Weekly Music Sales Report and Analysis: 10 September 2014
Too bad the U2 album won’t count towards any chart positions this week. The industry could use a boost. This was the worst week of the year.
Year-to-date album sales are down 6% in Canada with CDs down by 5% and digital albums softer by 8%. Digital tracks aren’t great either, down 13% from 2013.
Maroon 5’s V debuted at #1 in the country this week with sales of 15,000 units. The only other Top 10 debut comes from Jeezy’s Seen It All at #8 (about 2,000 copies) and the Counting Crows’ Somewhere Under Wonderland at #10 (about 1,500.)
You read the right: a Top 10 national debut selling just 1,500 records. Ouch. Just wait until streaming music services start to mature in this country.
As for the biggest track in the land, it’s “All About That Bass” from Meghan Trainor with 30,000 downloads.
In the US, year-to-date album sales are down 15% with CDs down by 19% from 2013. Digital albums are uglier by 12% and digital tracks by 13%.
As in Canada, Maroon V debuts at #1 with 164,000 followed by Jeezy at #2 (121,00) and Counting Crows at #6 (32,000). And if you look at the Top 10, you’ll see that Bob Marley and the Wailers Legend is at #5. That’s because Amazon sold the record for 99 cents during a special 30 year anniversary promotion.
Meghan Trainor also has the top-selling download (312,000) and the most-streamed song (11,737,469 listens).
All numbers courtesy Nielson SoundScan.
