Amazon just released its list of top-selling MP3 songs and albums of the year, and Taylor Swift was surprisingly not at the top slot of either. Shake it off, girl.
In the album category, Tswift lost to Pentatonix, whom I had honestly never heard of but apparently is some sort of a cappella funtime gang? They also released their chart-topping Christmas album just one week before Swift’s 1989, which means they didn’t have much of a head start, making that number one position all the more impressive.
Here’s Amazon’s top five:
1) Pentatonix – That’s Christmas To Me
2) Taylor Swift – 1989
3) Various Artists – Guardins of the Galaxy Awesome Mix Vol. 1
4) Ed Sheeran – X (Deluxe Edition)
5) Lindsey Stirling – Shatter Me
Tay didn’t top the best-selling songs either. Nope, that song went to viral hit “All About that Bass”. Here’s Amazon’s top five best-selling songs:
1) Meghan Trainor – “All About That Bass”
2) Taylor Swift – “Shake It Off”
3) Fall Out Boy – “Centuries”
4) Ariana Grande – “Bang Bang”
5) Maroon 5 – “Animals”
Taylor still did just fine this year, spending seven weeks on the Billboard 200, peaking at number one, and securing the first Platinum album of the year (in November, at that!). She was only recently unseated from the number one spot by J. Cole, so she’s probably pretty unbothered by Amazon’s numbers. And, bear in mind, she ditched Spotify completely for this album. (Although, by Billboard numbers, that doesn’t really matter — it only recently started to factor in streaming).
Music sales vary platform to platform of course. Per Billboard, the overall best-selling album of the year was Frozen. Or if we were looking at iTunes alone, the top-selling album would technically be U2’s record. But then again, you can’t force a free album onto someone and say they bought it. Regardless, it all depends on the lens you’re looking through. And through Amazon’s, Taylor lost.