Taylor Swift Is 2008 Best Selling Artist

Taylor Swift is 2008’s best-selling artist with more than 4 million albums sold, followed by AC/DC, Lil Wayne and Coldplay. Sugarland finished No. 8 according to Nielson SoundScan.

Swift had two albums on Nielsen’s Top 10 sales list: her self-titled debut at No. 6 and her sophomore album “Fearless” at No. 3.

Scott Borchetta, president and CEO of her label, Big Machine Records said:

“Taylor Swift is a great artist development story that started as organically as you can in the digital age. It involved online, non-stop radio tours and strategic TV opportunities which led to non-stop touring. But – most importantly – Taylor connected with her fans like no other artist in 2008.”

The top selling digital artist was Rihanna with 9.94 million tracks sold, followed by Swift and Kayne West.

Interestingly, as digital downloads rose, vinyl album sales did as well. In 2008, more vinyl albums were purchased (1.88 million) than any other year since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991.