Taylor Swift has been given the IFPI Global Recording Artist of 2014 Award after being named as the world’s biggest-selling artist last year.
Swift beat 2013 winners One Direction, as well as Ed Sheeran, to claim the title. Global music downloads, streaming and physical format sales were all counted in her win.
Swift’s latest album ‘1989’ topped the iTunes chart in 95 countries and has sold more sold more than 8.6 million copies worldwide. Swift withheld the album from Spotify when it was released in November and subsequently decided to remove all of her previous releases from the streaming service.
“I’m not willing to contribute my life’s work to an experiment that I don’t feel fairly compensates the writers, producers, artists and creators of this music,” Swift said at the time. “And I just don’t agree with perpetuating the perception that music has no value and should be free.”
Earlier this month, it was reported that Swift had “gone into the studio” with Kanye West after the pair were photographed together at the Grammy Awards. It was further evidence that the musicians had patched things up following their infamous fall-out at the MTV VMAs in 2009, when West interrupted Swift’s acceptance speech to argue that the Best Video award should have gone to Beyoncé.
The Top 10 global recording artists of 2014 are:
Taylor Swift
One Direction
Ed Sheeran
Coldplay
AC/DC
Michael Jackson
Pink Floyd
Sam Smith
Katy Perry