[WEEKLY SALES] Metallica Tops Charts With Third Biggest Launch of 2016; Bruno Mars, Miranda Lambert Follow

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 (published in HITS Daily Double).

It was a great week for fresh releases on the Nielsen and BuzzAngle Music charts, with new releases taking the top three spots. The charts were led by veteran Metal band Metallica, which moved around 300,000 album equivalent units of Hardwired… to Self-Destruct to make it the third-biggest launch of 2016 and the best debut week for a Rock album since Coldplay released Ghost Stories in 2014. They are followed by Pop star Bruno Mars, who moved around 230,000 album equivalent units of 24K Magic to land at #2, and Country singer Miranda Lambert, who moved around 140,000 album equivalent units of The Weight of These Wings to start at #3. It’s the first time that three new releases have bested 100,000 units each in nearly a year, a feat last accomplished by Justin Bieber, One Direction, and Logic on December 5, 2015. Next week, we’ll be following The Weeknd’s new album, Starboy, and the soundtrack to Disney’s latest blockbuster film, Moana, as well as keeping an eye on how Record Store Day’s Black Friday event affected sales at independent record stores.”