Two weeks ago, the music industry observed an ad hoc “blackout” in solidarity with the protests over racism and police violence. Record companies, streaming services and others paused operations and pledged to support equality efforts.
As part of these efforts — which came to be known as #BlackoutTuesday — some album releases scheduled for that week were delayed, by acts including Machine Gun Kelly, Smokepurpp, 6lack and Jessie Ware.
With no major new releases, it was inevitable that the charts would be affected. This week, the Atlanta rapper Lil Baby, whose “My Turn” opened at No. 1 three months ago and has remained a steady streaming hit, returned to the top spot on Billboard’s album chart with comparatively low numbers.
“My Turn,” which features guest spots from stars like Gunna, Future, Lil Uzi Vert and Lil Wayne, had the equivalent of just 65,000 sales in the United States, including just over 100 million streams, according to Nielsen Music.
That was the lowest equivalent sales number for any No. 1 this year, but it was in line with other slow weeks. In April, YoungBoy Never Broke Again reached the top with 67,000, and early last year the Bronx rapper A Boogie Wit da Hoodie landed a third week at No. 1 with 47,000, including just 398 copies sold as a full package. (This week, Lil Baby and several other rap stars reached the Top 10 with similarly anemic numbers for full-album sales.)
The dearth of major new releases had a wide impact on the charts. No new albums opened in the top 40 slots. On Spotify, the 200 most popular tracks — which are usually dominated by recent releases — had the least overall streams for any week this year, with 487 million in the United States and 1.64 billion around the world, according to publicly available numbers from the service.
Also on the latest Billboard album chart, Lady Gaga’s “Chromatica,” last week’s top seller, fell to No. 2; Gunna’s “Wunna” is in third place; Future’s “High Off Life” is No. 4; and Drake’s “Dark Lane Demo Tapes” is fifth.
Source: Music - nytimes.com
