This morning (April 25), the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) released its annual Global Music Report, an analysis of the revenue of the recorded-music business worldwide. The biggest headline: the global music business grew 5.9 percent in 2016 over the previous year, the biggest revenue growth since the IFPI began tracking the market in 1997 and the second-straight year of growth after 15 years of decline.
As part of that report, the IFPI also released a list of the top albums and songs globally for 2016, breaking out albums by sales numbers (digital downloads and physical sales) and tallying songs by track sales (individual track downloads) and track-equivalent streams. And while Drake was the top-selling artist worldwide last year -- he was named the IFPI's Global Recording Artist of the Year back in February, though total sales were not released -- Beyoncé's Lemonade was the highest-selling individual album of 2016 across the globe, according to the federation.