Taylor Swift was crowned the world's top-selling artist in 2014 on Monday, although an industry group said that the Disney soundtrack "Frozen" would have beaten her.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, or IFPI, said that Swift was the world's most popular recording artist last year when accounting for physical sales, downloads and streaming.
Swift dominated US charts in late 2014 but the group said that she was also among the top five artists in the next largest markets of Germany, Japan and Britain.
But the IFPI said that the blockbuster soundtrack to the Disney film "Frozen" would have topped Swift. The industry group, which did not give exact sales figures, awards the top rank solely to an individual artist.
British boy band One Direction, which topped the list in 2013 year, was number two, followed by British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran and then more established acts Coldplay and AC/DC. Michael Jackson was sixth, even though the King of Pop died in 2009.
Swift's album "1989" last year sold 1.2 million copies in its first week in the United States, the top haul since Eminem's "The Eminem Show" in 2002 when overall music sales were far higher.
Swift has topped the charts, which now factor in streaming services, despite her high-profile fight with Spotify. Swift last year pulled her music from the growing Swedish streaming site, urging it to provide more compensation to artists.
Source: AFP