Beyonce tops U.S. Billboard album chart for third straight week

LOS ANGELES | Beyonce’s self-titled album claimed the top spot on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart for the third week running with 310,000 copies sold during the Christmas week, according to figures released Thursday from Nielsen SoundScan.

The pop star’s fifth solo album has sold a total of 1.3 million copies in the United States in the 17 days from its surprise release through December 29, the final day for tallying this week’s chart.

‘Beyonce’ is the first album to remain at No. 1 for three weeks since Justin Timberlake’s ‘The 20/20 Experience’ did the same in April, Billboard said.

The album, Beyonce’s first since 2011, was released December 13 exclusively through Apple’s iTunes digital music store and was not available in other retailers until December 21.

British-Irish boy band One Direction’s ‘Midnight Memories’ moved up one notch to No. 2 with 142,000 copies sold in the week, while rapper Eminem moved to No. 3 from No. 6 with ‘Marshall Mathers LP 2′ selling 122,000 copies. Billboard said both titles likely benefited from redemptions of gift cards for download stores.

With Christmas albums like country pop singer Kelly Clarkson’s ‘Wrapped in Red’ and ‘Duck the Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas’ both dropping down in the chart, the soundtrack from the animated movie ‘Frozen’ and Katy Perry’s ‘PRISM’ moved up to round out the top five.

Week-over-week album sales dropped 11 percent for the week ending December 29. Sales last week were down 3 percent from the same period last year and album sales for the year were 8 percent lower than 2012.

Pitbull’s ‘Timber,’ a song featuring Ke$ha, retook the No. 1 spot on the digital track list with 442,000 downloads last week.

source: interaksyon.com

Boy band One Direction makes chart history with third No. 1 album debut

LOS ANGELES | British boy band One Direction made chart history on Wednesday as its third album debuted at No. 1 on the weekly U.S. Billboard 200 album chart, the only group to have its first three albums top the chart in opening week sales.

The quintet’s “Midnight Memories” sold 546,000 copies, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan.

The group’s first album, “Up All Night” and second record “Take Me Home,” both released in 2012, also debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, but with smaller opening week sales.

One Direction, comprised of singers Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan, was formed on the U.K. reality singing television show “The X Factor” in 2010 and has gone on to conquer the United States with songs such as “What Makes You Beautiful” and “Story of My Life.”

The band’s music is targeted at a young audience, and its fans are mainly teenage girls, dubbed “Directioners.” The group has more than 16 million Twitter followers and 22 million Facebook fans.

One Direction’s big opening week marks an increase in overall album sales for the week ending December 1, due to the shopping boost during the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

Total album sales were 8.6 million for the week, up 14 percent from the comparable week in 2012, according to Billboard.

Only one other new album debuted in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 this week. Country singer Garth Brooks came in at No. 3 with a box set of music called “Blame It on My Roots,” which sold 164,000 copies in an exclusive deal with retailer Walmart.

On the digital songs chart, which measures single track downloads, rapper Pitbull’s song “Timber” featuring Ke$ha climbed from No. 4 to No. 1 with 237,000 downloads, benefiting from the duo performing the song at the November 24 American Music Awards.

Eminem’s “Monster” featuring Rihanna dropped one spot to No. 2, while A Great Big World’s “Say Something” featuring Christina Aguilera climbed three spots to No. 3 this week, also benefiting from a performance at the AMA.

source: interaksyon.com