Taylor Swift’s Historic Achievement
Taylor Swift has been named the global artist of the IFPI year for 2024, marking her third consecutive year at the top and setting a new record as the first artist to receive this prize five times.
The latest victory of the Pop-Superstar, announced on Tuesday (February 18), follows her previous IFPI Global Artist wins in 2014, 2019, 2022, and 2023.
Record-Breaking Album and Tour
For Swift, the year 2024 was monumental, dominated by the release of Department of Torture Poets which topped several IFPI global charts.
The IFPI Global Artist of the Year Award is calculated based on an artist’s worldwide performance from streaming, downloads, and physical music formats during the calendar year.
Department of Torture Poets, released in April 2024, excelled in all key categories of the Global Album IFPI, including Global Album Chart, Global Vinyl Album Chart, Global Streaming Album Chart, and Global Album Sales Chart.
The album led the IFPI album sales chart with 5.6 million units sold globally in 2024.
IFPI indicates that this chart considers sales of physical albums and full album downloads, calculated based on the number of units sold. To qualify as an album for chart purposes, a release must contain at least five tracks (exclusive of remixes or alternative versions).
The success of the album was bolstered by record-breaking performances during Swift’s Era Tour, which significantly boosted engagement with her entire musical catalog on streaming platforms worldwide.
Tiktok also played a role in promoting the album, with its launch coinciding with Swift’s return to the platform.
The album shattered several streaming records on Spotify following its 2024 release.
According to Pollstar’s analysis for 2024, Swift’s The Era Tour became the highest-grossing tour of all time, bringing in $2.2 billion in revenue.
“We are immensely proud to award Taylor Swift the IFPI Global Artist of the Year for the fifth time, as she continues to redefine global success,” said Victoria Okley, IFPI’s General Director. “This year has been monumental for Taylor, and it has been incredible to witness the level of engagement from fans worldwide with her outstanding catalog of music.”
Trends in the Music Industry
The global artist rankings for 2024 also highlighted notable industry trends. Drake secured the second position (up from No. 4 in 2023), while K-Pop group SEVENTEEN landed in third (down from second place in 2023). Last year, SEVENTEEN‘s FML was the best-selling album worldwide, with two of their albums – Pour Feelings and 17 Right Here – placing sixth and eighth in the top 20 IFPI global albums.
New breakthrough artists such as Zak and Sabrina Carpenter also made it to the top 10 for the first time. Additionally, Billy Eilish and Kendrick Lamar joined the ranks of the 10 best global artists of 2024.
The global charts have revealed shifts in industry models, particularly in the vinyl market, which showed a growing trend for new releases and artists. This was exemplified by strong performances from Chappell Roan‘s The Rise and Fall of the Princess of the Midwest and Billy Eilish‘s Blow Me Hard and Soft. Eilish was recognized as Apple Music’s Artist of the Year for 2024, becoming the first artist to achieve this honor twice after her initial win in 2019.
Swift’s catalog also made it into the TOP 20 of the IFPI Global Vinyl Album: 1989 (Taylor’s Version) (2023), Midnight (2022), folklore (2020), Evermore (2020), and Beloved (2019).
On the Global Album Sales Chart, K-Pop maintained its dominance, with groups like ENHYPEN and SEVENTEEN leading the chart. This trend also highlighted strong performances from other Asian artists, with Chinese artist Zhou Shen and Japanese group Snow Man making it to the top 20.
In addition to IFPI accolades, Swift was also named Spotify’s most streamed artist for the second consecutive year in 2024, achieving more than 26.6 billion streams for the entire year.
Taylor Swift was IFPI’s biggest-selling recording artist globally in 2024 – for a record fifth time
