Taylor Swift’s 1989 led Universal’s 10 biggest money-makers last year
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Taylor Swift must have got a really nice Christmas card from Lucian Grainge last year.

The US singer/songwriter’s album, 1989, was UMG’s biggest-grossing LP of 2015 – despite originally being released in October 2014.

This is an interesting result for more than one reason: for the first time, 2015 saw Vivendi stop judging Universal‘s annual biggest records Top 10 in unit sales terms – and start listing them in order of revenue generated.

An investor note from Vivendi released last Thursday (February 18) showed the biggest money-spinning records for UMG in both 2015 and 2014.

1989 was top in 2015 – as well as the second biggest-grossing UMG record of 2014.

Traditionally, Vivendi has presented a Top 10 sales chart for UMG to investors on a unit basis: 1989 was also 2014’s second-biggest UMG album using this metric, with 8.8m copies sold in the year, behind the soundtrack to Disney’s Frozen (10m).

2015 was the first year that a non-new release topped UMG’s annual ‘biggest-selling’ albums list for eight years.

UMG’s previous biggest-selling records (on a unit basis): Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (2013); Taylor Swift – Red (2012); Lady Gaga – Born The Way (2011); Eminem – Recovery (2010); Black Eyed Peas – The E.N.D (2009); The Mamma Mia! Soundtrack (2008).

The last time a non-new record topped UMG’s annual chart was 2007, when Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black – released in late 2006 – was No.1.

In the United States, UMG had seven of the Top 10 albums of 2015, including two of the top three with Taylor Swift’s 1989 and Justin Bieber’s Purpose.

In the United Kingdom, UMG had nine of the Top 20 albums of the year, including the debut from one of the U.K.’s biggest breakthrough artists of 2015, James Bay, and nine of the Top 20 singles, including Hozier’s Take Me To Church.

In Germany, UMG artist Helene Fischer was the best-selling artist of the year for the third time in four years.

Universal’s 10 biggest revenue-generating records – 2015

  1. Taylor Swift – 1989
  2. Justin Bieber – Purpose
  3. Sam Smith – In The Lonely Hour
  4. The Weeknd – Beauty Behind The Madness
  5. Various Artists – Fifty Shades Of Grey
  6. The Beatles – 1+
  7. Dreams Come True – Dreams Come True The Best! Watashino Dorikamu
  8. Maroon 5 – V
  9. Drake – If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late
  10. Helene Fischer – Weihnachten

Universal’s 10 biggest REVENUE-GENERATING RECORDS – 2014

  1. Various Artists – Frozen
  2. Taylor Swift – 1989
  3. Sam Smith – In The Lonely Hour
  4. Ariana Grande – My Everything
  5. Katy Perry – PRISM
  6. Lorde Pure – Heroine
  7. Imagine Dragons – Night Visions
  8. 5 Seconds Of Summer – 5 Seconds Of Summer
  9. Maroon 5 – V
  10. Iggy Azalea – The New Classic

Source: Vivendi investor documents for FY 2015Music Business Worldwide

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