Billboard 200 11/15: Taylor Swift #1: 1.287 million

[areyoureadytojump]

www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/6304536/official-taylor-swifts-1989-debuts-with-1287-million-sold-in

Official: Taylor Swift's '1989' Debuts With 1.287 Million Sold In First Week
By Keith Caulfield | November 04, 2014

Swift earns the largest sales week for an album since 2002.

It’s official: Taylor Swift's 1989 debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with the largest sales week for an album since 2002.

1989 sold 1.287 million copies in the week ending Nov. 2, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

1989 is Swift’s fifth studio album and was released Oct. 27 through Big Machine Records. It's her fourth No. 1 album, following Red (in 2012), Speak Now (2010) and Fearless (2008).

Here are some of the achievements Swift has earned with the debut of 1989:

- The largest sales week for an album since June 2, 2002, when Eminem's The Eminem Show sold 1.322 million in its second chart week at No. 1. The album debuted atop the chart a week earlier, selling 285,000 copies after it was released on a Friday, giving the album only three days of sales in its chart bow.

- Swift is the only act to earn three million-selling weeks with an album. She also racked up million-selling weeks with the debuts of Red (1.208 million) and Speak Now (1.047 million). She was already the only woman to have two million-selling frames. (Her first two albums, 2008's Fearless and her 2006 self-titled debut, bowed with 592,000 and 39,000, respectively.)

- 1989 is immediately the biggest-selling album released in 2014, and the only one to sell a million in total, after only a week on sale. It jumps ahead of Coldplay's Ghost Stories, which has sold 745,000.

- Incredibly, after just one week on sale, 1989 is the second-largest-selling album of 2014, behind only the Frozen soundtrack. The latter has sold 3.2 million this year. (It was released in November 2013 and has sold 3.5 million cumulatively.) 1989 and Frozen are the only two albums to sell a million copies in 2014.

- 1989 is just the 19th album to sell a million copies in a week since SoundScan started tracking sales in 1991. Of the last four million-selling weeks, which have all occurred since 2010, three of them are owned by Swift.

The rest of the new Billboard 200 chart's top 10 will be revealed on Wednesday, Nov. 5.

[Green Baron]

are u f**king serious

[Gabe]

So much hyper over the past week and not only did it not break Britney's record, but it also didn't hit the 1.3 million sold.

Regardless, this is an amazing accomplishment. More so in these times, where artists hardly sell albums anymore.

[Verisimilitude]

WOOOO!

[Glove Slap]

Rubble all around.

[nightshade]

Nov 4, 2014 22:11:53 GMT -5 Gabe said:

So much hyper over the past week and not only did it not break Britney's record, but it also didn't hit the 1.3 million sold.

yeah because bitch gone made a record of her own. having three albums each sell 1+ million on the week of their debut.
bow down.

[surfy]

I'm glad she at least made history by getting yet another record over 1 million.

But how did HDD get so off? Was it the Microsoft thing?

[kanimal]

Nov 4, 2014 22:18:40 GMT -5 surfy said:

I'm glad she at least made history by getting yet another record over 1 million.

But how did HDD get so off? Was it the Microsoft thing?

Hits Daily Double was off by 2%.  The differential seems big numerically because we're talking about a sales count of more than 1 million, but that's not an abnormal disparity whatsoever.

[surfy]

Nov 4, 2014 22:20:12 GMT -5 kanimal said:

Nov 4, 2014 22:18:40 GMT -5 surfy said:

I'm glad she at least made history by getting yet another record over 1 million.

But how did HDD get so off? Was it the Microsoft thing?

Hits Daily Double was off by 2%.  The differential seems big numerically because we're talking about a sales count of more than 1 million, but that's not an abnormal disparity whatsoever.

Oh okay, makes more sense when it's put into percentages. 

[kanimal]

-- Obviously impressive. With all the hype over *some* records, it's easy to forget that this went from being a longshot to reach 1 million *8 days ago* to being a lock to reach 1, then 1.1, then 1.2, then more than Red. Before the album came out, even the most passionate Swifties were preparing themselves for an album-to-album decline, so this is truly remarkable.

One thing that I've been wondering - why has mention of Britney's record largely been absent from the major publications? I feel like *we've* mentioned it a lot - and it's been big on other message boards, social media, etc, but it hasn't been a big story for the two music trades.

Billboard might have mentioned it a few times, but it seems to have put just as much if not more emphasis on the Eminem figure. I'm not even sure Hits ever did mention it, and it's twice acknowledged the digital sales record -- which seems trivial in comparison to having the greatest overall sales count for a female artist (especially since total sales is more apples-to-apples; there wasn't a big digital market when Spears' album dropped).

And the Eminem stat is more of a reference point than a milestone (it's not like it's the record for a solo artist's album or anything).

[skizzo]

So glad Britney's record is still safe, Oops is my favorite album from her discography.

[Gabe]

Nov 4, 2014 22:17:33 GMT -5 nightshade said:

Nov 4, 2014 22:11:53 GMT -5 Gabe said:

So much hyper over the past week and not only did it not break Britney's record, but it also didn't hit the 1.3 million sold.

yeah because bitch gone made a record of her own. having three albums each sell 1+ million on the week of their debut.
bow down.

Thanks for deleting half of my message.

[forg]

AMAZING sales!
Kudos Taylor Swift!

[carrieidol1]

Congrats to Swift... Incredible feat, and I would not be surprised to see her break the record next time around. If she can cross 1 million three times, what's a fourth time? And increasing every time despite the decline in overall album sales? She's simply a freak of nature. She's posting numbers that would be more than impressive over a decade ago --- I can only imagine what she'd be selling if this were 2002. I purchased the album Sunday in hopes that I'd help it break the record (lol)... Kind of bummed to see it fell just short. I really don't doubt, though, that she'll do it with her next album.

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

Nov 4, 2014 22:18:40 GMT -5 surfy said:

I'm glad she at least made history by getting yet another record over 1 million.

But how did HDD get so off? Was it the Microsoft thing?

Highly unlikely that the Windows store moved 100k.

We don't know for sure where HDD gets their numbers from, but we know it isn't soundscan. Some of the biggest HDD misses are on Christian albums, so whatever label(s) are providing numbers to HDD, their numbers are not regularly not 100% in line with what SoundScan tracked retailers are moving.

[CammyCan]

1989 was 22% of all albums sold last week, up from Red's 20%.

Taylor Swift's '1989' sells 1.287 million in first week

Brian Mansfield, USA TODAY 11:01 p.m. EST November 4, 2014

Just like that, 2014 has its first million-selling album.

Taylor Swift sold 1.287 million copies of 1989 last week, according to data from Nielsen SoundScan. As a result, the album becomes the first released this year to sell a million copies, and the year's second-highest seller overall, behind the Frozen soundtrack.

It also means Swift sold more than two copies of 1989 every second last week.

Swift is the first act ever to have three albums sell a million copies in a week. In 2010, her Speak Now sold 1.047 million. Two years ago, Red debuted with 1.21 million sales, the last album to top the million mark in a week.

"She's an incredible anomaly, like no other artist," says Keith Caulfield, Billboard's associate editor of charts/sales. At a time when year-over-year album sales have fallen 14%, "she has convinced consumers to want to buy an album. They want the full and complete Taylor Swift experience, and that experience includes buying the album."

Only 18 albums have sold a million copies in a week previously. Swift fell just shy of the 1.319 million copies Britney Spears sold of Oops! ... I Did It Again in 2000, the most ever by a female act. That week, Oops! accounted for 8% of total album sales.

The week Red came out, it accounted for nearly one out of every five albums sold. With 1989, Swift's percentage is even higher, grasping 22% of the total album sales for the week.

"I don't think I've ever seen anything be that high a share of the total market all by itself," Nielsen SoundScan analyst David Bakula says.

Swift sold 470,000 copies of 1989 at Target, which carried a deluxe edition of the album with six additional tracks. In other words, Swift sold more copies of her album at Target than the year's next-highest debut — Coldplay's Ghost Stories, with 383,000 — sold everywhere.

Swift's sales exceeded industry projections at nearly every step of the way. Initially, industry analysts predicted 1989 would sell approximately 1.1 million albums. Three weeks ago, the number was downgraded to 750,000, Caulfield says, "because of the general overall downturn in the marketplace and how other significant releases were performing."

But, "once the album actually got into stores, and they saw how it was selling in the marketplace," he says, "every day the number started getting bigger. It just sold way better than they anticipated."

Fans buying multiple copies of the 1989 CD could be one reason 1989 outsold Red. Each physical copy of 1989 came with one of five sets of 13 Polaroid photos.

"Anecdotally, we've seen through Twitter and Facebook that people are buying multiple albums, so they can collect all the Polaroid pictures," says Target spokesperson Evan Miller. "We've seen people post every photo, so they've bought several albums."

[surfy]

AWESOME!!! <3

I'm listening to it now to celebrate her victory! I still don't dislike any of the songs, it's crazy!!!

[HolidayGuy]

The sales from the early 2000s were a moment in time (no matter that the music itself wasn't spectacular). Especially Backstreet Boys and N Sync, who had back-to-back 1m+ opening weeks.

In any event, barring possibly Adele, Swift is the only act these days who commands such insane openings- and consistently at that. Impressive that they've come with her third, fourth and fifth albums.

[ctmoonstoneheart]

1989's sales increased 6.5% over Red's opening week or nearly 80 k

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

Nov 5, 2014 7:53:57 GMT -5 HolidayGuy said:

The sales from the early 2000s were a moment in time (no matter that the music itself wasn't spectacular). Especially Backstreet Boys and N Sync, who had back-to-back 1m+ opening weeks.

I think there is a fair number of posters who don't remember (or weren't alive) during this time. BSB/NSync/Britney were cultural phenomenons. Beatles on steroids type devotion from their fans. There's more to their cultural impact than "it was 2001 so everybody was buying CDs then"

[HolidayGuy]

Yes, the whole "boy-band" sound was huge with the record-buying public back then. That I agree. :)

1989 accounted for 22% of all albums sold last week- an anomaly, indeed.

[NeRD]

Anyone know the biggest second week sales for the soundscan era?

[horchata]

Impressive, but ngl glad Britney's record still remains.

[Joe1240]

1989 World Wide sales


Better than all expectations, Taylor Swift's new album '1989' exploded atop the Global Album Chart next week with stellar sales between 1,7 and 1,8 million!!
The new hitlists are available as every week at Friday night (European time)
Mediatraffic

[HolidayGuy]

NeRD- not sure off-hand if it's the SoundScan-era record, but 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin' sold 872,000 in the first week and 822,000 in its second week. N Sync's No Strings Attached may have had a higher second week.

Of course, there have been albums with higher later weeks than their first couple- i.e. titles that sold briskly over the holiday season.

[Enigma.]

The Eminem Show probably, but its first week was only 3 days, as stated above. I think No Strings Attached has that record too.

EDIT: HolidayGuy was quicker, he's probably correct

[wavey.]

3 album with 1 million in openings. Damn girl. I'm ready to see how Adele fares.

[areyoureadytojump]

11/15 Billboard 200

www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/6304557/taylor-swift-collects-fourth-no-1-album-now-52-debuts-at-no-2


Taylor Swift Collects Fourth No. 1 Album, 'Now 52' Debuts at No. 2
By Keith Caulfield, Los Angeles | November 05, 2014

As reported earlier, Taylor Swift's 1989 debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, with the largest sales week in over 12 years.

1989 sold 1.287 million copies in the week ending Nov. 2, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That's the largest week for any album since Eminem's The Eminem Show sold 1.322 million its second chart week (ending June 2, 2002).


1989's first-week sum also makes it the biggest selling album released in 2014, outpacing Sam Smith's In the Lonely Hour (746,000). 1989 is also immediately the second-biggest selling album of the year (following the Frozen soundtrack, which was released in 2013, and has sold 3.2 million in 2014).

1989's debut was so huge, it comprised 22 percent of the entire album market for the week (5.79 million total albums were sold in the week). Another way to look at it: of the top selling albums on the Billboard 200 chart for the week, 1989 sold more than Nos. 2-107 combined.

Or, yet another way to view 1989's massive bow: It debuts with more copies sold than the combined first-weeks of the last eight No. 1-debuting albums (Slipknot's .5: The Gray Chapter, Florida Georgia Line's Anything Goes, Jason Aldean's Old Boots, New Dirt, Blake Shelton's Bringing Back the Sunshine, Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga's Cheek to Cheek, Barbra Streisand's Partners, Lecrae's Anomaly and Maroon 5's V).

Swift's first-week sales were about evenly split between digital downloads and physical CDs, though 1989 sold slightly more physical copies (647,000) than digital downloads (640,000). 1989 logs the largest week for a physical album since Swift's last album, Red, launched with 743,000 physical copies in 2012. 1989's digital bow is the second-biggest week for a download album ever, behind only Lady Gaga's arrival with Born This Way in 2011 (662,000). (The latter's sales were amplified by deep discounting through the Amazon MP3 store, which temporarily lowered the price of Born This Way to 99 cents.)

Swift's 1989 was briefly on sale for 99 cents during its release week through the Microsoft's Music Deals app, but those sales were not counted by SoundScan. Unit sales for albums priced below $3.49 during their first four weeks of release will not be eligible for inclusion on the Billboard album charts and will not count towards sales data presented by Nielsen SoundScan. The pricing policy was established in late 2011, after Born This Way's debut.

As for the rest of the new Billboard 200 chart, the Now 52 compilation debuts at No. 2, selling 103,000 copies. All 52 of the numbered Now compilations have reached the top 10, and every volume since the second has debuted in the top 10. Now 52's sales arrival beats that of Now 51, which launched with 94,000.

Country singer Sam Hunt bows at No. 3 with his debut album, Motevallo (70,000). It also starts at No. 1 on Top Country Albums. The album is powered by his hit single "Leave the Night On," which concurrently rises to No. 1 on the Country Airplay chart.

Barry Manilow rounds out the top four on the Billboard 200, as his new release, My Dream Duets, starts at No. 4 with 51,000. The collaborations album — which pairs Manilow with deceased artists like Whitney Houston and Judy Garland — logs Manilow his biggest sales week since 2010 (when The Greatest Love Songs of All Time bowed with 57,000).

My Dream Duets saw a sizable chunk of its first-week sales come from QVC, which sold an exclusive version of the album and hosted Manilow for an hour-long concert on Oct. 17. My Dream Duets is Manilow's 15th top 10 album.

Jason Aldean's Old Boots, New Dirt rises 6-5 with 43,000 (down 24 percent) and Florida Georgia Line's Anything Goes dips 5-6 with 38,000 (down 36 percent).

Following its deluxe reissue last week, Led Zeppelin's Led Leppelin IV album — originally released in 1971 — bounds back on to the chart at No. 7 with 35,000 (up 3,042 percent). The former No. 2-peaking album is one of two Led Zeppelin reissues to climb up the list this week, as the band's Houses of the Holy (released in 1973) also returns, re-entering at No. 12 with 29,000 (up 4,828 percent).

Led Zeppelin IV was last in the top 10 on the chart dated March 4, 1972. Houses of the Holy, which spent two weeks at No. 1 in May of 1973, last ranked in the top 10 on July 21, 1973.

Chris Tomlin's Love Ran Red debuts at No. 8 with 35,000 (and also comes in at No. 1 on Top Christian Albums), marking Tomlin's third top 10 effort on the Billboard 200. His last entry, 2013's Burning Lights, debuted at No. 1 with 73,000 sold in its first week.

Last week's No. 1, Slipknot's .5: The Gray Chapter, falls to No. 9 with 34,000 (down 75 percent).

Another rock act, Black Veil Brides, closes out the top 10 as its new self-titled effort debuts at No. 10 with 30,000. It's the group's second top 10 effort, following their last release, 2013's Wretched and Divine: The Story of the Wild Ones, which bowed at No. 7 with 42,000.

Over on the Digital Songs chart, Taylor Swift debuts at No. 1 with "Blank Space" (155,000 downloads), notching her ninth leader on the tally. It's her third No. 1 from the 1989 album, following "Shake It Off" and "Out of the Woods."

Swift also places another entry in the top 10, as the album's "Style" starts at No. 8 with 74,000.

Back up at No. 2, Meghan Trainor's "All About That Bass" slips 1-2 with 133,000 (down 8 percent) and Maroon 5's "Animals" holds at No. 3 with 110,000 (down 6 percent). Hozier's "Take Me To Church" falls 2-4 with 105,000 (down 20 percent) and Tove Lo's "Habits (Stay High)" descends 4-5 with 79,000 (down 11 percent).

Nicki Minaj's "Only," featuring Drake, Lil Wayne and Chris Brown, debuts at No. 6 with 76,000. Imagine Dragons' new single "I Bet My Life" enters at No. 7 with 74,000.

Rounding out the top 10 are Jason Derulo's "Trumpets" (down two rungs with 72,000; down 11 percent) and "Bang Bang" by Jessie J, Ariana Grande and Minaj (down four places to No. 10 with 71,000; down 13 percent).

Overall album sales in this past chart week (ending Nov. 2) totaled 5.79 million units, up 30 percent compared with the sum last week (4.47 million) and up 23 percent compared with the comparable sales week of 2013 (4.70 million). Year to date album sales stand at 199.19 million, down 13 percent compared to the same total at this point last year (228.65 million).

Digital track sales this past week totaled 17.29 million downloads, up less than 1 percent compared with last week (17.22 million) and down 15 percent stacked next to the comparable week of 2013 (20.41 million). Year to date track sales are at 935.37 million, down 13 percent compared to the same total at this point last year (1.07 billion).

Next week's Billboard 200 competes with the same week in 2013 when: Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP 2 debuted at No. 1 with 792,000 sold. Celine Dion's Loved Me Back to Life started at No. 2 with 77,000.

[Gary]

Any numbers on how many albums were sold for 99 cents through the Microsoft app?

It is possible that accounts for the difference between the HITS number and the Soundscan number

[Deleted]

Amazing numbers for Taylor! I'm ok with Britney keeping her record and Taylor setting herself in a category of her own with all these #1 albums and 1 million + opening weeks. I'm anxious to see how big the drop will be in week 2 and how well the album will sell over the next two months! Finally something exciting on the charts to keep us busy while waiting for the Adele domination.