PROMUSICAE Annual Official Charts 2023

19 January 2024 - Press release

During the first weeks of 2023, the new discovery debut album 2022 Quevedo, “Donde quiero estar” (Taste The Floor Records) was launched, and meeting all omens entered the sales chart directly to Top1 and held to the position for 14 weeks last year, becoming the most selling album of 2023 and confirming that its hit track “Quevedo: BZRP music sessions, vol. 52”, the most listened song in Spain in 2022, was not a one-hit wonder, but there was a fan base instead eager to listen to his new releases. This album’s triple platinum award certifies the success of this first recording work with more than 120,000 units sold.

Annual Top100 Song is also topped by a Bizarrap session that, featuring Shakira with “Shakira: BZRP music sessions, vol. 53” (Dale Play Records), has been the bestseller song in 2023, placing the Colombian act and the new music Midas King at the top of this chart, with a septuple Platinum Award (corresponding to more than 420,000 units sold). Besides, and despite having been released in the third quarter of 2023, Taylor Swift’s “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” (Universal Music), versioning her fifth studio album (which has already been a great hit worldwide) has reached #1 in Top100 Vinyl 2023 and an honourable 8th position in Top100 Album 2023. Another woman, Miley Cyrus, with her empowering song “Flowers” (Sony Music) has got the podium as most broadcasted song in Spanish radio stations 2023.

The data compiled for 2023 by GfK, world leader in data and analytics, for PROMUSICAE –association representing 95% of the Spanish recording industry– and AGEDI, music producers’ collecting society, show that consumers have among their daily habits to listen to recorded music through different audio streaming platforms. Streaming already represents 87% of music consumption in 2023. It is to be highlighted that within the listening to music, consumption on the paid subscriptions strongly strengthens with an encouraging rise of 20%, already representing 56% of total audio streaming. It is still far, however, from figures of France or the United Kingdom, where the share exceeds 80%.

Besides, when adding up both modalities, free and subscription tiers, audio streaming consumption data for 2023 strike down those of 2022, as the figure of 87 billion streams has been reached in audio streaming digital platforms all together, compared to the 72 billion of the previous year. This powerful increase confirms the consumption data published only a few days ago in IFPI’s worldwide report “Engaging with Music”, according to which consumption of music in Spain is over the top (with an average 21.6 hours weekly and increasing even more from the 2022 figure of 20.7 hours). When converting this number to songs, Spaniards are listening to more than 238 million songs daily.

Rendering the above digital consumption into sales figures, there would be a total of 26 million albums sold, whether digital or physical. Besides, it is confirmed the “democratisation” that audio streaming represents, providing greater access of artists to the public, with a figure of 972 artists that got their music to be listened to in Spain more that 10 million times (137 more than in 2022), from which 56 became recurrent to the public reaching more than 100 million streams of their songs (11 artists more than in 2022).

Regarding the physical market, in 2023 the trend of growing sales of vinyl continues, with 4% more units sold. Sales of the rest of physical formats keep decreasing, although less than in 2022, with a 10% downward.

PROMUSICAE’s president, Antonio Guisasola, makes a positive assessment of these data: “It’s great news that streaming platforms payment subscription figures keep rising as a way to consume recorded music, as this guarantees the viability of the format and its profitability, and shows the audience’s awareness towards music and their commitment to pay to consume premium quality formats, getting us closer to most advanced countries regarding these systems’ implementation; however, we still have a long way ahead to move closer to world leaders.

Guisasola emphasises to remember that: “the great potential of music in Spanish worldwide is confirmed, but the Spanish recording music industry still needs to be a stronger player in the global market, for what it is essential the support to local production, tax incentives that are still not applicable to recorded music, and the export of Spanish music with a strong and long-lasting country strategy.

PROMUSICAE’s president takes the opportunity to congratulate “all the artists and recording labels that have seen their efforts rewarded with the public attention, gaining success as reflected by the official annual charts we are presenting today”.

Most listened albums 2023

Annual charts published today are the result of a meticulous processing of data received along the year, week by week, from 90% of the physical sales premises operating in our country, as well as data provided by audio digital stores and streaming platforms, which from the beginning of 2022 include also views of music content on YouTube.

Annual Top 100 Album chart gathers a great number of genres, artists, and releases in sales top rankings in our country, placing among the 100 most selling albums the works of 41 Spanish recording artists. Last year’s chart places Quevedo next to Karol G with “Mañana será bonito” (Universal Music) in #2 and keeps in Top3 podium position the 2022 bestselling album Bad Bunny’s “Un verano sin ti” (Rimas Entertainment LLC), getting the 3rd position this time, as well as #4 with his work released in 2023 “Nadie sabe lo que va a pasar mañana” (Rimas Entertainmet LLC). Aitana and her new album “Alpha” (Universal Music) closes this chart’s Top5.

During the 52 weeks of 2023 altogether, 34 times a Spanish artist has been #1 of the chart. Some of the leaders have been, along with Quevedo during 14 weeks, Manuel Carrasco’s “Corazón y Flecha” (Universal Music), Ana Mena and her “Bellodrama” (Sony Music), “El Dragón” (Universal Music) from Lola Índigo, Bunbury’s long awaited album “Greta Garbo” (Warner Music), Aitana’s “Alpha” (Universal Music), #1 for two weeks, David Bisbal with his album “Me Siento Vivo” (Universal Music), Melendi’s “20 años sin noticias” (Sony Music), and leading the year’s last five weeks Sergio Dalma’s “Sonríe porque estás en la foto” (Sony Music), the highly expected “Desbarajuste Piramidal” (Warner Music/Sony Music) gathering together again the band El Último de la Fila, Malú with her “A todo sí” (Sony Music) and closing 2023 as #1 for two weeks in a row “Se nos lleva el aire” (El Dromedario Records) by Robe.

The interest for Latin music is clear, with a good number of Latin acts in Top100 Albums being Top 1 at least a week (Bad Bunny, Karol G, Eladio Carrión and Mora). In 2023 total ranking, together with Karol G in #2 and Bad Bunny in # 3 and #4, also in top positions were placed Rauw Alejandro’s “Saturno” (Sony Music) in top 7 (apart from having other 3 albums in the 2023 annual chart), Feid reaching #9 with “Feliz cumpleaños Ferxxo te pirateamos el álbum” (Universal Music), and #10 and #11 are for Mora with “Paraíso” and “Estrella” (both Rimas Entertainment LCC). Position 15 is for Karol G with “Mañana será bonito” (Universal Music) and top 20 is closed by another woman, Tini, whose “Cupido” (Sony Music) holding #20 of sales in 2023.

International presence completes in charts with artists such as Taylor Swift, placing in Top100 Albums as many as 5 recording releases, with 1989 (Taylor’s Version) at the highest position with #8. Releases in 2023 from artists such as Olivia Rodrigo “Guts” (Universal Music), Italian Mäneskin with “Rush!” (Sony Music), Miley Cyrus’s “Endless Summer” (Sony Music), fireproof classics as The Rolling Stones “Hackney Diamons” (Universal Music), Metallica “72 Seasons” (Universal Music) and Depeche Mode’s “Memento Mori” (Sony Music), share the chart with younger acts as Lana del Rey “Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd” and Sza “SOS” (Sony Music).

The songs in 2023

Songs in Spanish led also the song chart in 2023, with a presence of 93 songs within Top100 Song Chart. This leadership of music in our language is not endorsed by the number of Spanish artists in top 100 positions (only 36).

To the first position in the chart of “Shakira: BZRP music sessions, vol. 53” (Dale Play Records) by Shakira & Bizarrap, follows “El Merengue” (Sony Music) by Marshmello & Manuel Turizo, Vicco’s disco sound “Nochentera” (Sony Music), previous Manuel Turizo’s hit “La Bachata” (Sony Music) and “Yandel 150” (Y Entertainment) by Yandel & Feid holding positions #2, #3, #4 and #5 respectively in the Top100 Song Chart.

Vinyl

A great variety of recording works, both new releases ad classics, fill the sales figures of vinyl format in 2023, which maintains a growing trend as mentioned before. More than 50% of albums in this chart are by Spanish artists, among which we can find: “Motomami” (Sony Music) by Rosalía which was the bestseller in 2022 in this format and remains number 2 in 2023. C. Tangana’s “El Madrileño” (Sony Music) keeps succeeding this year in position #4. There are also diverse works as Arde Bogotá’s Cowboys de la A3 (Sony Music) in top 11, “Trinchera Pop” (Warner Music) by Iván Ferreiro, “La Cuarta Hoja” (Warner Music) by Pablo Alborán who ends the year in top 13 or Caldo Espirito (Esmerarte Industrias Creativas) by Xoel López in position 49 and Mikel Izal’s “El miedo y el paraíso” (Altafonte/Hook) at the mid-point of the chart #50.

Music in the radio

This year, women have leaded more than half of Top50 Radio Chart 2023, with 30 tracks where a woman features.

Nochentera (Sony Music) by Vicco not was only strongly played in dance floors, but also broadcasted in radios with an outstanding top 3 which places the song as most broadcasted Spanish track.

Spanish pop and Anglo-Saxon music, beside other Latin rhythms, rule the presence in musical radio, leaving a smaller place for urban rhythms and featuring their relevant role in streaming platforms consumption.