Adele’s no-streaming strategy may have worked better than was at first thought.
The British singer, who kept her best-selling album, “25,” off streaming services when it was first released Nov. 13, managed to shift a stunning 67 percent of her 7.44 million album sales in 2015 to the physical CD, according to Nielsen Music.
That’s nearly 5 million CD sales. The rest were digital downloads. In an era when CD sales are plummeting, Adele’s performance was outstanding.
In 2014, only two albums sold 1 million physical copies.
Adele’s tremendous sales helped the US music industry see total album sales — physical plus downloads but not including track equivalents — rise 15.2 percent, to 549.4 million units.
The Top 10 selling albums of 2015, according to Nielsen
1. Adele (“25”) 7.44 million
2. Taylor Swift (“1989”) 1.99 million
3. Justin Bieber (“Purpose”) 1.26 million
4. Ed Sheeran (“X”) 1.162 million
5. Drake (“If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late”) 1.142 million
6. Sam Smith (“In the Lonely Hour”) 1.018 million
7. Meghan Trainor (“Title”) 1.007 million
8. The Weeknd (“Beauty Behind Madness”) 862,000
9. Fifty Shades of Grey (soundtrack) 861,000
10. Luke Bryan (“Kill the Lights”) 851,000