Canadian- born hip-hop artiste, Drake, has been officially named the best-selling artist of 2016.
Drake achieved millions of sales and billions in online streaming with his worldwide chart topping fourth album, Views.
He was able to overcome Adele and Coldplay, with both also achieving big sales last year.
According to BBC reports, the news comes from music industry bigwigs the IFPI, who’ve given Drake their Global Recording Artist of the Year Award.
“Drake’s phenomenal success reflects how deeply his unique sound appeals to an enormous global audience,” said chief executive Frances Moore.
The IFPI declined to release figures for Drake’s overall sales, or a country-by-country breakdown, so it is hard to decode how he made up the difference – but the star’s phenomenal success on streaming services is likely to be key.
Views was so successful that it became the first album to reach one billion streams on Apple Music (where it was initially available as an exclusive); and equally One Dance was the first song to be played one billion times on Spotify.
The album also topped the year-end charts in the US, which is still the world’s biggest music market, reaching 4.1 million in sales.
The IFPI Global Recording Artist Award was established in 2013, and previous recipients have been One Direction (2013), Taylor Swift (2014) and Adele (2015).
Top 10 Global Recording Artists of 2016 (source: IFPI)
- Drake
- David Bowie
- Coldplay
- Adele
- Justin Bieber
- Twenty One Pilots
- Beyoncé
- Rihanna
- Prince
-
The Weeknd
