Taylor Swift Scores Most Single Digital Downloads

Taylor Swift continues her reign as one of music's most successful stars. The 21-year-old was recently named by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) as the top-selling digital singles artist of any genre, raking in 22.5 million single downloads since her whirlwind career began.

The seven-time Billboard Music Award nominee finished off 2010 as the top-selling artist of the year, as well as one of the richest, selling more than four million albums in a 12-month period. And while she continues to claim chart victory, several other pop artists are close behind the country superstar in song downloads.

Lady Gaga is trailing Taylor, with 20 million digital single downloads, while Rihanna scored 19 million digital downloads and the Black Eyed Peas had 17.5 million downloads. But even though Taylor has competition for single downloads, she is permanently ranked as the artist with the most digital downloads for the first decade of the new millennium -- a feat even more impressive considering her first album didn't hit shelves until 2006. Still, the young starlet insists she doesn't let the numbers get in the way of making the music she loves.

"[I have] a five-minute conversation with myself about if a [sales] number really defines this piece of art that I've created and what that means, and what the number's going to be," she tells Billboard. "I try to predict what it's going to be, and then I realize that I can't predict what it's going to be, and then I sit there and say something to myself like, 'Well, you're happy today. Enjoy this and be proud of the music that you've made.'"

Taylor is enjoying a few weeks off before she kicks off the U.S. leg of her Speak Now tour on May 27 in Omaha, Neb. See her concert schedule here.