Luminate Mid-Year Charts 2024

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Best I can do right now...

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www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/taylor-swift-benson-boone-luminate-2024-midyear-charts-1235731708/

Taylor Swift’s ‘Tortured Poets Department’ & Benson Boone’s ‘Beautiful Things’ Lead Luminate’s 2024 Midyear Charts
By Keith Caulfield
07/16/2024

The Tortured Poets Department and "Beautiful Things" were the U.S.' most popular album and most-streamed song in the first half of 2024.

In the first half of 2024 in the United States, Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department was the most popular album, while Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” was the most-streamed song (by on-demand audio streams), respectively, according to data tracking firm Luminate.

‘Poets’ Perched on Top: For the tracking period of Dec. 29, 2023, through June 27, 2024, Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department was the most popular album in the U.S. The pop superstar’s studio set was released on April 19 via Republic Records and earned 4.66 million equivalent album units in the first half of 2024. (See full top 10 chart, below.) Poets spent its first 12 weeks atop the weekly Billboard 200 chart – the first album by a woman to spend its first 12 weeks at No. 1.

The most-streamed song by on-demand audio streams (inclusive of user-generated content [UGC] streams) was Boone’s breakout 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 top 40-charting hit on the weekly Billboard Hot 100 chart, and peaked at No. 2 on the tally in March.


Equivalent album units – for album titles and chart rankings cited below (but not industry volume numbers) – comprise traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sales, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album, or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official and audio streams generated by songs from an album.

Equivalent album units cited for album titles in this story, and in the “Midyear Top 10 Albums in U.S.” chart do not include user-generated content (UGC) streams. UGC streams are included in Luminate’s industry volume numbers and its midyear song streaming rankings. (UGC streams are not factored into any of Billboard’s weekly charts.)

For the sake of clarity, equivalent album units do not include listening to music on broadcast radio or digital radio broadcasts. All numbers cited in this story are rounded, and for the U.S. only. Programmed streams are not included in any of the data in this story.

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 Billboard’s weekly charts.

Of The Tortured Poets Department’s 4.66 million equivalent album units earned at midyear, album sales comprise 2.47 million, SEA units comprise 2.16 million (equaling 2.82 billion on-demand official audio and video streams of the 31 songs on the deluxe edition of the album) and TEA units comprise 23,000.

The top five most popular albums at the midyear point in the U.S. are The Tortured Poets Department, Morgan Wallen’s March 2023 release One Thing at a Time (1.78 million), Noah Kahan’s October 2022 release Stick Season (1.22 million), Beyoncé’s March release Cowboy Carter (1.10 million) and SZA’s December 2022 release SOS (1.06 million). In 2023, One Thing at a Time and SOS were the Nos. 1 and 3 most popular albums of the year in Luminate’s year-end report.

2024’s Midyear Top 10 Albums in U.S. (by Equivalent Album Units)

1. Taylor Swift, The Tortured Poets Department (4.660 million)
2. Morgan Wallen, One Thing at a Time (1.776 million)
3. Noah Kahan, Stick Season (1.224 million)
4. Beyoncé, Cowboy Carter (1.105 million)
5. SZA, SOS (1.064 million)
6. Future & Metro Boomin, 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’s Version) (953,000)
10. Taylor Swift, Lover (948,000)

Source: Luminate, for the tracking period Dec. 29, 2023, through 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 an album’s songs registered before an album’s release, but only during the tracking period.

2024’s Midyear Top 10 Selling Albums in U.S. (Physical & Digital Album Sales Combined)

1. Taylor Swift, The Tortured Poets Department (2.474 million)
2. Billie Eilish, Hit Me Hard and Soft (306,000)
3. Beyoncé, Cowboy Carter (257,000)
4. Taylor Swift, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) (250,000)
5. Taylor Swift, Lover (208,000)
6. TOMORROW X TOGETHER, Minisode 3: TOMORROW (193,000)
7. ATEEZ, Golden Hour: Part.1 (191,000)
8. Taylor Swift, Folklore (174,000)
9. TWICE, With YOU-th (174,000)
10. Taylor Swift, Midnights (171,000)

Source: Luminate, for the tracking period Dec. 29, 2023, through June 27, 2024.

2024’s Midyear Top 10 Selling Vinyl Albums

1. Taylor Swift, The Tortured Poets Department (988,000)
2. Billie Eilish, Hit Me Hard and Soft (160,000)
3. Taylor Swift, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) (117,000)
4. Taylor Swift, Folklore (108,000)
5. Taylor Swift, Lover (106,000)
6. Taylor Swift, Midnights (100,000)
7. Beyoncé, Cowboy Carter (94,000)
8. Taylor Swift, Evermore (88,000)
9. Noah Kahan, Stick Season (87,000)
10. Olivia Rodrigo, Guts (74,000)

Source: Luminate, for the tracking period Dec. 29, 2023, through June 27, 2024.

Total Album Consumption Increases 7.4% at Midyear: Year-to-date, total equivalent album units grew by 7.4% (to 527.3 million) as compared to the same time frame in 2023 (491.1 million in the span of Dec. 30, 2022, through June 29, 2023). However, Luminate notes in its midyear report that due to changes in methodology and provider 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 with regards to independent retail physical sales. In turn, for the above total equivalent album unit comparison, sales from independent retail stores are excluded from both the midyear 2024 and 2023 numbers above as there is no comparable historical data to provide an accurate year-over-year trend. Indie store album sales are included in the top 10 album rankings in this story. (In January 2024, Luminate retired a weighted data modeling method that previously measured physical sales in the indie retail sector. In April, Luminate launched a partnership with data provider StreetPulse to collect music sales from independent retailers.)

On-Demand Audio Streaming Up 8%, ‘Beautiful Things’ Most-Streamed Song: Boone’s “Beautiful Things” was the most-streamed song by on-demand audio streams in the first half of 2024 in the U.S. (see list, below), with 448.7 million streams (inclusive of UGC). Zach Bryan’s “I Remember Everything,” featuring Kacey Musgraves (437.3 million) and Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control” (409.7 million) round out the top three.

Total on-demand audio streams at midyear grew 8% in the U.S. as compare to the same point a year ago (665.8 billion versus 616.5 billion).

UGC streams are included in Luminate’s industry streaming on-demand volume numbers (above) and its midyear streaming song charts (below). UGC streams are not factored into any of Billboard’s weekly charts.

In general, all songs in the below charts combine the assorted remixes of a song into one overall total.

2024’s Midyear Top 10 Most Streamed Songs in U.S. (On-Demand Audio)

1. Benson Boone, “Beautiful Things” (448.7 million)
2. Zach Bryan featuring 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 & 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 Dec. 29, 2023, through June 27, 2024. Includes UGC streams.

Digital Song Sales Fall 11%: Digital song sales declined 10.9% in the first six months of 2024, falling to 61.96 million, as compared to 69.57 million sold in the first half of 2023. The top-selling digital song at the midyear point is Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” with 219,000 sold.

2023’s Midyear Top 10 Selling Digital Songs in U.S.

1. Shaboozey, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” (219,000)
2. Benson Boone, “Beautiful Things” (200,000)
3. Teddy Swims, “Lose Control” (195,000)
4. Beyoncé, “Texas Hold ‘Em” (178,000)
5. Post Malone featuring Morgan Wallen, “I Had Some Help” (156,000)
6. Megan Thee Stallion, “Hiss” (107,000)
7. Jack Harlow, “Lovin On Me” (95,000)
8. Tom MacDonald & Ben Shapiro, “Facts” (93,000)
9. Eminem, “Houdini” (88,000)
10. Hozier, “Too Sweet” (85,000)

Source: Luminate, for the tracking period Dec. 29, 2023, through June 27, 2024.

Harlow Hot at Radio: The most-heard song on U.S. radio in the first half of 2024 was Harlow’s “Lovin On Me,” with a cumulative 1.743 million audience impressions across all formats monitored by Luminate. “Flowers,” with a cumulative 2.409 billion audience impressions across all formats monitored by Luminate. The track led Billboard’s weekly Radio Songs airplay chart for 12 consecutive weeks (from Jan. 27, 2024 through April 13, 2024).

2024’s Midyear Top 10 Radio Songs in U.S. (Based on 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, “Beautiful Things” (1.142 billion)
9. Sabrina Carpenter, “Feather” (1.123 billion)
10. SZA, “Snooze” (1.111 billion)

Source: Luminate, for the tracking period Dec. 29, 2023, through June 27, 2024.

[Music Fan]

Great to see for Benson Boone. He's definitely one of my favorite new artists and hope the successes keep becoming greater and greater for him.

[bjames21]

I like that they includes Video Streams in this. I wish Billboard had a weekly Video streaming songs chart. I don’t understand why they don’t.

[Baby Yoda Hot100Fan]

^ Video and and audio streams get combined for the Streaming Songs chart. Even on-demand audio streams no longer have their own song. Since most video streams come from YouTube, you should check their weekly YouTube songs chart.

[Baby Yoda Hot100Fan]

From Taylor Swift to Benson Boone, Why 2024’s Midyear Charts Are the Most Unusual In a Decade

7/17/2024

By Dan Rys

From Taylor's dominance to Benson's quirky Hot 100 feat to Warner Records and Republic Records' top-three sweeps, some unusual things have happened this year.

In several different ways, the modern era of the U.S. recorded music business can date its origins to the year 2015. That was the year that Apple Music and TIDAL debuted in the United States; the year that streaming finally matured, taking up the baton as the dominant revenue stream among all formats in the country; and the year that, after more than a decade of decline, the business finally began to see its first shoots of growth, kicking off an upward trend that has still, 10 years later, not abated.

This week, Luminate released its annual midyear report on the U.S. business, providing a relatively convenient bookend to the first 10 years of what can reasonably be referred to as the official streaming era. The midyear charts threw up a few surprises (the enduring success of Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” led to it becoming the most-streamed song of 2024 so far) and some more obvious conclusions (Taylor Swift, of course, dominated the album charts with The Tortured Poets Department). 

But it also revealed several milestones and achievements that have not happened in the past 10 years of the Luminate (and, prior to it, MRC Data and Nielsen) reports. So with the caveat that it’s still just the midway mark, and release dates and other factors weigh more heavily in smaller sample sizes, here are five stats that demonstrate that the first half of 2024 has been the most unusual year of the past decade. 

The Sheer Scale of Taylor’s Dominance

Swift’s Tortured Poets Department easily outstripped every other album at the midyear mark, having spent 12 of the 26 weeks of the year so far atop the Billboard 200. But at the midyear mark, its dominance could also be referred to as historic compared to the past 10 years. At 4.66 million equivalent album units, TTPD has outstripped the No. 2 album, Morgan Wallen’s One Thing At a Time, by more than double — and nearly triple — the latter’s 1.776 million, with a total that’s 2.62 times higher than Wallen’s album (which, to be fair, was released in March 2023).

That’s the first time in the past decade that the No. 1 album’s first-half total doubled, much less more than doubled, the No. 2 album. The differential between the two, 2.884 million units, is over 1.5 million more than the disparity between any other top two albums over the time period, with 2023 being the only other year the disparity topped 1 million units. (Last year, Wallen’s One Thing At a Time came in at 3.312 million units, 1.33 million more than SZA’s SOS.) The closest race of the past 10 years? That’d be in 2017 when Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. edged out Ed Sheeran’s divide by just 23,000 units at the midway mark.

The No. 1 Song Didn’t Reach No. 1 on the Hot 100

Boone’s “Beautiful Things” was an early breakout story this year, as the singer seemed to explode out of nowhere with the biggest hit of his career so far. The song got off to a flying start, debuting at No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January — and then spent all but two weeks in the top 10 of the chart, landing at No. 1 for the most-streamed song of the year so far on Luminate’s mid-year tally.

The only quirk? “Beautiful Things” peaked at No. 2 on the Hot 100, never quite reaching No. 1. Given that, it may seem odd that it finished No. 1 in streams at the midyear point, though that can be explained by its sustained dominance in the top 10 and its early-year debut, which gave it the full six months to rack up all those streams. What is odd, however, is that it’s the only song in the past decade that landed at No. 1 at the midyear mark and also never reached the top of the Hot 100. In fact, every other year since 2015, the top song halfway through the year had spent at least five weeks in the top slot — ranging from the Encanto cast’s “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” in 2022 (five weeks) to Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk!” in 2015, which hit 14 weeks. (Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” No. 1 at the halfway mark in 2019, ultimately spent 19 weeks at No. 1, though it was only halfway through that run at the midyear point.)

Midyear No. 1 Songs by On-Demand Streams (Weeks at No. 1)

2023: Miley Cyrus, “Flowers” (8 weeks)
2022: Encanto Cast, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” (5 weeks)
2021: Olivia Rodrigo, “Drivers License” (8 weeks)
2020: Roddy Ricch, “The Box” (11 weeks)
2019: Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” (19 weeks)
2018: Drake, “God’s Plan” (11 weeks)
2017: Ed Sheeran, “Shape Of You” (12 weeks)
2016: Rihanna feat. Drake, “Work” (9 weeks)
2015: Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars, “Uptown Funk!” (14 weeks)

Warner Records Lands Top 3 Songs

About those top-streamed songs? Boone’s was No. 1, followed by Zach Bryan feat. Kacey Musgraves with “I Remember Everything” and Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control” at Nos. 2 and 3. All of those songs were released by Warner Records, giving the label a trifecta. No other label has had the top three songs at the midyear mark in the past decade, giving Warner sole possession of the feat in this era.

A few labels have come close, however: in 2022, Atlantic Records had the top song (“We Don’t Talk About Bruno”), the No. 4 song (Kodak Black’s “Super Gremlin”) and had one of its stars, Jack Harlow, on the No. 2 song (Lil Nas X and Harlow’s “Industry Baby”, which was released on X’s label Columbia). In 2018, Republic Records had three of the top four, with one of its artists, Drake, on the No. 3 song: Blocboy JB feat. Drake, “Look Alive.” However, “Look Alive” came out on Drake’s label OVO Sound, which was distributed by Warner at the time. In 2016, Def Jam had Nos. 2 and 3 (Desiigner’s “Panda” and Justin Bieber’s “Sorry,” respectively) and a distribution deal with Roc Nation, which put out the No. 1 song, Rihanna’s “Work” featuring Drake — though Def Jam didn’t technically release it.

Republic Records Lands Top 3 Albums

Not to be outdone, the top of the midyear albums chart also threw up a trifecta for a label: Republic Records, which released Swift and Wallen’s albums (the latter in partnership with Big Loud), as well as the No. 3 album, Noah Kahan’s Stick Season (in partnership with Mercury). Somewhat surprisingly, given Republic’s recent dominance in the market share standings as well as the overall dominance of Wallen and Swift in recent years, this is the first time Republic has taken the top three slots at the midyear mark — and, over the past decade, the only time any label has held down the top three at this point in the year.

The only time another label came close was, unsurprisingly, Republic. In 2023, the label had four of the top five albums of the year at the midway mark, but it was thwarted from claiming the top three by SZA’s SOS, which was released by Top Dawg/RCA.

Just Five Albums in the Top 10 Came Out Within the Past 12 Months

The top 10 albums chart by equivalent units served up plenty of familiar titles this year: Swift, Wallen, Kahan, SZA and Bryan, as well as albums from Beyoncé (Cowboy Carter, No. 4) and Future & Metro Boomin (We Don’t Trust You, No. 6). But incredibly, only five of the top 10 were released within the past 12 months: Swift’s TTPD, Beyoncé’s Carter and Future & Metro’s Trust, all of which came out in 2024. Bryan’s self-titled album, which finished at No. 8, was released last August, while Swift’s No. 9-ranking 1989 (Taylor’s Version), a re-recording of an album that came out in 2014, was released last October. That’s the fewest number of titles in the top 10 of any midyear consumption chart in the past 10 years to have been released within the prior 12 months (dating back to the midyear mark of the year before), with no other year going back to 2015 serving up fewer than six.

In fact, that number has been steadily dropping for a half-decade now: Since 2019, when nine of the top 10 were released within the prior 12 months, there have been nine (2020), seven (2021), seven (2022) and six (2023) in the top 10. (In 2017, all 10 fit the criteria.) The streaming era has done many things for the music business, but one thing it has done more than any other is to expose people’s listening habits rather than buying habits. And the consumption numbers of current (releases within the past 18 months) vs. catalog (releases older than 18 months) have borne out the by-now long-established trend that catalog rules consumption: This year, Luminate calculated that catalog listening accounted for 72.8% of listening share, a figure that remained the same as it was at the midway point in 2023.

But the sheer staying power of some of these top 10 albums is what’s most impressive. Wallen’s One Thing At a Time is over a year old by now; but his 2021 album, Dangerous: The Double Album, is still at No. 7. SZA’s SOS, No. 2 at the midyear mark last year, came in at No. 5. Kahan’s Stick Season originally came out in October 2022. 1989 (Taylor’s Version) is a collection of songs that, in their original form, date back a decade. And at No. 10, Swift’s Lover is approaching its fifth anniversary in August.

Will the charts remain so static in the future? Is it a product of the maturation of the streaming age? Or is it just that these albums are simply so dominant that they elbowed out all others? It’s something to keep an eye on.