Female superstars including Taylor Swift & Sabrina Carpenter dominate UK’s best-selling singles & albums charts for 2024

FEMALE superstars topped the 2024 music charts with Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter and Beyoncé leading the charge.

Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department was No1 album, selling 783,000 copies in the UK since its April release, Official Charts Company data shows.

Women had six in the top ten with Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet No3 and Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft at No5.

Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour, Chappell Roan’s The Rise And Fall of a Midwest Princess and Charli XCX’s Brat also featured.

Female acts also spent a record-breaking 34 weeks at No1 on the singles charts.

Carpenter claimed two of the top ten biggest sellers — with Espresso at No3 and Please Please Please No10.

Swift surprisingly had no Top Ten singles despite the sales success of Fortnight.

Beyoncé won acclaim for her genre-blending album Cowboy Carter and will reportedly embark on a mega stadium tour next year.

Dr Jo Twist, from the British Phonographic Industry, said: “We’ve seen another strong year benefitting from streaming and driven by era-defining women.”

Noah Kahan’s Stick Season was the No1 single, ahead of Benson Boone’s Beautiful Things.

British acts also proved popular as Fleetwood Mac’s 50 Years — Don’t Stop was No7 album, while Coldplay were at No9 with Moon Music.

Recorded music consumption rose by 9.7 per cent in the year, with 200billion audio streams.

The streaming market has more than doubled in six years, with 11 per cent more usage of services like Spotify this year.

Sales of physical albums also saw a year-on-year increase for the first time since 1994, with vinyl’s popularity up by 9.1 per cent.

But Dr Twist warned the music industry is under threat from proposed changes to copyright law, which could enable AI companies to have free access.

She added: “The UK remains a world music power but this cannot be taken for granted.”