Weekly Music Sales Report and Analysis: November 26, 2014

It’s supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year as people rush out and buy music for Christmas presents. So with a month left to go, how are things looking?

Even though five albums sold more than 10,000 units this week, year-to-date music sales are down 5%. Physical CD sales are now down 6% while digital albums are softer by the same number. Digital tracks? Down 13% from this time last year.

To absolutely no one’s surprise, One Direction’s Four debuted at #1 with a very healthy 43,000 units sold, which is the third-highest one-week sales total of the year. All four of their records debuted at #1, something that we haven’t seen since the Backstreet Boys.

Sorry, Nickelback haters, but their No Fixed Address album showed up at #2 with a respectable 20,000 copies. On the down side, this broke the band’s string of five consecutive #1 debuts stretching back more than a decade.

And if you’re wondering about Taylor Swift, 1989 dropped 1-3, selling another 19,5000 copies. In the last month, she’s sold 190,000 copies and is just 12,000 copies behind the Frozen soundtrack in the race to be the top-selling album of 2014.

Speaking of Ms Swift, her “Blank Space” remained at #1 on the Digital Songs chart with 25,000 downloads sold while Band Aid 30’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas (2014)” debuts at #2 with 19,000 downloads.

Over in the US, it’s One Direction at #1 with about 387,000 units, pushing Taylor Swift down to #2 (213,000 copies). Nickelback pulled in at #4 (80,000) and In This Moment’s Black Widow (#8, 360,000)rounded out the debuts in the Top 10.

The top digital track is “Blank Space” from Taylor Swift with 302,000 downloads. And when it comes to streaming, “Blank Space” on top for the second straight week with 14.2 million listens. Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass” holds at #2 with 11.6 million streams and Bobby Shmurda’s “Hot Boy” sits in third with with 9.8 million streams.

All numbers courtesy of Nielson SoundScan.