The Top-Selling Digital Artist in History

The fans know she’s the most awesome thing since glitter and sparkly dresses, so it’s funny to us when suddenly the official numbers back it up.

Taylor Swift is the top-selling digital artist in music history according to sales figures released on January 6 by Nielsen SoundScan.

Fearless was 2009’s top-seller album, with sales last year in excess of 3.2 million copies. The Fearless One claimed both the first and second positions atop Nielsen’s BDS Top 10 Most Played Songs chart (all genres), with You Belong With Me and Love Story, respectively.

Swifty  also dominated the all format 2009 Top 10 Artist Airplay chart with over 1.29 million song detections, and the Top 10 Artist Internet Streams chart with more than 46 million song plays.

Fearless was also the top-selling album of 2008, and Taylor is the youngest solo artist ever to top the year-end sales chart. The now quintuple-platinum album also topped Billboard‘s 2009 all-genre Top 200 Albums chart and was named Country Album of the Year by the editors of iTunes. Taylor’s self-titled debut album holds the record for Billboard‘s longest charting album this century, and she is tied with the Beatles and Mariah Carey for Billboard‘s Most Top 20 Debuts.

Whoever said nice people don’t finish first has yet to meet T-Swizzle.

Swifty also won at the People’s Choice Awards in Los Angeles, taking home the all-genre Favorite Female Artist award. Earlier in the day she performed at CES in Las Vegas, where Sony Chairman & CEO Sir Howard Stringer introduced her as the newest Brand Ambassador for Sony Electronics.

Taylor’s next television performance will be on the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, broadcast live on CBS on January 31st. Taylor is nominated for eight Grammies, including Record of the Year, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year. She makes her feature film acting debut in Garry Marshall’s Valentine’s Day, set for US release on February 12th, and takes her sold-out Fearless tour back on the road in Australia next month. Her line of American Greetings cards will also hit stores in February.

Taylor’s new song from the Valentine’s Day soundtrack, Today Was A Fairytale, will be released digitally on January 19th.  The full soundtrack is scheduled for release on February 9th.

(Sources: T-Swift.com, Blender, PR Newswire, Big Machine Records, Tommy2.net, Ash Newell)