Music Industry

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.

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 39980 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

One thought on “Weekly Music Sales Report and Analysis: 29 March 2016

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.