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State of the Screens

Can Adele Set Fire To The Rain…And The Record Books?

By October 21, 2021No Comments

Adele

Big news: Adele, the top-selling artist of the 2010s, will be releasing her next album, “30”, six years after her record-breaking album “25”.

Quote from Adele:

“There isn’t a bombastic ‘Hello’.  I don’t want another song like that.  That song catapulted me in fame to another level that I don’t want to happen again.”

Why this matters: Adele is the brightest star in an industry that has changed dramatically since 2015. For example, the share of industry revenue from streaming has grown from 35% in 2015 to 83% in 2020.  It is crazy to remember Adele kept her last album off of streaming for 7 months!

Share of music industry retail revenue from streaming according to the RIAA:

1) 2005 – 1%
2) 2010 – 7%
3) 2015 – 35%


Paid music streaming subscribers by service according to Chartr:
1) Spotify – 165M
2) Apple Music – 78M
3) Amazon Music – 63M
4) YouTube Music – 50M


Top music platform by age group according to getWizer:
1) 15-29 – Spotify
2) 30-44 – YouTube Music
3) 45-59 – FM radio
4) 60+ – FM radio

Wow: Adele’s last album (“25”) sold 3.4M albums during the first week (U.S. record) and joined “21” as the only albums to lead sales in back-to-back years.

Top first week album sales (U.S. only) according to Wikipedia:
1) Adele “25” (2015) – 3.4M
2) NSYNC “No Strings Attached” (2000) – 2.4M
3) NSYNC “Celebrity” (2001) – 1.9M
4) Eminem “The Marshall Mathers LP” (2000) – 1.8M
5) Backstreet Boys “Black & Blue” (2000) – 1.6M
6) Eminem “Encore” (2004) – 1.5M
7) Eminem “The Eminem Show” (2002) – 1.3M
8) Britney Spears “Oops!… I Did It Again” (2000) – 1.3M
9) Taylor Swift “1989” (2014) – 1.3M
10) Taylor Swift “Reputation” (2017) – 1.2M

Top-selling album by year according to Wikipedia:
1) 2010 – Eminem “Recovery
2) 2011 – Adele “21”
3) 2012 – Adele “21”
4) 2013 – Justin Timberlake “The 20/20 Experience”
5) 2014 – Taylor Swift “1989”
6) 2015 – Adele “25”
7) 2016 – Adele “25”
8) 2017 – Taylor Swift “Reputation”
9) 2018 – Various Artists “The Greatest Showman”
10) 2019 – Taylor Swift “Lover”

Top pick from Lil Screens: Jimmy Fallon, Adele & The Roots Sing “Hello” (w/Classroom Instruments)

Top pick from Mrs. Screens: Adele Carpool Karaoke

Michael Beach

Michael Beach is the Chief Executive Officer of Cross Screen Media, a media analytics and software company that enables marketers to plan, activate, and measure CTV and linear TV at the local level. Michael is also the founder and editor of State of the Screens, a weekly newsletter focused on video advertising that is a must-read for thought leaders in the advertising industry. He has appeared in such publications as PBS Frontline, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Axios, CNBC and Bloomberg, and on NPR’s Planet Money podcast.