Billboard 200: 5/23/15: Mumford & Sons #1: 249,000

[areyoureadytojump]

www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/6561407/mumford-sons-second-no-1-album-billboard-200-chart

Mumford & Sons Scores Second No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 Chart
By Keith Caulfield | May 13, 2015 10:40 AM EDT

Rock band Mumford & Sons scores its second No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart, as its new release Wilder Mind debuts in the top slot. It moved 249,000 equivalent album units in the week ending May 10, according to Nielsen Music.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA).

Of Wilder Mind’s overall unit start, pure album sales equated to 231,000 -- a drop off from the arrival of its last album, 2012’s Babel. It launched at No. 1 with a whopping 600,000 copies sold — a stanza that remains the largest sales week for a rock album this decade. Babel would spend a total of five nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1: Its first three frames, and then another two the following year after the set won the Grammy Award for album of the year. It’s sales-to-date stand at 2.7 million.

Babel’s big bow was partially driven by the slow-and-steady success of its predecessor, 2010’s No. 2-peaking Sigh No More. That album had sold 2.5 million copies by the time Babel was released and most certainly built-up the band’s fan base, which turned out in force for Babel’s first-week. (Sigh No More has sold a total of 3.2 million.)

That said, Wilder Mind does earn the largest sales week for a rock album in nearly year. Coldplay’s Ghost Stories was the last rock title to tally a bigger week when it arrived on the June 7, 2014-dated list at No. 1 with 383,000 sold. Wilder Mind also notches the third-largest sales week of 2015, behind the bows of Drake’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late (495,000) and Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly (324,000).

Wilder Mind -- which is the quartet’s third full-length effort and was released May 4 through Gentlemen Of the Road/Glassnote Records -- was led by the chart-topping single “Believe.” It reached No. 1 on both the Alternative Songs and Adult Alternative Songs chart.

In the runner-up slot on the latest Billboard 200, Josh Groban’s Stages holds steady for a second week, moving 101,000 units (down a moderate 44 percent). The album likely held fast at No. 2 as it was perhaps a prime Mother’s Day (May 10) gift purchase, and the holiday fell on the final day of the latest tracking week.

The new Now 54 compilation enters at No. 3 with 71,000 units, giving the long-running Now That’s What I Call Music! series its 60th top 10 album. All 54 of the numbered volumes in the Now franchise have reached the top 10, along with an additional six genre-specific titles (like Now That’s What I Call Christmas!).

Rapper Tech N9ne starts at No. 4 with his new album Special Effects, shifting 66,000 overall units and his biggest sales week yet: 58,000. The album equals the No. 4 peak of his two earlier highest-charting efforts: 2011’s All 6’s & 7’s and 2013’s Something Else. The latter title also previously logged Tech N9ne’s best sales frame with a handful of units less than Special Effects.

Last week’s No. 1 album, Zac Brown Band’s Jekyll + Hyde, falls to No. 5 in its second week, shifting 66,000 units (down 71 percent).

The Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack gets a boost, as it collects a 46 percent unit gain to 53,000 units). The album holds at No. 6, despite its gain. The set’s overall unit total benefits from the home video release of its parent film on May 8.

The Furious 7 soundtrack slips 3-7 in its eighth week on the list (46,000 units; down 14 percent) while Sam Smith’s In the Lonely Hour is steady at No. 8 (39,000; up 17 percent). Taylor Swift’s 1989 is also a non-mover at No. 9 (just over 36,000; up 11 percent) and Ed Sheeran’s x rises 11-10 with 36,000 (up 19 percent).

[areyoureadytojump]

Previous conversations in past BB200 threads.


1. Master Of Puppets by Metallica has been charting on the BB200 due to sale pricing. I saw it for $5.99 at Best Buy yesterday.

2. Physical albums are still outselling digital albums.

3. Catalog albums need to be gone from the new version of the BB200. I don't care that Fleetwood Mac's "Greatest Hits" is still selling. Of course it is going to sell each week. Numerous studio albums by new artists are kept off the BB200 due to all these GH albums. There were 67 Catalog albums on the BB200 last week. Boring.

[felipe]

May 13, 2015 10:18:47 GMT -5 areyoureadytojump said:

3. Catalog albums need to be gone from the new version of the BB200. I don't care that Fleetwood Mac's "Greatest Hits" is still selling. Of course it is going to sell each week. Numerous studio albums by new artists are kept off the BB200 due to all these GH albums. There were 67 Catalog albums on the BB200 last week. Boring.

But if these new albums by new artists are not selling well enough to be on the BB200, why should they?

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

Could Stages be this year's Partners?

[Daryl the Beryl]

May 13, 2015 10:18:47 GMT -5 areyoureadytojump said:

3. Catalog albums need to be gone from the new version of the BB200. I don't care that Fleetwood Mac's "Greatest Hits" is still selling. Of course it is going to sell each week. Numerous studio albums by new artists are kept off the BB200 due to all these GH albums. There were 67 Catalog albums on the BB200 last week. Boring.

@ Chris

I think younger catalog albums such as Based on a True Story... and good kid, m.A.A.d. city should stay but those really old ones such as Journey's Greatest Hits and Legend: The Best Of Bob Marley And The Wailers should be kicked out as they take up some space.

To each their own but I think removing the older Catalog albums would be a good idea, especially since an album can chart on the Billboard 200 with less than 1,000 copies sold as long as TEA boosts it (case in point, "Talk Dirty")

Anyway, why don't you email Billboard about this?

[HolidayGuy]

areyouready- there is the Current Albums chart, for those who don't care how older titles are selling. :)

Never mind catalog titles- the inclusion of track-sales info has made the BB 200 messier than anything else. This week, it looks like two albums that rank among the top 10 best-selling albums his week do not rank in the top 10 of the BB 200.

[areyoureadytojump]

But, nobody reads the Current Album chart. Only chart fanatics like us...

@daryl, I like that idea. Remove the old, old albums from the BB200.

[kingofpain]

Did Partners reach 1 million in sales yet?

[trustypepper]

Wow @ Babel's debut number, I forgot it was that high. :o

I personally don't think albums should ever be kicked off the BB200. It's supposed to rank the best-selling albums each week, whether they are brand new or 40 years old.

[areyoureadytojump]

www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.33829/title.hip-hop-album-sales-tech-n9ne-drake-nicki-minaj

Hip Hop Album Sales: Tech N9ne, Drake, Nicki Minaj
by Christopher Harris

Tech N9ne debuts at #4 and Furious 7 drops out of the top 5.

Tech N9ne's 15th studio album, Special Effects, debuted at the #4 spot on the Billboard 200, making it the highest charting Hip Hop album of the week with more than 58,00 units sold.

The Furious 7 soundtrack remained in the top 10 this week, but fell from #3 to #7. Drake's If Youre Reading This Its Too Late fell eight spots from #5 to #13.

Nicki Minaj's Pinkprint album has been on the Billboard 200 for 21 weeks, making it one of the longest charting Hip Hop albums on the list. Nik dropped out of the #18 spot to #23 this week.

Empire's Season One Soundtrack rounds out the top 25 with 12,135 albums sold this week.Further down the list, J. Cole's 2014 Forest Hills Drive continues to remain one of the top 50 albums in the country. Cole's total activity (streaming, album sales) was higher than Kendrick Lamar, Flo Rida, and Wale, three artist's who' albums came out months after Cole's.

Tech N9ne Debuts At #4

Tech N9ne's Special Effects got off to a strong start this week with 58,388 albums sold. It's the fourth time since 2011, Tech's album debuted in the top 5 on the Billboard 200. Technically, Special Effects is the #1 Hip Hop album in the country. Tech N9ne has debuted at the #4 spot on the charts four times in his career. He has never charted higher than #4 on the Billboard 200.

Fast & Furious 7 Exits Top 5

Largely due to the success of Wiz Khalifa's "See You Again" single, The Fast & Furious 7 soundtrack is still charting in the top 10. This week, it fell four spots from #3 to #7. The soundtrack has been remained successful in its streaming figures each week, boating over 10 million streams for the week ending 5/10.

Drake Falls From #5 To #13

Drake's extended CD version of his latest album, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late , has been impactful on the charts. He sold another 15, 109 albums this week, but moved out of the top 10. Though it's only 3,000 short of last week's sales, incoming albums and a number of factors contributed to the album's fall from the top 5. Still, in the third week of the CD being available on shelves, IYRTITL raked in the highest streaming count of any artist on the chart.

Top 10 Billboard Top 200 Rap & R&B Albums For The Week Ending 05/10/2015

Note: The first number below is this week’s “total album equivalent units” count, an intersection of album sales, single sales, and streams implemented by Billboard's new rating system. A pure album sales figure is available in bold in parenthesis and information about each album's streaming count is available in brackets.

#4. Tech N9ne - Special Effects - 66,087 (58,388) [3,627,368]

#7. Various - Fast & Furious 7 - 45,944 (11,508) [10,005,617]

#13. Drake - If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late - 32,191 (15,109) [16,654,572]

#23. Nicki Minaj - Pinkprint - 16,873 (3,936) [8,606,255]

#25. Empire Cast - Original Soundtrack From Season 1 - 15, 477 (12,135) [2,230,234]

#28. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly - 14,838 (8,851) [6,275,470]

#32. Big Sean - Dark Sky Paradise- 14,269 (4,192) [7,751,352]

#33. Rae Sremmurd - Sremmlife - 13,882 (5,360) [12,460,807]

#40. Yelawolf - Love Story - - 12,708 (9,356) [2,124,458]

#43. J. Cole - 2014 Forest Hills Drive - 12,385 (6,122) [6,257,310]

[areyoureadytojump]

May 13, 2015 11:28:09 GMT -5 kingofpain said:

Did Partners reach 1 million in sales yet?

Nope.

Week 17 YTD

PARTNERS - Barbra Streisand 933,000 1xP

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

May 13, 2015 11:28:09 GMT -5 kingofpain said:

Did Partners reach 1 million in sales yet?

I believe its around 800k right now? The last estimate me had from the end of 2014 was a little over 750k.

Nevermind lol

[HolidayGuy]

Fast & Furious, Nicki Minaj and Big Sean albums with considerably more points from track sales than album sales.

[areyoureadytojump]

Albums on the Billboard 200 that have not been certified with the RIAA:

Sales estimates are from the 5/16 chart:

Drake 881k
Maroon 5 903k
Kendrick Lamar 557k
Katy Perry 1,631,000
Fall Out Boy 751k
5 Seconds of Summer 695k
Now 52 566k
Childish Gambino 451k

Only albums over 425k and that have been on the chart for 4+ weeks are listed

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

Over half the streams for FF7 are just from See You Again on Spotify.

[HolidayGuy]

^Track sales, though, account for a lot more than streams on the BB 200.

[Hot AC Archiver]

I have to respectfully disagree about catalog titles. If it's one of the top selling albums, even if its very old, it should chart.

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

May 13, 2015 13:11:19 GMT -5 HolidayGuy said:

^Track sales, though, account for a lot more than streams on the BB 200.

I was just pointing it out because the album had 10,005,617 streams last week. SYA had over 6 million streams on Spotify last week. TEA is definitely boosting the album more than SEA, but that that one song is pretty much doing all the work for it.

[jenglisbe]

May 13, 2015 10:18:47 GMT -5 areyoureadytojump said:

1. Master Of Puppets by Metallica has been charting on the BB200 due to sale pricing. I saw it for $5.99 at Best Buy yesterday.

Thanks!

3. Catalog albums need to be gone from the new version of the BB200. I don't care that Fleetwood Mac's "Greatest Hits" is still selling. Of course it is going to sell each week. Numerous studio albums by new artists are kept off the BB200 due to all these GH albums. There were 67 Catalog albums on the BB200 last week. Boring.

One could argue the B200 isn't really for the public, though. It's an industry/trade magazine, and labels want to know that about catalog titles. Isn't that why the change was made in the first place?

May 13, 2015 11:11:59 GMT -5 HolidayGuy said:

Never mind catalog titles- the inclusion of track-sales info has made the BB 200 messier than anything else. This week, it looks like two albums that rank among the top 10 best-selling albums his week do not rank in the top 10 of the BB 200.

One could argue sales only measure new interest, though, not current popularity. If I buy an album the day of release and never listen to it again because I dislike it, to me that is different than if I buy an album and 2 months later I'm still listening to it. Only using my initial sale doesn't reflect that difference.

I get the more specific point about tracks counting, but as has been said before, people often purchase an album because of one track. Look at an Eagle Eye Cherry, a Joan Osborne, even Mark Ronson.

[areyoureadytojump]

When Catalog albums started charting on the BB200, there weren't so many.

Now almost 1/3 of the Billboard 200 are Catalog albums.

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

May 13, 2015 13:40:12 GMT -5 jenglisbe said:

May 13, 2015 11:11:59 GMT -5 HolidayGuy said:

Never mind catalog titles- the inclusion of track-sales info has made the BB 200 messier than anything else. This week, it looks like two albums that rank among the top 10 best-selling albums his week do not rank in the top 10 of the BB 200.

One could argue sales only measure new interest, though, not current popularity. If I buy an album the day of release and never listen to it again because I dislike it, to me that is different than if I buy an album and 2 months later I'm still listening to it. Only using my initial sale doesn't reflect that difference.

I get the more specific point about tracks counting, but as has been said before, people often purchase an album because of one track. Look at an Eagle Eye Cherry, a Joan Osborne, even Mark Ronson.

This is where something like how streaming is counted for album sales in the UK would be good for Billboard, I think. Essentially the top 2 tracks from the album are scaled down to prevent a situation like Mark Ronson only selling 3000 units but having a top 5 album because he has one massively huge track.

[Hot AC Archiver]

May 13, 2015 13:48:43 GMT -5 areyoureadytojump said:

When Catalog albums started charting on the BB200, there weren't so many.

Now almost 1/3 of the Billboard 200 are Catalog albums.

but that's a symptom of the record industry at the moment. Apparently current music isn't as popular right now, and the chart reflects that. The pendulum will probably swing the other way eventually.

[areyoureadytojump]

^Yup, so now it is time for another change!

roughstock.com/news/2015/05/34982-country-album-chart-report-may-13-2015/

Country Album Chart Report For May 13, 2015
Posted by Matt Bjorke on May 13, 2015

docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OQSqhxGqtpzwihjdAr_EZLO-axIcN38aiIYHoSguYQY/edit#gid=0

Top 10 CNTRY Artist Album Week Total Scans

1 Zac Brown Band Jekyll+Hyde 55,900 270,300
2 Chris Stapleton Traveller 27,100 27,100
3 Reba McEntire Love Somebody 16,600 113,200
4 Sam Hunt Montevallo 15,200 508,400
5 Tyler Farr Suffer In Peace 11,100 47,500
6 Granger Smith 4x4 8,700 8,700
7 Luke Bryan Spring Break...CheckOut 8,500 197,500
8 Jason Aldean Old Boots, New Dirt 8,500 935,900
9 Eric Church The Outsiders 8,300 935,300
10 Little Big Town Pain Killer 8,000 213,500
Next 5

11 Florida Georgia Line Anything Goes 7,900 661,000
12 Darius Rucker Southern Style 7,900 105,600
13 Miranda Lambert Platinum 6,000 636,200
14 Dwight Yoakam Second Hand Heart 5,500 42,900
15 Luke Bryan Crash My Party 5,300 2,442,300
Notables

-- Carrie Underwood Greatest Hits...Decade #1 4,600 341,200
-- Zac Brown Band Greatest Hits...So Far 4,000 153,200
-- Chase Rice Ignite The Night 3,800 231,400
-- Brantley Gilbert Just As I Am 3,400 770,600
-- Kenny Chesney The Big Revival 3,300 372,500
-- Trisha Yearwood PrizeFighter: Hit After Hit 1,600 51,300
NEW JasonMichaelCarroll What Color Is Your Sky 1,100 1,100
-- Ray Price Beauty Is... 700 35,500
-- Home Free Crazy Life 700 71,400

[jenglisbe]

Is the increase of vinyl albums helping those older titles? Since vinyl sales tend to be older albums and there has been a surge for them, that could be part of it. And record labels would probably want to know that.

[areyoureadytojump]

^Labels get that information from detailed SoundScan reports.

Target had the vinyl album for Pitch Perfect yesterday.

Barnes & Noble sells vinyl albums now.

[Enigma.]

I'm against all limitations, that's all

[HolidayGuy]

Good point, Technicolor.

jeng- that is true, but sales start from zero every week, so that's "current popularity." More than anything, it's the calculations for TEA that are making the BB 200 look odd in spots.

[chartfreak]

I don't mind the catalog albums, but TEA gives me a headache.

[divasummer]

Taking off catalog albums to make the Billboard 200 more exciting just doesn't sound right.
If a new cd can't sell enough to hit the charts well so be it.
Plus don't a lot of newer cd's have an advantage with TEA for the most part?
Because they tend to sell more digitally single wise.
I could be wrong but I still think Catalog cd's should be on there.

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

So assuming the rumors of a Taylor Swift ft Kendrick Lamar remix for Bad Blood are true, do sales of the hypothetical remix count for TEA for 1989? We haven't really seen a situation yet where a remix could move significant units like this likely will.