We've been loathing this day's approach and here it is: The day that Billboard makes the efforts of rising acts outside of the Top 40 irrelevant with the inclusion of download and streaming totals as part of the Billboard 200. As part of the new system, big acts such as (as we shall see) Taylor Swift not not only get credit for their already huge record sales totals, they also get points for every single they sell via iTunes and similar, which adds up to "equivalent" album sales. That means performers such as Sam Hunt, who broke the Top 10 with his album Montevallo and its 25,000 opening week sales, will get pushed from the list no-problem by performers such as Ariana Grande who, despite lower overall album sales, always have excellent streaming and download numbers to fall back on. So let's see what happens.
Swift reattained the top spot on the Billboard 200 but admittedly she would have done so regardless of download sales. 1989 sold another 281,000 copies, moving it to 2.5 million overall in its five weeks of sales. She temporarily fell to no. 2 last week but she may locked into the top spot for a while now.
Pentatonix continued its rise during its sixth week, as That's Christmas to Me rose to no. 2 overall after selling 217,000 actual copies of its album. Expect sales to keep up as we get deeper into the Christmas season.
Eminem and Shady Records didn't need Thanksgiving parade exposure to push sales up. Shady XV moved 138,000 actual copies thanks in part to the additional disc of "greatest hits" from the label over the years.
Last week's no. 1 album, Four by One Direction, took a huge fall in terms of sales despite dethroning Swift for one week. The album still sold 105,000 actual copies however. Sam Smith rose to no. 5 with another 97,000 copies sold of his album In The Lonely Hour.
Rick Ross had much less luck with his second 2014 release, as Hood Billionaire could only get to no. 5 with 74,000 copies sold, compared to 179,000 copies that Mastermind moved during March.
The aforementioned Grande was the first to get a huge boost from the new Billboard policies. Her album My Everything rose from no. 39 to no. 7, although the album would have only placed no. 16. She had 72,000 "equivalent" albums compared to 47,000 actual sales. Beyoncé's new Beyoncé: More Only had similar results, with 71,000 "equivalent" versus 43,000 actual albums moved.
Billboard didn't even bother to report the actual album sales for now 9 and 10 respectively, only noting that Frozen had 71,000 equivalents and Maroon 5's V had 68,000.
