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Top 25 most streamed female albums of the digital era. (2005-2014)


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Posted (edited)

The Digital Era, marked by the rise of digital downloads predominantly through iTunes can be loosely defined as beginning in 2005 when Billboard began including digital units in the Hot 100 and late 2014 when the streaming era began.  (if you don't like this definition make your own thread). 

Here are the 25 most streamed female albums from this period. (All numbers rounded to the nearest 50 million) [Note: Re-releases are counted with the original album, re-records are not counted but noted with an *asterisk and put in italics where they would rank combined. Additionally, only songs originally released in the era are combined (meaning the combined total does not include "From the Vault" tracks.  Thanks @Feanor for your help]

 

 

 

 

1) 1989: 5,850,000,000

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2) My Everything: 5,650,000,000

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3) 21: 5,650,000,000

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4) Born To Die: 5,500,000,000

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5) Teenage Dream: 5,300,000,000

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6) The Fame Monster: 5,000,000,000

 

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6) *RED (Combined): 4,750,000,000

 

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7) Good Girl Gone Bad: 4,000,000,000

 

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8) Pure Heroine: 3,600,000,000

 

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8) *Fearless (Combined): 4,250,000,000

 

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9) Prism: 3,400,000,000

 

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10) Unapologetic: 3,400,000,000

 

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11) Back to Black: 3,250,000,000

12) I AM...SASHA FIERCE: 3,250,000,000

13) Loud: 3,050,000,000

14) RED: *3,000,000,000

15) Beyonce: 2,950,000,000

16) The Pinkprint: 2,950,000,000

17) Queen of the Clouds: 2,800,000,000

18) Speak Now: 2,650,000,000

19) Halcyon Days: 2,500,000,000

20) Talk That Talk: 2,500,000,000

21) Bangerz: 2,400,000,000

22) 4: 2,350,000,000

23) Ultraviolence: 2,300,000,000

24) The Time of Our Lives: 2,200,000,000

25) The Truth About Love: 2,200,000,000

 

Edited by byzantium

Posted

BTD is truly a modern classic 

  • Like 1
Posted

That is a very good top 10 :clap3: 1989, 21, TD, BTD, TFM, GGGB :clap3: 

  • Like 1
Posted

Combining streams of albums that half of their songs and all of their promotion come from the streaming era seems at least fraudulent to me

  • Like 2
  • Thumbs Down 1
Posted

Rihanna on the list 3 times & Katy twice :clap3:

Posted

Justice for Night Time, My Time

 

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Posted
11 minutes ago, Yuanyu said:

Combining streams of albums that half of their songs and all of their promotion come from the streaming era seems at least fraudulent to me

You must be confused on what the word fraudulent means.  I fully disclosed the criteria and tried to use objective timeframes used by Billboard.

Posted

1989 being first despite not being on Spotify for 3 years :clap3:

  • Like 1
Posted
1 hour ago, byzantium said:

You must be confused on what the word fraudulent means.  I fully disclosed the criteria and tried to use objective timeframes used by Billboard.

 

Last time I checked Billboard considers Taylor's re-recordings as standalone albums so you have no need to combine streams. The moment you include 2020 figures your list is worthless

  • Like 2
  • Thumbs Down 2
Posted (edited)

'RED' and '1989' on top :clap3: 

 

Edit: Although the vault track streams should be excluded from 'Fearless' and 'RED' total imo. That would make it more fair.

 

Edited by Feanor
Posted
2 minutes ago, Feanor said:

'RED' and '1989' on top :clap3: 

 

Edit: Although the vault track streams should be excluded from 'Fearless' and 'RED' total imo. That would make it more fair.

Agreed.  If you want to calculate how much of the re-records are the vault tracks, I’ll subtract them.  

Posted
7 minutes ago, Yuanyu said:

 

Last time I checked Billboard considers Taylor's re-recordings as standalone albums so you have no need to combine streams. The moment you include 2020 figures your list is worthless

Seeth harder I guess. 

Posted
1 minute ago, byzantium said:

Agreed.  If you want to calculate how much of the re-records are the vault tracks, I’ll subtract them.  

RED TV's vault track streams + "Ronan TV" (since it wasn't on the 2012 album version): ~1,471,000,000

Fearless TV's vault track streams + "Today Was A Fairytale TV (for the same reason as above): ~543,000,000

Posted
2 hours ago, suburbannature said:

BTD is truly a modern classic 

It really is.  Its longevity has been unparalleled.  I never would have thought in 2012 that this album would be among the 10 (maybe 5) biggest female albums of the 2010s but here we are.  

Posted

The combining of the taylor albums :bibliahh:

Posted

A bit shocked that My Everything is so high. Her hiatus is truly hurting her streams because damn. 

 

Didn't expect Prism to be Top10 either, Unconditionally still carrying :clap3:

Posted

For threads like this the Taylor’s versions should be excluded as they have a clear advantage of being released during the streaming era
 

For overall sales like CSPC I think it’s fine to include them 

Posted (edited)
7 minutes ago, CaptainMusic said:

For threads like this the Taylor’s versions should be excluded as they have a clear advantage of being released during the streaming era

The issue is that their existence lower the streams of the original albums. I think the vault tracks should be excluded but combining the rest is fine. 

The comparison is kinda unfair for Taylor anyway because her catalogue wasn't on Spotify during her past peak and when the platform started getting popular. Same for Adele albums.

Edited by Axelios
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