Billboard & Nielsen SoundScan List Taylor Swift as the Top-Selling and Most-Played Artist of 2010

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Jan. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- For the second time in three years, Taylor Swift has been named Billboard & Nielsen SoundScan's top-selling artist of the year, with over 4.4 million albums sold in 2010, according to sales figures released this week. Taylor was also SoundScan's top-selling artist in 2008, and her Fearless album was 2009's biggest-selling CD.

For the second consecutive year, Taylor is Billboard's most-played artist, topping their annual all-genre Artist Airplay chart with more than 1.128 million airplay detections in 2010.

In addition, with over 34 million tracks sold to date, Taylor remains the top selling digital artist in music history, again holding the #1 position atop Billboard's chart of Top Selling Digital Artists.

Taylor has sold more than 4 million albums each year for three consecutive years, and is the only artist to sell 4+ million albums each of the last three years.

This week, Taylor's latest Big Machine Records release, Speak Now, spends its fifth week at #1 on Billboard's all-genre Top 200 Albums chart. Speak Now has been certified triple-platinum and was 2010's best-selling internet album.

Taylor has had one of Billboard's ten biggest albums every year since 2007. The debut single from Speak Now, "Mine," went to #1, and the album's second single, "Back to December," is currently climbing both the Country and Pop radio charts. Released in October, Speak Now sold over 1,046,000 copies the first week, for the biggest debut-week sales for an album since 2005, and the biggest debut ever for a country studio album. Every song from Speak Now has charted on the Billboard Hot 100, eleven of them at the same time. Speak Now's commercial success is matched by its critical acclaim, winning rave reviews from the nation's top critics, including Rolling Stone, The New York Times, and the Hollywood Reporter. Entertainment Weekly named Taylor 2010's Entertainer of the Year.

Taylor's career sales now exceed 19 million albums and 33 million song downloads, and in 2010 she won four GRAMMY awards, including Album of the Year. She has more than 15 million Facebook fans and currently has more than 4.9 million Twitter followers.

Taylor started off the New Year with a big win at this week's People's Choice Awards in Los Angeles, taking home the Favorite Country Artist award. Taylor will spend the greater part of 2011 on tour in support of Speak Now, playing 90 shows in 19 countries. The tour kicks off February 9th in Singapore.

For a complete listing of dates and updated information on the 2011 SPEAK NOW Tour, please visit: www.taylorswift.com.

SOURCE Big Machine Records