There is no figure in the music industry that Taylor Swift cannot conquer. After being the most listened artist globally on Spotify for the second consecutive year and breaking the record for ticket sales revenue on her The Eras Tour - doubling Coldplay's previous record - the Pennsylvania singer has also made a mark in the Spanish music business. The Tortured Poets Department, released last April, has become the best-selling album in Spain in 2024.
Given the magnitude of the "swiftie" phenomenon, this might seem obvious. However, it is not common at all for a non-Spanish speaking artist to top the sales charts in our country. In fact, no one except Taylor Swift has achieved this in this century. The last time an Anglo-Saxon group was the best-selling in Spain was in 1997, 27 years ago, when the Spice Girls did it with their album Spice, which includes their hit Wannabe. Until now.
To understand the magnitude of the change Taylor Swift has brought to the top of the sales charts in Spain, we only need to look at two facts from the Promusicae rankings - based on GfK data. In the last 10 years, only two non-Spanish speaking artists have managed to reach the top 3 of albums: Dua Lipa in 2021 with Future Nostalgia and Adele with 25 in 2016. And in the current ranking, the next non-Spanish language album is at number 11 - Hit me hard and soft by Billie Eilish.
In second place in album sales is Karol G with her album Mañana será bonito, the same position she held in 2023. At that time, the best-selling album was Donde quiero estar, Quevedo's debut, which still holds the third position in 2024. Climbing to the fourth position is the Granada artist Saiko with Sakura, and in fifth place remainsUn verano sin ti, which was number 1 in 2022. According to Promusicae, this not only demonstrates the extensive success of the Puerto Rican artist's project but also that "the streaming consumption model helps prolong the life of successful music works."
The streaming model, which according to record labels represented 90% of music consumption in Spain in 2024, is a trend. In fact, in our country, streams have surpassed 98.5 billion across streaming platforms. This follows the trend highlighted in the Global Music Report by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), which indicated that Spain exceeds the global average in music consumption. This translates to 22.1 hours of listening per week, and in terms of songs, Spaniards listen to over 260 million songs per day. Many of them by Taylor Swift.