What Sheet Music Topped Musicnotes Musicians’ Most-Played in 2014?

As we bid 2014 adieu, it’s fun to look back and summarize the year in sheet music. Each January, Musicnotes releases its list of the 100 best-selling pieces (out of the now nearly 300,000 arrangements) in its digital sheet music catalogue. Follow along with our top 100 sheet music arrangements here, and read ‘note’able highlights from this year’s list below.

‘Frozen’ freezes out competition

2014 will forever be known as the year of ‘Frozen’ sheet music. “Let It Go” shattered digital sheet music sales records, achieving 100,000 downloads in just eight months, a phenomenal feat to say the least.

In fact, 10% of our entire 2014 top 100 list is comprised of ‘Frozen’ arrangements. With “Let It Go” at the lead (and its Easy Piano and Beginner Notes versions also cracking the top 15), other hot ‘Frozen’ songs included “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” (#7, with its Easy Piano arrangement at #14 and Beginner Notes at #83),  “For the First Time in Forever” (#17), “Love is an Open Door” (#29) and “In Summer” (#68). Plus, pop star Demi Lovato’s rendition of “Let It Go” appeared on the list at #43.

‘Legend’-ary 2nd-place finish

While “Let It Go” obliterated the competition, John Legend’s “All of Me,” our 2nd most popular sheet music download of 2014, proved to be an amazingly popular song amongst Muiscnotes musicians, and a sheet music phenomenon in its own right. “All of Me,” along with its Easy Piano (#10), Piano Solo (#19), and other arrangements, surpassed the sales of our #1-selling piece in 2013, Rhianna’s “Stay,” (#30) by more than 240%, proving that  2014 a tremendous year for great sheet music-ready hits and that more and more people are taking advantage of the value and convenience of downloadable sheet music files.

Repeat favorites

“Stay” was joined by many other repeat favorites, including Adele’s beautiful piano/vocal ballads, A Great Big World’s emotional “Say Something” (which moved up from #11 in 2013 to our #3 spot this year), and perennial favorites “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen, “Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)” by Hillsong United, “River Flows in You” by Yiruma and “Over the Rainbow.”

“Over the Rainbow”, our all-time 9th bestselling title, just narrowly lost 2014’s March Musical Mania tournament of sheet music last year.  Pharrell’s “Happy” squeaked out the win, and sits at #5 on 2014’s top 100.

The BIG artists of 2014

While “Let It Go” has been deemed our the breakout song of 2014, Sam Smith earns the title of our breakout artist. Sheet music for the newcomer’s “Stay With Me” shot to #8 on our list, with its Easy Piano at #81. Musicnotes musicians also enjoyed playing Smith’s “I’m Not the Only One” (#46) and “Lay Me Down” (#87), among his other beautifully composed pieces, off the debut album ‘In The Lonely Hour.’

Smith was joined by continuously popular sheet music artists taking multiple spots, including Christina Perri, whose “A Thousand Years” (#4) was our #2 song of 2012 and “Jar of Hearts” (#80), which was our #2 in 2011. Perri’s ballad “Human,” from 2014’s ‘Head or Heart’ album, made this year’s top 100 at #34.

More ever-popular artists to again appear on the list: Sara Bareiles with “Gravity” (#20) and “Brave” (#21); Birdy with “Skinny Love” (#25) and “Not About Angels” (#28); Ellie Goulding with “How Long Will I Love You?” (#52) and “Your Song” (#88); and Ed Sheeran with “I See Fire” (#40) and “Thinking Out Loud” (#54).

Of course, no Musicnotes top 100 list is complete without Adele. She again made the list multiple times with 2011 and 2012’s repeat #1 song “Someone Like You” (#26), as well as with “To Make You Feel My Love” (#12) and “Skyfall” (#60). We’re still anxiously awaiting her new album, and we’ll be offering officially licensed NEW Adele sheet music as soon as it’s available!

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See our complete top 100 list for 2014, as well as our top 50 songs in country, jazz, Christian, movie/TV and pop.