How streaming turned the tables on “greatest hits” albums

Purchases of “greatest hits” compilation albums (of those that appeared in the top 200 list of albums sold each year) slumped to 1.34 million in the US in 2023. To put that into perspective, that’s a 54% sales decline from just two years ago, having slipped by 2.41 million units since 2011 — the post-2010 peak for artists’ choicest offerings.

Greatest-hits albums could be yet another victim of the algo-driven shift in the music industry. Thanks to streaming, listeners no longer have to buy physical versions to hear an artist’s best work all in one place (as they did in the CD or vinyl days), and they’re also presented with auto-generated playlists of a musician’s entire discography, often ordered by individual preferences.

See the full article here.