Surprise! ‘Frozen’ leads list of 2014’s best-selling albums

Unless you”ve been living in the great white tundra, it will come as no surprise that the soundtrack to “Frozen” is the biggest selling album for the first half of 2014.

The set, which features “Let It Go,” has sold 2.7 million copies since Jan. 1. It has sold more than 3 million since its release in November 2013, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The last soundtrack to lead at the half-way mark was in 2006, when “High School Musical” sold 2.6 million.

If you want to feel bad for the flailing music industry, the second best seller so far in 2004 is Beyonce”s self-titled set, which has sold 702,000. This marks the third year in a row that only one album has passed the million mark at the halfway point. Even more damning: only five albums have sold more than 500,000 so far in 2014. At this point last year, the total was 11.

On the singles side, Pharrell Williams” “Happy” takes the price, with 5.6 million copies downloaded. Katy Perry”s  Dark Horse,” featuring Juicy J, is in second place at 4 million. A total of 38 songs in 2014 have passed the million mark  in downloads, compared with 51 at this time last year.

Year to date, album sales are down 15% from last year, while digital song sales are down 13%.

To view the list of the top 20 selling albums in 2014, click here.

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