This week marked a major slowdown for record sales but that's kind of to be expected following the drop of a huge album such as Taylor Swift's 1989 last week. Billboard suggests that the cause is a lack of new albums caused by label recognizing that Swift would dominate the charts...but if that were true, wouldn't they have also refrained last week?
Either way, 1989 moved another 402,000 copies, meaning its had both of the top two sales weeks for an album this year, again surpassing Coldplay's 386,000 total for Ghost Stories' first week. Now 52 also kept its spot from last week, staying at no. 2 with 59,000 more copies of the compilation moved.
Bette Midler was the first of only two albums to drop in the Top 10 this week, as her It's The Girls sold 40,000 copies, an all-time high for the performer. Calvin Harris also had his best sales week ever, coming in at no. 5 with his new album Motion, which moved 35,000 units.
Jason Aldean came in right between the two debuts as his most recent album Old Boots, New Dirt sold another 35,000 copies. It'd be easy to attribute his move up the charts to his performance on the Country Music Awards last week but his album actually saw a decrease in overall sales from last week. Florida Georgia Line stayed place at no. 6, moving 30,000 more copies in its fourth week.
A few acts took advantage of the lack of new albums and moved back into the Top 10. Barbra Streisand and Partners fell off for the first time last week but rises back to no. 7 in its eighth week, having moved 28,000 copies. Sam Smith is in the same boat, back at no. 8 with In The Lonely Hour after 22 weeks on shelves. That album sold 27,000 copies. Brantley Gilbert was just a few copies behind Smith, selling 27,000 units of his own Just As I Am, which rose back to no. 9 from no. 62 thanks to a 99 cent sale on Google Play.
Another country performer rounds out the Top 10, as Sam Hunt and Montevallo sold 25,000 copies. It's the third album to return from last week to the current charts.
