Swift for the fifth time, as she continues to redefine the limits of global success. This has been a huge year for Taylor, and it has been incredible to see the extent to which fans all over the world are connecting with her superb catalogue of music”.
The other IFPI 2024 charts are for the most successful albums overall, highest album sales and highest album streams, and best selling vinyl albums. With ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ topping every single one, maybe you’d be more interested to know what’s in second place.
That’s Billie Eilish’s ‘Hit Me Hard And Soft’ for albums in general; Enhyphen’s ‘Romance: Untold’ for album sales; Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘Short N Sweet’ for album streams; and Eilish again in the vinyl albums chart.
If you’re more interested in stats that don't involve Taylor Swift, you’ll have to wait for the full IFPI report next month. Or if you’re really impatient, there’s always the rival recorded music market report published by consultancy MIDiA, which usually comes out shortly before the big IFPI stats pack.