'N Sync Top Seller of 2000

January 3, 2001 -- The album's called No Strings Attached, but judging from how it flew out of stores in 2000, there were plenty of consumers who had no intention of severing ties with 'N Sync. The pop quintet's second album sold 9,936,104 copies in 2000 since its March release, according to sales tracker SoundScan, making it the year's best-selling record by a margin of 2 million copies. That enormous figure was also enough to make it the ninth-best-selling album since 1991, when SoundScan adopted its current method of tabulating sales.

The boy band wasn't the only act to avoid the sophomore slump in grand style: Controversial rapper Eminem and Britney Spears earned the second and third spots on the best seller list — both with their second album.

Eminem sold 7,921,107 copies of The Marshall Mathers LP, which was released May 23, while Spears' Oops! … I Did It Again, released a week earlier, sold 7,893,544 units.

Not all of the year's top sellers were released in 2000, however. Creed's Human Clay, which sold 6,587,834 copies to earn the fourth spot on the list, came out in September 1999 — it hovered near the top 10 throughout 2000 and will even come in at No. 6 on the next Billboard Top 200 albums chart.

Santana's Supernatural, similarly, was first released in June 1999, but continued radio play and the album's success at last year's Grammys helped sell another 5,857,824 copies of it, making it the fifth-best in 2000.

Dr. Dre's 2001, released in November 1999, also saw strong sales throughout the past year, moving 3,992,311 copies for the ninth position on the list, while Destiny's Child sold 3,802,165 copies of Writing's on the Wall this year, though the album hit stores in July 1999.

Two albums became top sellers with a remarkably short amount of time on the shelves: 1, the greatest-hits collection from The Beatles, was released Nov. 14 but sold an incredible 5,068,300 units in the final month and a half of 2000. The Backstreet Boys' Black & Blue, released a week later, grabbed the No. 8 slot with sales of 4,289,865 copies.

Upstart rapper Nelly — who landed in the No. 7 spot on the list — also made a huge splash, selling 5,067,529 copies of his debut album, Country Grammar, following its June release.

Those top albums — plus the other 78 albums to sell more than 1 million copies last year — got a huge boost at the end of the year. SoundScan reports that holiday sales were up 2.4 percent, with a record-breaking 45.4 million albums sold in the week of Dec. 18 to Dec. 24.

Overall sales were up 4 percent from last year, while Internet sales reached a new high of 12,768,815 units — which is still only 1.6 percent of the total number of albums sold.

Universal Music Group continues to dominate the market, accounting for more than a quarter of all albums sold. The music giant, part of Canada's Vivendi Universal conglomerate, includes Interscope Records, MCA, Island Def Jam, Universal/Motown Records, and Mercury Nashville.

Three other major labels — Warner-Elektra-Atlantic, BMG, and Sony — held on to roughly equal shares of the market, between 15 percent and 17 percent.

The fifth major label, EMD, despite a boost from The Beatles, accounted for only 9.6 percent of all sales. All other labels sold 16.6 percent of all albums sold.