By Ole Hagen/Redferns; Gareth Cattermole/TAS24/Getty Images
In the first half of 2024 in the United States, Taylor Swift The Department of Tortured Poets was the most popular album, while Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” was the most streamed song (via on-demand audio streams), respectively, according to data tracking firm Luminate.
To learn more about mid-year metrics, check out Luminate’s 2024 Mid-Year Music Report.
“Poets” perched at the top: For the monitoring period from December 29, 2023 to June 27, 2024, Swift’s The Department of Tortured Poets was the most popular album in the United States. The pop superstar’s studio album was released on April 19 via Republic Records and has earned 4.66 million equivalent album units in the first half of 2024. (See the full top 10 ranking below.) Poets spent its first 12 weeks atop the Billboard 200 weekly chart – the first album by a woman to spend its first 12 weeks at No. 1.
Poets is also the best-selling album, according to traditional album sales, at the midpoint, with 2.47 million copies sold. It is the best-selling album on CD (1.07 million), vinyl (988,000) and digital download (395,000) in the first six months of 2024.
The most streamed song via on-demand audio streams (including user-generated content (UGC) streams) was Boone’s hit “Beautiful Things,” with 448.7 million clicks in the first six months of the year. “Beautiful Things,” released via Night Street/Warner Records, marked Boone’s first hit to reach the top 40 of the weekly Billboard Hot 100 chart, and peaked at No. 2 on the chart in March.
Album equivalent units – for the album tracks and charts cited below (but not industry volume figures) – include traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEAs) and streaming equivalent albums (SEAs). Each unit is equivalent to one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported official on-demand audio and video streams generated from the songs on an album, or 1,250 paid/subscription audio and official on-demand streams generated from the songs on an album.
The equivalent album units cited for album tracks in this article and in the “Top 10 Mid-Year Albums in the United States” ranking do not include user-generated content (UGC) streams. UGC streams are included in Luminate’s industry volume figures and its Mid-Year Song Streaming Charts. (UGC streams are not included in either of the Billboard(weekly charts of.)
For clarity, equivalent album units do not include music listening on broadcast radio or digital radio. All figures cited in this article are rounded and are for the United States only. Programmed streams are not included in any of the data in this article.
Luminate (formerly MRC Data, Nielsen Music and SoundScan) began tracking music consumption in 1991. Luminate’s sales, streaming and airplay data is used to compile BillboardWeekly charts of.
Of The Department of Tortured PoetsOf the 4.66 million equivalent album units earned at mid-year, album sales accounted for 2.47 million, SEA units accounted for 2.16 million (equivalent to 2.82 billion official on-demand audio and video streams of the album’s 31 deluxe edition songs), and TEA units accounted for 23,000.
The five most popular albums in the US mid-year are The Department of Tortured PoetsMorgan Wallen Released in March 2023 One thing at a time (1.78 million), released by Noah Kahan in October 2022 Stick season (1.22 million), Beyoncé’s March release Carter the cowboy (1.10 million) and SZA’s release in December 2022 SOS (1.06 million). In 2023, One thing at a time And SOS were the #1 and #3 most popular albums of the year in Luminate’s year-end report.
Top 10 Mid-Year Albums of 2024 in the United States (by equivalent album units)
1. Taylor Swift, The Department of Tortured Poets (4.660 million)
2. Morgan Wallen, One thing at a time (1.776 million)
3. Noah Kahan, Stick season (1.224 million)
4. Beyoncé, Carter the cowboy (1.105 million)
5. SZA, SOS (1.064 million)
6. Future and booming metro, We don’t trust you (1.046 million)
7. Morgan Wallen, Dangerous: The Double Album (1.010 million)
8. Zach Bryan, Zach Bryan (984,000)
9. Taylor Swift, 1989 (Taylor version) (953,000)
10. Taylor Swift, Lover (948,000)
Source: Luminate, for the tracking period of December 29, 2023 to June 27, 2024. UGC (user-generated content) streams are not included in this chart, but are included in Luminate’s on-demand streaming charts (below). Luminate’s equivalent album unit totals include SEA and TEA for songs on an album recorded before the album’s release, but only during the tracking period.
Top 10 best-selling albums in the United States in 2024 (physical and digital album sales combined)
1. Taylor Swift, The Department of Tortured Poets (2.474 million)
2. Billie Eilish, Hit me hard and soft (306,000)
3. Beyoncé, Carter the cowboy (257,000)
4. Taylor Swift, 1989 (Taylor version) (250,000)
5. Taylor Swift, Lover (208,000)
6. TOMORROW X TOGETHER, Mini-episode 3: TOMORROW (193,000)
7. ATEEZ, The Golden Hour: Part 1 (191,000)
8. Taylor Swift, Folklore (174,000)
9. TWICE, With yourself (174,000)
10. Taylor Swift, Midnight (171,000)
Source: Luminate, for the monitoring period from December 29, 2023 to June 27, 2024.
Top 10 Best Selling Vinyl Albums Mid-Year 2024
1. Taylor Swift, The Department of Tortured Poets (988,000)
2. Billie Eilish, Hit me hard and soft (160,000)
3. Taylor Swift, 1989 (Taylor version) (117,000)
4. Taylor Swift, Folklore (108,000)
5. Taylor Swift, Lover (106,000)
6. Taylor Swift, Midnight (100,000)
7. Beyoncé, Carter the cowboy (94,000)
8. Taylor Swift, Always (88,000)
9. Noah Kahan, Stick season (87,000)
10. Olivia Rodrigo, Gut (74,000)
Source: Luminate, for the monitoring period from December 29, 2023 to June 27, 2024.
Total album consumption increased by 7.4% at mid-year: Year-to-date, total equivalent album units increased 7.4% (to 527.3 million) compared to the same period in 2023 (491.1 million between December 30, 2022 and June 29, 2023). However, Luminate notes in its mid-year report that due to changes in vendor methodology and reporting, a trend break occurred in the first half of 2024, and they are unable to provide an accurate representation of year-over-year changes in standalone physical retail sales. In turn, for the above total equivalent album unit comparison, standalone retail store sales are excluded from the 2024 and 2023 mid-year figures above as there is no comparable historical data to provide an accurate year-over-year trend. Album sales from independent stores are included in this article’s Top 10 albums ranking. (In January 2024, Luminate discontinued a weighted data modeling method that previously measured physical sales in the independent retail sector. In April, Luminate launched a partnership with data provider StreetPulse to collect music sales from independent retailers.)
On-demand audio streaming increases by 8%, “Beautiful Things” is the most streamed song: Boone’s “Beautiful Things” was the most-streamed song on on-demand audio streaming services in the first half of 2024 in the US (see list below), with 448.7 million streams (including UGC). Zach Bryan’s “I Remember Everything” featuring Kacey Musgraves (437.3 million) and Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control” (409.7 million) rounded out the top three.
Total on-demand audio streams increased 8% in the U.S. midyear compared to the same period a year ago (665.8 billion vs. 616.5 billion).
UGC streams are included in Luminate’s on-demand streaming volume figures (above) and its mid-year streaming song rankings (below). UGC streams are not included in either BillboardWeekly charts of.
In general, all songs in the charts below combine the different remixes of a song into one overall total.
Top 10 Most Streamed Songs in the United States in 2024 (Audio on Demand)
1. Benson Boone, “The Beautiful Things” ($448.7 million)
2. Zach Bryan with Kacey Musgraves, “I Remember Everything” ($437.3 million)
3. Teddy Swims, “Lose Control” ($409.7 million)
4. Tommy Richman, “Million Dollar Baby” ($374.9 million)
5. Future, Metro Boomin and Kendrick Lamar, “Like That” ($374.9 million)
6. Kendrick Lamar, “Not Like Us” ($362.1 million)
7. Noah Kahan, “Stick Season” ($342.9 million)
8. Jack Harlow, “Lovin On Me” ($340.8 million)
9. Shaboozey, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” ($333.1 million)
10. Hozier, “Too Sweet” ($333.1 million)
Source: Luminate, for the tracking period of December 29, 2023 to June 27, 2024. Includes UGC feeds.
Digital song sales drop 11%: Digital song sales declined 10.9% in the first six months of 2024, falling to 61.96 million, compared to 69.57 million sold in the first half of 2023. The top-selling digital song at the mid-year level was Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” with 219,000 copies sold.
Top 10 Best-Selling Digital Songs in the United States in 2023.
1. Shaboozey, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” (219,000)
2. Benson Boone, “Fine Things” (200,000)
3. Teddy Swims, “Lose Control” (195,000)
4. Beyoncé, “Texas Hold ‘Em” (178,000)
5. Post Malone with Morgan Wallen, “I Got Help” (156,000)
6. Megan Thee Stallion, “Hiss” (107,000)
7. Jack Harlow, “Lovin On Me” (95,000)
8. Tom MacDonald and Ben Shapiro, “Facts” (93,000)
9. Eminem, “Houdini” (88,000)
10. Hozier, “Too Sweet” (85,000)
Source: Luminate, for the monitoring period from December 29, 2023 to June 27, 2024.
Harlow Hot on the radio: The most-played song on U.S. radio in the first half of 2024 was Harlow’s “Lovin On Me,” with a cumulative 1.743 billion audience impressions across all formats monitored by Luminate. “Flowers,” with a cumulative 2.409 billion audience impressions across all formats monitored by Luminate. The song led BillboardWeekly ranking of radio songs broadcast for 12 consecutive weeks (from January 27, 2024 to April 13, 2024).
Top 10 Best Radio Songs in the US in 2024 (According to Audience Impressions)
1. Jack Harlow, “Lovin On Me” ($1.743 billion)
2. Teddy Swims, “Lose Control” ($1.692 billion)
3. Doja Cat, “Agora Hills” ($1.544 billion)
4. Taylor Swift, “Cruel Summer” ($1.402 billion)
5. Tate McRae, “Greedy” ($1.388 billion)
6. Luke Combs, “Fast Car” ($1.248 billion)
7. Tyla, “Water” (1.210 billion)
8. Benson Boone, “Fair Things” ($1.142 billion)
9. Sabrina Carpenter, “Feather” ($1.123 billion)
10. SZA, “Snooze” ($1.111 billion)
Source: Luminate, for the monitoring period from December 29, 2023 to June 27, 2024.