The Zac Brown Band and its new album Jekyll + Hyde tops the Billboard album charts this week, as a trio of new records—including numbers from Josh Groban and Tyler Farr—also enter in the Top 3 places.
The Zac Brown Band as well as Farr further prove the trend that country music fans are more likely to spring for the full album than fans in other genres. Jekyll + Hyde sold 217,000 full copies, compared to 228,000 equivalent copies on the Billboard 200 (including streaming and single downloads data), whereas Farr's no. 3 album Suffer In Peace sold 37,000 full albums, compared to 42,000 equivalent.
Not that Groban did too bad, coming in at no. 2 with Stages, a collection of Broadway covers. His newest album started off its run with 149,000 copies sold.
The rest of the Top 10 this week is made up of albums we've gotten familiar with by now. Alabama Shakes comes in at no. 4, with full album sales remaining strong after Sound & Color took no. 1 last week. The album sold another 31,500 copies this week.
The no. 5 spot is of interest: It may not be surprising to see Taylor Swift and 1989 up so high, even 27 weeks after the album dropped, but the sales trends compared to how that album placed on the Billboard 200 are worthy of consideration. While 1989 rose to no. 5 with 20,500 in sales this week, the album fell to no. 9 on the Billboard 200 chart, suggesting that album sales are remaining more steady for Swift compared to her streaming and single downloads sales. Always a less likely scenario for a pop star such as swift than for a rock band such as Shakes.
Drake drops back a few space with If You're Reading This It's Too Late, but still remains relatively high thanks to the recent release of the album on CD just a few weeks ago. It sold 17,500 copies last week. Sam Smith and In The Lonely Hour comes in right behind at no. 7, having sold 17,000 additional copies.
The slow sales week allows three standards to return from beyond the Top 10 this week: Ed Sheeran and x sold 16,000 copies at no. 8, the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack sold 15,500 copies at no. 9 and Meghan Trainor's Title returns to no. 10 with 15,000 copies sold.
