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