Music Industry

Weekly Music Sales Report and Analysis: 09 July 2014

VERY late this week.  But hey, it’s summer.

For some reason, the weekly Canadian report from SoundScan isn’t including year-to-date album and track sales statistics anymore.  Is this information too embarrassing to release? Admittedly, the numbers haven’t been good this year, but the US stats are worse.  We’ll get to those in a moment.

I can tell you that Ed Sheeran’s X is still the #1 album in Canada, moving 7,700 copies.  This is the second-lowest total for a #1 album in this country in two months.  And it’s the first album to hold onto #1 for two weeks in a row since March.

The big debut of the week is from Toronto’s Magic! (don’t forget the exclamation mark; remember how much that pissed off Panic! At the Disco when we did that) with their Don’t Kill the Magic album showing up at #5 with 3,500 copies.  The other new appearance in the Top 10 was Isolate & Medicate from Seether (#6, 3,200 copies).  Finally, the biggest digital track is “Fancy” from Iggy Azalea for the fifth consecutive week, moving 17,000 downloads.

Moving south of the border, US sales continue to suck.  Overall album sales are down 15% from last year while physical CD sales are down by 20%.  Digital albums are short by 13% year-over-year and digital tracks are down by the same number.

There are five new albums in the US Top 10, let by Trigga from Trey Songz (#1 with just 105,000 copies).  Seether comes next (#4, 37,000) followed by Magic! (there’s that exclamation mark again; #6, 36,000 copies), the poor Robin Thicke (#9, 25,000 copies) and Colt Ford’s Thanks for Listening at #10.

The biggest download remains Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me” while the most-streamed song is still “Fancy” by Iggy Azalea Ft. Charlie XCX.

All numbers courtesy Nielsen Soundscan.

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 38035 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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