Music Industry

Weekly Music Sales Report and Analysis: 27 October 2015

There was almost a wholesale change in the Top 10 on the Canadian album charts this week, but we’ll get to that in a second. First, a check on overall music sales for the week.

Year-to-date album sales are now dragging 2% behind 2014 with physical CD sales leading the way at -8%. Digital albums are up 5% while digital tracks are down 4%.

This is the last report under the old system. Effective Wednesday (October 28), two new metrics will be incorporated into the album charts in addition to the normal digital and physical sales: Track Equivalent Albums (TEAs) and Streaming Equivalent Albums (SEAs). (For an explanation of what this all means, go here.) Chances are that the new measurement rules will see a big shakeup in next week’s charts.

Seven of the Top 10 albums are brand new this week, led by Demi Lovato’s Confident at #1 with 7,600 units sold. In second spot is the various artists’ collection Forever Gentlemen with just under 7,600 units. Moving to #3, we find Les Soeurs Boulay’s sophomore album 4488 De L’amour with 5,700 units.

Beyond that is Machine Gun Kelly’s General Admission at #4 (around 5,700 copies), Pentonix’s self-titled album (#5, 4,700), The Game’s Documentary 2.5 (#6, 4,300) and Bryan Adams’ Get Up (#7, 3,700). 

The biggest download is “Hotline Bling” from Drake (sales of 16,000) and the most-streamed song is Bieber’s “What Do You Mean” with 1.85 million listens.

Looking at ‘Murcia, Pentonix became the first a capella group to ever have a #1 album with their self-titled record, moving about 88,000 copies. The next five places are also debuts: Demi Lovato at #2 (77,000), Machine Gun Kelly at #3 (49,000), The Game at #4 (42,000), Coheed and Cambria at #5 (31,000) and Kidz Bop Kidz at #6 (27,000).

Drake’s “Hotline Bling” is the most purchased download (153,000) and the most-streamed track in the US is “The Hills” from The Weeknd with 19 million streams.

All numbers 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 38022 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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