Weekly Music Sales Report and Analysis: 04 February 2016

February 4, 2016 Alan Cross 0 Comments

As we exit the first month of 2016, overall album sales are down 15% year-to-date over the same period in 2015. Yes, you read that right. A pretty deep whole to start a year, yes?

Physical CD sales down 11% from this point 2015 while digital album sales are down 21% year-to-date over 2015. Yes, 21%. Digital track sales are down 23% from a year ago. Yes, 23%

Adele and 25 remain at #1 on the Top Albums chart for the ninth non-consecutive week, with 13,000 units sold. Coming up in second place–and with the top debut–is Megadeth’s Dystopia with 6,600 units sold.

The other two top ten debuts this week belong to various artists’ collections. First we have 2016 Grammy Nominees at #5 (3,600) and Les Irresistibles can be found at #8 (1,700).

Look at that last number again: it was possible to have a Top 10 album in Canada by selling one thousand, seven hundred albums in a nation of 35 million.

Twenty One Pilots’ “Stressed Out” remains at #1 on the Digital Songs chart for the second straight week, with a 2% download increase. And when we get to streaming, Justin Bieber’s “Sorry” is back at #1, with 2.5 million streams.

In the US, Adele is at #1 (97,000 units) followed by the debut of Megadeth at #2 (48,000). Also in the Top 10 is that Grammy compilation (#5, 31,000) and Sex, Love and Pain II by Tank at #8 (18,000).

When it comes to singles, Rihanna’s “Work” is the most-sold download with 119,000 copies (a pretty low number for US downloads) and Justin Bieber’s “Sorry” is the most streamed with 18.2 million listens.

All numbers courtesy Neilsen SoundScan.