Album Sales Dip To Lowest Weekly Figure In Soundscan History

Album sales continue to take a hit as the world transitions to its new favorite way for listening to music: streaming.

Kendrick Lamar Shakes Up The Super Bowl With Bold Drake Diss And Surprise Guests

Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl 59 halftime performance was nothing short of legendary, leaving fans buzzing with surprise cameos and bold moments that took his long-running feud with Drake to new heights. Kicking off with an unreleased song snippet and followed by “Squabble Up” from his latest album GNX, Kendrick immediately set the tone for a game-changing performance. Fans eagerly waited to see if Kendrick would play his diss track Not Like Us, especially with Drake's ongoing lawsuit against him and his label for defamation and harassment. Lamar's performance included an unexpected appearance by SZA and a quirky cameo from Serena Williams, along with Samuel L. Jackson’s comedic interruptions, all building the suspense around the Drake drama. In the middle of his performance, Kendrick turned up the heat, looking straight into the camera and directly addressing Drake with his famous lyrics, “I heard you like them young," as fans held their breath. Despite the tension, Kendrick censored himself when it came time to call Drake a "certified lover boy" and avoided saying “pedophile,” which had been widely speculated. Social media lit up with mixed reactions, with some fans mocking the performance as a "mid mashup" and others noting the intense hostility toward Drake. With the hashtag #KendrickBowl trending, it’s clear that Kendrick’s performance was a cultural moment that pushed boundaries—but has he gone too far, or is this just another chapter in hip-hop history? Only time will tell, and Drake has yet to respond.

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Overall album sales in the US in this past chart week (ending July 13) totaled 4.1 million units which is the lowest weekly sum for album sales since SoundScan began tracking data back in 1991. Weekly album sales have been below the 5 million mark in past 12 consecutive weeks. The 5 million mark has only been surpassed in 5 weeks this year, in comparison to 21 weeks at this point last year.

Sia’s new album 1000 Forms Of Fear was able to debut at #1 this week with only 52k copies sold.

Along with album sales dipping low in general because of continued tendency of consumers to favor streaming, low sales can also be attributed to the fact that not many of the world’s top musicians have released projects in the first half of 2014.

UPDATE: Here’s more bad news. This week, the album sales hit a new low. This week’s 3.97-million album sales tally is the smallest weekly sum for album sales since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking data in 1991. It’s also the first time weekly sales have fallen below four million mark in that time span.

Wiz Khalifa third album Blacc Hollywood debuted at #1 this week with sales of just 90,000 copies. Three other albums debuted inside the top 10 on Billboard 200 but averaged only 31,000 units each, showing the downward trend in album sales.

Via Billboard