With One Direction being the most popular artists last year when it comes to CD sales, downloads and streaming, the IFPI has nominated them Global Recording Artists of 2013.
In response to this honor, One Direction band member, Niall Horan, said, “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.”
In fact, apart from this distinction, One Direction became the first band to debut at number one on the charts with all three albums of theirs. Midnight Memories, their third album, took first place on the Official Album chart.
Not only was the band’s music streamed heavily but one of their hits “Best Song Ever” registered 200 million views while “Story of my Life” got more than 100 million views.
Eminem took the second spot with the success of his eighth album, The Marshall Mathers LP 2, with guest performances from Nate Ruess, Rihanna, Kendrick Lamar and Skylar Grey.
The third spot went to Justin Timberlake, thanks to his second album being well-received, titled “The 20/20 Experience” and which was released in March 2013. Finally, the final two spots in the top five was Bruno Mars and Katy Perry.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry represents artists in almost 66 countries with 1300 members along with affiliated industry members in 55 countries as well.
