Drake, Bowie Top IFPI Global Top Selling Artists Of 2016
Drake was the world’s best-selling recording artist of 2016 according to the IFPI , driven by the success of his fourth album, Views, which was released last year. Drake is the fourth recipient of the IFPI Global Recording Artist of the Year Award which reflects worldwide sales across physical and digital formats, including downloads and streams.
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Drake was the top selling artists globally in 2016, according to the IFPI, after his Views became the first album to reach one billion streams on Apple Music, while One Dance, the album’s second single, was the first song to be played one billion times on Spotify.
David Bowie took second place on the IFPI Global Top 10 thanks to the release of Blackstar two days before his death in January 2016. The album reached #1 in 24 countries. In third and fourth place on the chart, respectively, were Coldplay and Adele. Previous global chart toppers were One Direction (2013), Taylor Swift (2014) and Adele (2015).
Top 10 Global Recording Artists of 2016
1 Drake
2 David Bowie
3 Coldplay
4 Adele
5 Justin Bieber
6 Twenty One Pilots
7 Beyoncé
8 Rihanna
9 Prince
10 The Weeknd
The independently verified IFPI Global Recording Artist chart includes sales of albums – across digital, CD and vinyl formats; singles, both downloaded and physical; and on-demand audio streams and music videos across the calendar year. The chart includes all the music of each artist featured, not just one track or album. It uses album equivalent units to combine measurements of downloads, physical sales and streams.
