The blockbuster stage of the year’s music release
calendar has arrived, with big numbers for Bad Bunny’s latest album on this
week’s Billboard chart, and even bigger sales expected for Kendrick Lamar’s
long-awaited, just-released return to next week’s chart.
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“Un Verano Sin Ti,” the new album by Bad Bunny, the
mega-streaming Puerto Rican superstar, opens at No. 1 with the equivalent of
274,000 sales in the US, according to the tracking service Luminate. That is
the biggest opening of any album this year — beating the record set last week
by the rapper Future — and Bad Bunny’s second time at No. 1.
Bad Bunny has been Spotify’s most-streamed artist for the past
two years running, so it’s no surprise that “Un Verano Sin Ti” racked up a huge
number of clicks: 357 million, more than any release this year, and the best
streaming week for any Latin album ever.
But what counts as a blockbuster these days? The numbers have
been steadily declining, and what was once the universally recognized milestone
of a megahit — 1 million sales in a single week — looks increasingly unlikely
ever to be reached again.
The streaming total for “Un Verano” — which accounted for about
95 percent of its consumption in the US — was certainly big, but it was less
than half that of Drake’s “Certified Lover Boy,” which opened with 744 million
in September. As a digital album, “Un Verano” sold only 12,000 copies.
Not so long ago, a common chart tactic was to bundle copies of
albums, as downloads or CDs, with sales of concert tickets or merchandise. But
after an industry uproar that such deals were distorting the picture of fan
demand and skewing the charts, Billboard changed its rules two years ago to
prevent most such deals from affecting chart positions.
Even without the rule change, appetites for albums, purchased
whole, have been declining for years. Adele’s latest, “30,” opened last year
with 839,000 “equivalent sales units” — a measurement that incorporates both
sales and streaming — of which 692,000 were for sales of complete albums; in
2015, her previous album, “25,” opened with 3.4 million. No new album has sold
1 million copies in a single week since Taylor Swift’s “Reputation” had 1.2
million in 2017.
Among other notable new releases on this week’s chart, rapper
Jack Harlow opens at No. 3 with “Come Home the Kids Miss You,” which had the
equivalent of 113,000 sales, including 137 million streams, and Arcade Fire’s
“We” arrives at No. 6.
Future’s “I Never Liked You,” last week’s chart-topper, falls to
No. 2, while Morgan Wallen’s “Dangerous” is No. 4 and Olivia Rodrigo’s “Sour”
is No. 5.
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