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Movie sells most albums, but Swift named top artist

Taylor Swift has been crowned the world’s top-selling artist in 2014 by default, after being beaten by a children’s movie soundtrack.

The soundtrack to Disney film Frozen would have topped Swift, however the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) will only award its top rank to an individual artist.

Aside from this criteria, IFPI bases its awards the most popular recording artist title after taking into account physical sales, downloads and streaming.

Swift dominated US charts in late 2014 but the group said that she was also among the top five artists in the next largest markets of Germany, Japan and Britain.

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British boy band One Direction, which topped the list in 2013 year, was number two, followed by British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran and then more established acts Coldplay and AC/DC. Michael Jackson was sixth, even though the King of Pop died in 2009.

Swift’s album 1989 last year sold 1.2 million copies in its first week in the United States, the top haul since Eminem’s The Eminem Show in 2002 when overall music sales were far higher.

She also managed to top the charts, which now factor in streaming services, despite her high-profile fight with Spotify.

Swift last year pulled her music from the growing Swedish streaming site, urging it to offer better compensation to artists.

In Australia, a grass-roots campaign to have her music included in alternative radio station Triple J’s Hottest 100 list came to an abrupt end when organisers disqualified the American pop queen.

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