Music Industry

Weekly Music Sales Report and Analysis: 23 May 2014

I’m a bit late again, but this time my excuse is that I’m on the other side of the International Date Line this week, which means I have no idea what day it is.

Let’s start in Canada where year-to-date album sales are now down 7% from 2013, which marks and improvement from where things were last week. CD sales continue to suck (as they will for the rest of their existence), down 8% from last year.  Digital albums are behind by by 8% and digital tracks are soft by 12%.

There are five debuts in the Canadian Top Ten this week, led by the Black Keys whose Turn Blue starts life at #1, selling a healthy 21,000 units. That’s their first-ever #1 in Canada.

Marie-Mai comes in at #2 with 16,000 units of M, followed by Michael Jackson’s Xscape (#3, 12,000 units), Chromeo with White Women (#6, 3,500 copies) and Rascal Flatts’ Rewind (#7, 3,000 copies).  The most-downloaded single in the country is still “All of Me” from John Legend.

Looking on the US side of the border, year-to-date album sales are down 16% from this point last year, as are digital album sale.  Digital tracks are down by 12% from 2013.

The Black Keys are at #1 in America, with 164,00 copies of Turn Blue, which is the first time they’ve reached the top of the charts.  This pissed off the Michael Jackson estate, which saw Xscape finish its debut week at #2 with 157,000 copies.

Beyond that we have Rascal Flatts at #5 (61,000 units), Dolly Parton’s Blue Smoke at #6 (37,000), Unrepentant Geraldines from Tori Amos (#7, 20,000) and Michael W. Smith at #10.

The big download is still Ariana Grande’s “Problem” (248,000 downloads) and the most-streamed song is “Fancy” by Iggy Azalea Ft. Charlie XCX with
8,385,200 listens.

All figures 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 37986 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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