Adele’s “21” Ranks High On The Charts Two Years In A Row

Adele ruled the charts for the second year in a row. The British singer’s “21” was the highest selling album in the United States for the second consecutive year, according to the 2012 sales figures released by Nielsen SoundScan on Thursday. A first in SoundScan history.

On top of the album going diamond, Adele sold 4.4 million copies of the album in 2012 after selling 5.8 million in 2011. She crossed the the 10 million mark in November and was only rivaled by Taylor Swift’s “Red” album, which was second on the list. If Adele’s album sells continue to increase, “21” will move into the top 10 list for sales since 1993, when SoundScan began current tracking methods.

Gotye earned the year’s top-selling song with “Somebody That I Used To Know” featuring Kimbra. The song was downloaded a record 6.8 million times  Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” landed in the second spot with 6.5 million downloads. Both songs are the first to cross the 6 million digital sales mark. Group fun came close with 5.9 million downloads of Janelle Monae featured “We Are Young”.

A record 1.65 billion music units, combination of physical albums and digital albums and digital songs, were sold in 2012, fueled by an increase in 9.1 percent in total digital sales and a 14.1 percent increase in digital album sales.

Shanika Simmons