Weekly Music Sales Report and Analysis: 22 February 2016
So where are music sales at so far in 2016? There’s no other way to say it: things are in disastrous shape. Overall sales are down 18% from this point in 2015.
Yes, I meant to type “18%.”
Physical CD sales are down 14%, digital albums are down 24% (!!!) and digital track sales are down 22%.
Streaming hurting sales much? Ya think?
Adele’s 25 is at #1 on the Canadian album charts, selling 10,500 fresh units last week, meaning that it’s already sold 100,00 copies in this country in 2016 alone. The last person to break the 100K mark that fast? Adele with 21 back in 2012.
With almost no news to report on Top 10 debuts–there was but one, Busia Bulat’s Good Advice at #10–the best I can do is offer stats on which acts received post-Grammy boosts.
- Justin Bieber: +7%
- Chris Stapleton: +81%
- The Weeknd: +25%
- Kendrick Lamar: +268%
- James Bay: +247%
- Taylor Swift: +25%
- Alabama Shakes: 285%
See why the Grammys are so hyped despite being such a bad TV show?
Twenty One Pilots and “Stressed Out” is still the most-downloaded song in Canada with sales of 15,000 last week while the most-streamed song in the country is “Work” from Rihanna with 2.29 million listens.
Moving to ‘Murcia, it’s Adele at #1 with sales of 125,000 copies of 25. The only debut in the Top 10 was Hymns from Joey + Rory at #2 with 68,000 units.
The big digital track was “My House” from Flo Rida with an anemic 125,000 downloads while the most-streamed song was Rihanna’s “Work” (a song that features Drake, by the way) with 24.3 million listens.
All figures courtesy Nielsen SoundScan.
