Weekly Music Sales Report and Analysis for June 11, 2014

June 14, 2014 Alan Cross 0 Comments

Yeah, I know I’m really late with this week’s report–but in my defense (a) I didn’t get the numbers until yesterday; and (b) there were three World Cup games and one Stanley Cup potentially winner on TV. I was…distracted.

Here in Canada, year-to-date album sales are down 7% from last year (no change from last week), led lower by a 7% drop in CD sales and an 8% decline in digital album sales. Digital tracks are also down from 2013 by a full 13%.

Miranda Lambert has the best-finishing of five debuts in the Canadian Top 10. Her Platinum starts life at #1, selling 9,300 units. It’s what comes next that I find fascinating. All three Led Zeppelin reissues debuted in the Top 10: I at #4, II at #6 and III at #7. Ninety percent of those sales came in the form of physical CDs. The fifth debut belongs to 50 Cent’s Animal Ambition, which 4,400 copies.

The biggest single in the country is “Fancy” from Iggy Azalea for the third straight week, moving another 24,000 download.

The US also saw five debuts in the Top 10, but they didn’t help much. Overall American album sales are down 15% from last year with CDs down by 19% and digital albums down by 12%. Digital tracks are suffering, too, with a 12% lag from 2013.

Miranda Lambert debuted big at #1 with 180,000 copies of Platinum, followed by 50 Cent (#4, 47,000 copies) and then the Led Zeppelin reissues (I a 6, II at 9 and III at 10). I find it most interesting that I outsold II on both sides of the border.

The biggest single is also “Fancy” from Iggy Azalea with 263,000 downloads. It’s also the most-streamed song of the week (sorry, I don’t have a number this time around.)

All figures courtesy Nielsen SoundScan.