New Pop Singer Taylor Swift Has Top Album Of 2014 in Canada

Singer Taylor Swift performs onstage during KIIS FM's Jingle Ball 2014 powered by LINE at Staples Center on December 5, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Nick Patch The Canadian Press
Taylor Swift’s “1989” ruled 2014 in Canada, but overall album sales were down five per cent, according to a year-end report from Nielsen Music Canada.

Swift’s pop makeover sold 314,000 units, besting the “Frozen” soundtrack’s 226,000 units sold and Sam Smith’s “In the Lonely Hour,” which moved 157,000 copies.

Bobby Bazini’s “Where I Belong” was the top-selling album by a Canadian artist with 102,000 copies sold, followed by Serge Fiori’s self-titled effort (99,000 units) and Fred Pellerin’s “Plus tard qu’on pense” (79,000).

Sales of physical CDs decreased seven per cent and digital album sales went down by five per cent.

On the bright side for industry observers, vinyl’s resurgence continued in the form of a 71 per cent year-over-year change, with Arctic Monkeys’ “AM” standing as Canada’s most-bought LP of the year.

By genre, R&B sales were hit the hardest with a 28 per cent overall decrease, followed by rap music (down 23 per cent), classical (22 per cent) and alternative (14 per cent).

Jazz and metal decreased seven and six per cent respectively.

The year’s top-selling digital tracks were Pharrell Williams’ “Happy,” John Legend’s “All of Me” and Meghan Trainor’s breakout hit “All About That Bass.”

The top-selling tracks by Canadian artists, meanwhile, were Magic’s inescapable “Rude,” Kiesza’s hit “Hideaway” and Vine sensation Shawn Mendes’ “Life of the Party.”

And Canadian airwaves were ruled by Hedley — with 207,000 airplay detections — followed by Magic, Maroon 5, OneRepublic and Katy Perry.

Digital album sales accounted for 39.3 per cent of total album sales, up slightly from 39.1 in 2013.

This year was the first that Nielsen began monitoring streaming data, and Swift again ruled there with her “Shake It Off” racking up 19.5 million streams north of the border.

“With strong demand in digital streaming and record-setting growth in vinyl, we continue to see music fans showing their diversity in the way they consume music,” said David Bakula, senior vice-president of industry insights with Nielsen Entertainment, in a statement.

“With over six billion songs streamed in just the last six months of 2014, as well as new services launching this year, music fans continue to enjoy huge amounts of digital music.”