Vinyl is continuing to enjoy boom times and looking less and less like anything that can be considered a fad or even niche market. However, the physical sales decline was entirely on the CD side. Total album sales, including both physical and digital copies were down 9.2% in the U.S. Global song sales were down 19.2% and the decline was even harsher in the U.S., with a decline of 22.3%, from from 301 tracks sold to 234 million. The news was not so great for digital music sales, as consumers continue to devalue ownership of their music when streaming is so handy. Besides Cardi and Megan, Nicki MInaj, M.I.A and Doja Cat were the other female rappers to land in that top spot.

1 song on BillboardРІР‚в„ўs Hot 100 during the year - compared with a total of six in the entire history of the chart prior to 2020. Speaking of Cardi and Megan: Another milestone noted by MRC was the presence of five female rappers as either the primary or featured artist on a No. Internationally, the biggest track of the year was РІР‚СљWAPРІР‚Сњ by Cardi B featuring Megan Thee Stallion. In the U.S., the yearРІР‚в„ўs most consumed song was Roddy RicchРІР‚в„ўs РІР‚СљThe Box,РІР‚Сњ with 1.3 billion streams and 1.7 billion audience impressions at radio. РІР‚СљFolkloreРІР‚Сњ was the only album of 2020 to top a million in full-album sales, finishing the year with 1.28 million copies sold. (Previously, a Rolling Stone year-end report released earlier this week had Swift coming in first and Lil Baby second, but Billboard and Rolling Stone make their final calculations based on different data sets, with Billboard/PMC including video streams, in which Lil Baby had an outsized presence, as well as audio, among other differences.)Р”Р„s actual album sales go, Swift had no competition. РІР‚СљMy TurnРІР‚Сњ was the most consumed album of the year overall, according to MRC, with 2.63 million album units tallied, Taylor SwiftРІР‚в„ўs РІР‚СљFolkloreРІР‚Сњ came in second in these calculations with 2.2 million album-equivalent units. International audio on-demand streaming was up 22.6% in 2020.

The streaming uptick was even greater globally than it was domestically.

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