Taylor Swift holds #1 as holiday music surges: Comment from Music Biz President James Donio

James Donio, President of the Music Business Association (Music Biz), commented on this week’s sales numbers issued by Nielsen (published by Billboard — albums; singles) and BuzzAngle Music (published by HITS Daily Double — albums; singles).

“Taylor Swift spent her third straight week atop the Nielsen and BuzzAngle Music charts, moving over 147,000 album equivalent units of Reputation to stay at #1. The album joins Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN., Drake’s More Life, and The Weeknd’s Starboy as the only records to spend at least three weeks at the summit in 2017. Holiday music also made a strong impact on this week’s charts, with Pentatonix’s A Pentatonix Christmas surging to #2 on the strength of their NBC TV special, A Very Pentatonix Christmas, and discount pricing on iTunes. Michael Bublé’s holiday mainstay, Christmas, also made its annual trip back to the Top 10, landing at #9. Finally, Rap veterans Fabolous and Jadakiss scored the week’s only Top 10 debut with their collaborative album, Friday on Elm Street, which reached #10 on the Billboard 200.

“On the singles charts, Post Malone continued his reign at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and BuzzAngle Top Songs charts for an eighth straight week with ‘Rockstar’ featuring 21 Savage. The feat lifts the track over Joan Jett & The Blackhearts’ ‘I Love Rock and Roll’ for most weeks at the top for a song with the word ‘rock’ in the title. Meanwhile, Ed Sheeran’s new version of ‘Perfect’ featuring Beyoncé helped vault the track to #3 on both charts, despite it being available for only a few hours during the tracking period. We look forward to seeing the release’s full impact next week. Finally, Music Biz 2016 Breakthrough Artist Halsey logged her highest Billboard Hot 100 chart position as a lead artist, landing at #11 on the Hot 100 and reaching #10 on the BuzzAngle Top Songs chart with ‘Bad at Love.’

“Next week, we’ll see whether Swift’s Reputation can hold on to #1 in the wake of new releases from Rock veterans U2 and Country singer-songwriter Chris Stapleton.”