One Direction have been named the IFPI Global Recording Artists of 2013, receiving the newly-created award honouring the most popular recording artist across music downloads, streaming and physical format sales.
One Direction have seen huge success with their third studio album Midnight Memories, which contained the hit singles Best Song Ever and Story of My Life. The album topped the US Billboard Top 200 chart, making One Direction the first group in the charts history to debut at No. 1 with its first three albums. It also topped the charts in countries from Australia to the UK.
The video for Best Song Ever attracted almost 200 million views on YouTube and Story of My Life’s video recorded more than 100 million views. The band’s music was also heavily streamed on services such as Deezer and Spotify.
Top 10 global recording artists 2013
| 1 | One Direction |
| 2 | Eminem |
| 3 | Justin Timberlake |
| 4 | Bruno Mars |
| 5 | Katy Perry |
| 6 | P!nk |
| 7 | Macklemore & Ryan Lewis |
| 8 | Rihanna |
| 9 | Michael Bublé |
| 10 | Daft Punk |
Source: IFPI. See note to editors below.
The second spot was claimed by Eminem, driven by the success of his eighth studio album The Marshall Mathers LP 2, which included the singles Berzerk and The Monster. The album featured guest appearances from Skylar Grey, Kendrick Lamar, Rihanna and Nate Ruess. The album headed the charts in major music markets such as the US, UK, Germany and Australia.
The third spot was taken by Justin Timberlake on the back of the success of The 20/20 Experience, his third album released in March, and the follow-up The 20/20 Experience – 2 of 2 released in September. The albums contained a number of hit singles, including Mirrors, Suit & Tie and Take Back the Night.
IFPI published its first global recording artists chart today to accurately capture the popularity of artists across streaming channels, alongside digital and physical album and singles sales.
The independently verified chart includes sales of albums – across digital, CD and vinyl formats; singles, both downloaded and physical; on-demand streams and music videos. The chart includes all the music of each artist featured, not just one track or album. It uses track and album equivalents to combine measurements of downloads, physical sales and streams.
Niall Horan of One Direction says: “Incredible news! It’s great to have a chart that includes everything from iTunes and record stores, to YouTube and Spotify. Again a huge thank you to all of our fans for such an amazing 2013.”
Frances Moore, chief executive of IFPI, says: “Many congratulations to One Direction who topped a talented field to become the IFPI Global Recording Artists of 2013. This is a global IFPI award for a new era of music consumption, based on a new metric of global success. Our chart for the first time measures the popularity of artists across the many different ways in which fans choose their music.”
