LOS ANGELES • British rock band Queen sold more albums in North America than any other artist in the first half of this year as music featured in movies and television sent streaming and downloads soaring.
A mid-year report by Nielsen Music released on Thursday said the soundtrack to the musical Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), which won four Oscars in February, was the best-selling rock title of the first six months of this year, with Queen's Greatest Hits 1 compilation coming in second.
The band sold more than 731,000 albums as well as the most digital songs, with more than 1.3 million downloads, Nielsen said.
In February, Queen became the first rock band to open the Oscars when they kicked off the annual ceremony in Hollywood with a live performance of We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions.
Lady Gaga and actor-director Bradley Cooper's steamy performance on the Oscars stage, of their winning duet Shallow from A Star Is Born (2018), also sent sales soaring. The romantic ballad has seen some 648,000 digital song downloads so far this year, the report said.
The Elton John biopic, Rocketman (2019), fuelled a 138 per cent gain in album sales for the British singer-songwriter in the first week after the movie's release on May 31.
Sunflower, rapper Post Malone's collaboration with singer Swae Lee, shot to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 charts in January after being featured in the animated movie Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse (2018).
The song saw a 170 per cent increase in radio play and the video has been viewed more than 642 million times on YouTube.
The report used data compiled by Nielsen Music between Jan 4 and June 20.
REUTERS
