[Weekly Sales] Thomas Rhett earns first #1 album: 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 in Billboard: albums, singles) and Border City Media (published in HITS Daily Double: albums, singles).

“Country has returned to the top of the Nielsen and BuzzAngle Music charts this week as Thomas Rhett landed his first-ever #1 album with Life Changes.  The set moved around 123,000 equivalent album units and is the first country album to top both charts since Jason Aldean’s They Don’t Know landed at #1 in October 2016. Life Changes includes the hit single ‘Craving You’ featuring Maren Morris, who received Music Biz’s Breakthrough Artist Award earlier this year at Music Biz 2017. Country music cast a big shadow in the top ten this week, as Dustin Lynch’s Current Mood landed at #7 on Nielsen and #8 on BuzzAngle, and Kip Moore’s Slowheart debuted at #10 on Nielsen. On the non-country front, The National and Jack Johnson also debuted in the top ten of both charts, while electronic duo ODESZA made a big mark on the Nielsen chart, earning roughly 63,000 units.

“Over on the singles charts, Taylor Swift’s ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ continued to reign at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, while Cardi B’s held down at #2 with the week’s most streamed song ‘Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)’. Sam Smith made his highest-ever debut on the chart with ‘Too Good at Goodbyes.’ On the BuzzAngle Music Top Songs chart, Smith debuted at #1, Logic’s “1-800-273-8255” was at #2, and Swift fell to #3.

“We’ll be expecting a big debut from the Foo Fighters’ Concrete and Gold next week, and also keeping an eye on the release of the self-titled debut album from Rage Against The Machine/Cypress Hill/Public Enemy super-group Prophets of Rage,.”