Weekly Music Sales and Analysis: 28 March 2014

Yeah, it’s really late this week–but the raw numbers didn’t come in until last night.

So where do things stand in Canada?  Overall sales are now 7% worse than they were at this time last year.  CD sales continue to drop (-7% from 2013) and digital albums are down 8% year-to-date.  Digital tracks are down a full 11%.  That’s not a good way to end the first quarter.

There are five debuts in the Canadian Top 10, although the Frozen soundtrack is back at #1 with 13,500 units sold.  The top debut belongs to Skrillex with Recess (#3, 7,000 copies) followed by Supermodel from Foster the People (#4, 6,500), Going to Hell from The Pretty Reckless (#5, 5,200), Enrique Eglesias’ Sex and Love (#8, 2,800) and finally YG’s My Krazy Life at #10.  The biggest download is still “Happy” from Pharrell Williams (33,000 fresh purchases).

On the US side of the border, year-to-date sales are pacing at -15%. CD sales are down 19% (!!!) compared to 2013 while digital albums are behind by 13% and digital tracks down 11%.

Frozen is back at #1 this week in America with 202,000 copies, its biggest one-week sales number to date, thanks to the release of the movie on DVD and on-demand.  YG has the top debut with 61,000 copies of his debut.  Foster the People landed at #3 (54,000) followed by Skrillex (#4, 47,000), The Pretty Reckless (#5, 35,000), Enrique Eglesias (#8, 24,000) and Taking Back Sunday (#10).

Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” continues to rule the downloads chart (370,000 purchases this past week) while the most-streamed song is “Dark Horse” from Katy Perry with 8,376,594 listens.

All numbers courtesy Nielsen Soundscan.