Kelly Clarkson was the big winner on the Billboard 200 this week with the debut of her album Piece by Piece, which sold 97,000 equivalent copies and held off the competition. The effort helped the pop star get even with Carrie Underwood for the title of most no. 1 albums by an American Idol alumni...the country star and Clarkson both have three to their names. This was an especially nice peak for the latter as it was her first no. 1 since 2009, with two other releases in between.
She didn't get to the top without a fight however. The Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack moved up one more spot and took the no. 2 position, moving 96,000 equivalent units and nearly matched Clarkson. A bit further back, Taylor Swift also rose to no. 3 with 1989 thanks to a lagging sales week. The album moved 77,000 copies...only 42,000 of which were actual album sales. Considering that Swift has removed all of her music from streaming services, that means her download sales are going awfully well.
This was the second week in a row that Drake and If You're Reading This It's Too Late finished behind Fifty Shades, which also debuted two weeks ago. The emcee shouldn't worry too much: Although it "only" moved 73,000 copies this week, overall it has sold 270,000 copies more than Fifty Shades over four weeks.
Ed Sheeran also got some help from the slow sales week, as x reentered the Top 5 with 63,000 equivalent albums moved. Big Sean dropped steeply during Dark Sky Paradise's second week. Not as steeply as Kid Rock however: Sean sold 58,000 copies and kept the no. 6 spot while his competitor last week fell out of the Top 10.
Maroon 5 was one of the few albums to see an actual rise in sales, although it was a mere 1 percent. V moved 50,000 units and rose from no. 10 to no. 7. That allowed the band to pass Sam Smith and In The Lonely Hour, which came in at just less than 50,000 units.
The second and final new album on the Billboard Top 10 this week comes from Brandi Carlile, whose The Firewatcher's Daughter debuted at no. 9 (one spot up from her last album), selling 43,000 equivalent albums in the process. Meghan Trainor came back into the fold this week with the narrowest of rises in sales. Her album Title moved 38,000 albums in its eighth week.
