Your correspondent was perhaps as wrong as he's ever been during last week's summary of the Digital Downloads charts. Taylor Swift had taken the top two spots on the chart and we predicted that this week might find her with the top three spots, thanks to new release "Welcome To New York." So what happened?
Meghan Trainor "rebounded" to reclaim the top spot on the chart for the fourth nonconsecutive time with her hit "All About That Bass." It wasn't that she had a resurgence in downloads-they actually fell 3 percent to 143,000 in total sales-but that Swift's hits "Out Of The Woods" and "Shake It Off" fell from the Top 10 altogether. It seems odd, considering that no other huge singles debuted this week. Normally we would say that downloads of her new album 1989 cancelled out her singles sales but that record just dropped this week and won't show on the charts until next Wednesday.
Hozier however did have a huge boost, as "Take Me To Church" jumped from no. 13 to its highest spot yet with 132,000 downloads (a 107 percent jump). The rise is most likely thanks to its featuring on a Beats Audio commercial, which has done wonders for musicians such as Aloe Blacc before.
Maroon 5 and Tove Lo used the lack of Swift on the chart to move up, as the former's "Animals" rose to no. 3 with 117,000 downloads sold and the latter's "Habits (Stay High)" moved to no. 4 with 89,000 copies sold. This marks the fewest number of singles selling more than 100,000 copies since we began tracking last year.
Swift did make an appearance with "Welcome To New York," but it was relatively low no. 5 placing. The track sold 84,000 copies in its first week on the charts.
"Bang Bang" sold 82,000 copies and placed at no. 6, not facing too strong of a decerase in sales despite its release on Jessie J's Sweet Talker two weeks ago. Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj also appeared on the track. Jason Derulo sticks at no. 7 with "Trumpets," which sold 81,000 downloads.
Pitbull took advantage of the small sales totals this week as his single "Fireball" rose to no. 8 from no. 16 with 69,000 in sales. It's one of only two tracks on the Top 10 that saw an increase in downloads this week. Fall Out Boy also jumped to the Top 10 for the first time with "Centuries," which sold 67,000 copies (still a 2 percent drop). Sam Smith rounds off the Top 10 this week with "I'm Not The Only One," which sold just a tad fewer downloads than Fall Out Boy's offering.
