Last week's album sales set a record for the Billboard charts, and not the kind that the music industry was looking for. Last week's total album sales were the lowest in the history of the Nielsen Soundscan era, which began during 1991. The total number sold during the week was 3.97 million, marking the first time that the total has been below four million as well.
Although Billboard painted it as if the week didn't feature a headline sales figure to create higher sales, Wiz Khalifa's Blacc Hollywood debuted with 90,000 copies sold, far from the worst chart topper of the year. A more likely explanation for the recent drag in album sales from week to week has been the lack of competition. The Frozen soundtrack, the bestselling record of the year by far, was selling nearly 100,000 copies a week, which coupled with whatever hot debut there was that week to bolster sales totals.
Still, it's been a bad year for record sales in general, although it's following a similar pattern to years past. Last year saw first quarter sales averaging 5.7 million albums a week, which fell to 5.23 million during quarter two and 4.86 million during quarter three. This year has seen similar percentage drops from quarter to quarter but of course it started at a smaller sales total from the get go. Average weekly sales during quarter one this year were around 4.75 million, down to 4.55 million during quarter two and 4.2 million this quarter.
It's not as if less music is being consumed: Streaming numbers are way up but that just doesn't equate to the same profits for record companies. And although this week might be an all-time low for albums, it was pretty darn high for individual downloads, thanks to Taylor Swift's new single "Shake It Off" and a slew of VMA-enthused buyers.
Music executives have to be worried, but some are numb to the constant drops in sales.
"What can I say about this week's sales," a sales executive told Billboard. "I remember when album sales fell under 10 million units and the industry reacted like it was a tragedy."
