Weekly Music Sales Report and Analysis: 29 March 2016

Things continue to suck. That’s pretty much all you need to know. But since you clicked on the link…

There are five debuts in the Canadian Top 10 this week and overall album sales are up 6% from week (which is good, because last week was really bad) but things are still pacing 20% (!!!) behind where the industry was at this time last year.

CDs are down 14%, digital albums are down 28% and digital tracks are down 23%. The only bright spot? Vinyl, which is up 26%.

La Voix IV, the latest compilation featuring the contestants of the Quebec TV series, debuts at #1 by selling 12,000 units, pretty much all of them in that province. That’s the second-highest debut of the year so far with only Bowie’s Blackstar having a better debut week. 

In second spot is This Is What the Truth Feels Like from Gwen Stefani, with an anemic 4,500 units sold. Then again, that’s the best debut week of her solo career–at least in terms of chart position.

Beyond that, we have Ultramarr from Fred Fortin (#6, 2,100 copies), Iggy Pop’s Post Pop Depression (#9 with just 1,400 copies sold) and Jordan Smith’s Something Beautiful at #10.

As for individual tracks, Luke Graham’s lament, “7 Years” is the most popular download while Rihanna’s “Work” is the most-streamed track with 2.7 listens.

In the US, Gwen Stefani debuted at #1 with 76,000 copies. Total sales for the entire US Top 200 over the last barely broke 1 million units. Ouch.

All figures courtesy Nielsen SoundScan.