[WEEKLY SALES] Ladies Continue to Lead Charts with Lorde’s ‘Melodrama’

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

“Ladies continue to lead the charts this week as Lorde’s sophomore release, Melodrama, earned more than 109,000 units awarding the singer/songwriter her first #1 album. Following recent top-charting releases from Halsey and Katy Perry, Lorde completes the consecutive #1 “triple axel” for successful female forces in the industry — something that has not been done on the Billboard charts since December 2012 when Taylor Swift, Alicia Keys and Rihanna held simultaneous #1 albums. Other notable debuts include 2 Chainz’s Pretty Girls Like Trap Music in at #2 with more than 94,000 units and Jason Isbell’s The Nashville Sound at #4 with more than 53,000. Next week’s charts seem to be led by the race to #1 between DJ Khaled and Imagine Dragons, but we’ll be keeping a close look at the sales impact of last night’s BET Awards, where Kendrick Lamar took home ‘Best Male Hip-Hop Artist’ led by efforts for DAMN. — an album which has continued to chart very high since its release.”