Normally it's album sales that we worry about...digital downloads have continued to rise and even record-low record sales don't correlate with the success of the hit singles from those albums. This week was the unusual one where almost every song in the Digital Downloads Top 10 saw a drop in sales, and most by a dramatic amount.
One song that bucked the trend was Meghan Trainor's "All About That Bass," which regained the no. 1 spot after a two week hiatus. The single saw a 17 percent jump in sales, brining it to its highest downloads week yet, moving 312,000 copies. The boost might be due in part to Trainor performing it with Jimmy Fallon and The Roots on their popular school instrument segment.
The rest of the charts were a mess however, much of it due to the inevitable post-VMAs hangover. Taylor Swift was bound to see a drop after the huge debut of "Shake It Off" three weeks ago. The song still brought in a sizable download count last week, selling 281,000 copies, which was still a 21 percent drop. The rest of the tracks performed at the VMAs also saw drops of more than 20 percent however.
"Bang Bang"—by Ariana Grande, Jessie J and Nicki Minaj—kept its no. 3 spot but dropped 30 percent to 170,000 downloads. Iggy Azalea passed Minaj for no. 4 on the charts with "Black Widow" but her track still dropped 24 percent in total sales. "Anaconda," Minaj's second single in the Top 10 to lose 30 percent in sales from last week, sold 130,000 downloads and took no. 5. Grande's "Break Free" rose to no. 8 from no. 6 but also lost 20 percent of its sales, totaling 95,000 downloads. Sam Smith and "Stay With Me" stayed at no. 7 despite a 33 percent decrease in downloads (totaling 84,000 copies).
Clean Bandit took advantage of the situation, taking no. 8 with "Rather Be" despite a 4 percent drop in sales (82,000 downloads sold). MAGIC! was one of the few bands that saw an upturn in sales last week, as "Rude" came back to no. 9 with 81,000 downloads, a 21 percent increase. Sia, who hasn't gotten past no. 9 with "Chandelier" but has lingered quite a bit near the back of the Top 10, took the last spot again by moving 79,000 downloads.
