Global Chart Report
----------------------------------
Taylor Swift
breaks records
Sunday, April 28, 2024
by Fred Chuchel, Dresden
It's a historic week!
Never before an act has such a
dominance on the charts like Taylor
Swift does on this week's hitlists.
Nine tracks from her new album 'The
Tortured Poets Department' entering
the Top 40, five of it landing in
the Top 10! Together with the five
other debuts on our current tally we
have a total of 14 new-entries this
week, that's also a historic record!
'Fortnight', the official lead
single from Swift's new album and a
collab with Post Malone, storms at
the summit with 541,000 points, the
largest weekly point-frame on the
Global Track Chart since Miley
Cyrus' 'Flowers' catapulted atop the
list with more than 600,000 points
for several weeks in January /
February 2023. Broken down by
segments 'Fortnight' generated
massive 464,000 points by streaming,
56,000 points by sales, and 21,000
points by airplay. According to our
chart rules, only the three most
successful songs from an album are
allowed to place with the full
number of points, the fourth
most successful song
gets a 10% deduction, the fifth 20%,
the sixth 30%, etc. Nevertheless,
five songs from Taylor Swift's new
album made it into the Global Top
10: 'Down Bad' bows right behind
'Fortnight' at the runner-up slot
with 316,000 points, 'I Can Do It
With A Broken Heart' arrives at no.5
with 293,000 points, 'So Long,
London' jumps at no.7 with 263,000
points, and the album's title track
follows at no.9 with 233,000 points.
With the five new Top 10 songs from
Taylor Swift, she climbs at no.6 on
the list with the artists, they hold
the most tracks on the Global Top
10. She has now a total of 36 Top 10
hits, only overtaken by the Beatles
(39 hits), Arashi (40 hits), AKB 48
(43 hits), Elvis Presley (43 hits),
and Madonna (47 hits). 'Fortnight'
ends the nine-week lead of Benson
Boone's 'Beautiful Things', the song
throws down at no.4 with 302,000
points (down 2%). Without Swift's
impact Artemas' 'I Like The Way You
Kiss Me' would be the new number
one, so it slides at no.3 with
304,000 points (down 1%). By the
way, Beyoncé's 'Texas Hold 'Em' is
the new leader on the (unpublished)
Global Airplay Chart with 85,000
points. Together with the 87,000
points by streaming and 20,000
points by sales it ranks at no.15 on
the major hitlist. Outside our weekly Top 40 waiting
among other 'Belong Together' by
Mark Ambor at no.41, 'Good Luck,
Babe!' by Chappell Roan at no.51,
and 'Feather' by Sabrina
Carpenter at no.55 for their first appearance on the big
list. Back to the roots: Over 20
years ago Media Traffic started the
weekly Global Album Chart. At that
time this hitlist was based
exclusively on sales figures and -
like the Track Chart - included 40
positions. But the global album
sales fell dramatically over the
years, and that's why we shortened
the Top 40 to a Top 10 list in June
2016. Later we included streaming
data and now with the further
increase in the streaming share we
can finally offer an expanded
hitlist again. Taylor Swift have
reached the absolute peak of her
career, the eleventh studio effort
'The Tortured Poets Department'
starts easily atop the Global Album
Chart with stellar 3,35 million
equivalent sales! That's the biggest
start by an album since Adele's '25'
set exploded with 5,71 million sales
in the calendar week 49, 2015...
nearly eight and a half years ago.
The album's numbers are almost three
times as high as the subsequent Top
20 placements combined. 'The
Tortured Poets Department' bolts
right away atop the year-to-date
chart and hurls her own '1989' album
at no.2 with a total of 1,68 million
sales this year (the original album
+ 'Taylor's Version'). At no.3 on
the year-to-date list ranks Noah
Kahan's 'Stick Season' with 1,26
million equivalent sales. Back to
this week's hitlist, there are two
other new-entries: 'How?', the
second extended play by South Korean
boy band BoyNextDoor, starts at no.2
globally with 121,000 sales and
'Dark Matter', the twelfth studio
album by American grunge rock legend
Pearl Jam, comes in at no.4 with
88,000 sales. And now, as every
week, additional stats from outside
the current Global Album Top 20 in
alphabetic order, the first figure
means last week's sales, the second
figure the total sales: '1989' by
Taylor Swift 20,000 / 16,181,000,
'21' by Adele 22,000 / 32,750,000,
'25' by Adele 11,000 / 24,947,000,
'30' by Adele 8,000 / 6,356,000,
'After Hours' by The Weeknd 39,000 /
9,318,000, the soundtrack to
'Barbie: The Album' 35,000 /
2,124,000, 'Certified Lover Boy' by
Drake 17,000 / 6,554,000,
'Divide' by Ed Sheeran 25,000 /
20,807,000, 'Endless Summer
Vacation' by Miley Cyrus 14,000 /
1,798,000, 'Equals' by Ed Sheeran
14,000 / 5,907,000, 'Evermore' by
Taylor Swift 27,000 / 5,832,000,
'For All The Dogs' by
Drake 40,000 / 2,869,000, 'Future Nostalgia' by Dua
Lipa 25,000 / 8,632,000, Génesis' by
Peso Pluma 41,000 / 1,801,000,
'Golden' by Jung Kook 53,000 /
2,202,000,
'Harry's House'
by Harry Styles 32,000 / 6,632,000,
'Hereos &
Villains' by Metro Boomin 39,000 /
3,790,000, 'Pink Friday 2'
by Nicki Minaj 11,000 / 1,049,000, 'Red (Taylor's
Version)' by Taylor Swift 40,000 /
5,665,000, 'Sour' by
Olivia Rodrigo 50,000 / 9,870,000,
'Speak
Now (Taylor's Version)' by Taylor
Swift 25,000 / 3,140,000, 'Subtract'
by Ed Sheeran 6,000 / 1,315,000,
'Un Verano Sin
Ti' by Bad Bunny 53,000 / 6,707,000,
'Vultures 1' by ¥$: Kanye West & Ty Dolla $ign 40,000 /
904,000, and 'When We All Fall Asleep,
Where Do We Go?' by Billie Eilish
27,000 / 11,673,000.
GLOBAL NO.1 - 30 YEARS
AGO
... "Streets Of Philadelphia" was
released on February 2, 1994 for the
1993 American legal drama film
Philadelphia, starring Tom Hanks, an
early mainstream film dealing with
HIV / AIDS. Philadelphia director
Jonathan Demme asked Springsteen to
write a song for his fim. In late
August 1993, after the conclusion of
the "Other Band" tour, he recorded a
demo of his completed song at Thrill
Hill Recording, Beverly Hills,
California (his home studio),
supplying all of the
instrumentation. He mailed the tape
to Demme, who later said, "my wife
and I sat down and listened to it,
and we were literally weeping by the
end". "Streets Of Philadelphia"
reached the top position in Germany,
France, Italy, Norway, Austria,
Ireland, and won four Grammy Awards:
Song of the Year, Best Rock Song,
Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo,
and Best Song Written Specifically
for a Motion Picture or Television.
USA
Billboard Report
(excerpt)
'We Still Don't Trust You'
debuts at No. 1
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
by Keith Caulfield & Gary Trust,
Los Angeles
Future and Metro Boomin’s
second collaborative album,
We Still Don’t Trust You,
debuts at No. 1 on the
Billboard 200 chart (dated
April 27), with 127,500
equivalent album units
earned in
the U.S. in the week ending April 18, according to Luminate. It’s the sequel
project to the pair’s We Don’t Trust You, which opened at No. 1 on the April
6-dated chart (with 251,000 units in its first week).
With We Still Don’t Trust You arriving atop the Billboard 200 only three weeks
after We Don’t Trust You debuted at No. 1, that marks the shortest gap between
new No. 1s by an artist since Future replaced himself at No. 1 in 2017 in
successive weeks with his self-titled album (March 11, 2017, chart) and Hndrxx
(March 18, 2017), both of which debuted at No. 1.
Future and Metro Boomin’s
We Don’t Trust You rises 4-3 with 83,000 equivalent album units earned (down
17%). In the last 20 years, there have only been seven instances of acts
charting two albums in the top three at the same time. Prince did it twice
following his death in 2016 (The Very Best of Prince and the Purple Rain
soundtrack on the May 7-14, 2016 charts), Future did so once in 2017 with
his
back-to-back No. 1s (Future and HNDRXX on the March 18, 2017, chart), Taylor
Swift achieved the feat three times (Dec. 26, 2020, with Evermore and Folklore;
and Dec. 9 and 23, 2023, with 1989 [Taylor’s Version] and Midnights) and now
Future and Metro Boomin on the latest chart with We Don’t Trust You and We Still
Don’t Trust You.
Of We Still Don’t Trust You’s first-week unit sum of 127,500, SEA units comprise
124,500 (equaling 162.57 million on-demand official streams of the set’s 25
tracks), traditional album sales comprise 2,500 (the album was only available to
purchase as a digital download) and TEA units comprise 500.
Beyoncé’s
Cowboy Carter slips to No. 2 after spending its first two weeks atop the
Billboard 200. It earned 98,000 equivalent album units in its third week (down
24%).
Morgan Wallen’s
former No. 1 One Thing at a Time rises 5-4 with 71,000 (down 1%).
Noah Kahan’s
Stick Season jumps 8-5 with 51,000 (up 14%), following the release of the Stick
Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever) deluxe edition across four vinyl variants and
on CD. The deluxe set was originally released on June 9, 2023, as a digital
download and streaming album.
Linkin Park’s
first hits compilation album, Papercuts, debuts at No. 6 with 44,000 equivalent
album units earned. Of that sum, SEA units comprise 23,000 (equaling 32.04
million on-demand official streams of the set’s 20 songs), album sales comprise
20,500 and TEA units comprise 500. The album’s sales were bolstered by its
availability across eight vinyl variants, as well as a CD, cassette and digital
download.
Papercuts boasts 14 of the band’s 19 top 10s on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay
chart, including 10 of its 12 No. 1s on the list.
Benson Boone’s
Fireworks & Rollerblades skates 6-7 in its second week with 43,000 equivalent
album units earned (down 25%).
Three former No. 1s round out the top 10:
SZA’s
chart-topping SOS rises 10-8 with just over 40,000 (up 1%),
Morgan Wallen’s
Dangerous: The Double Album climbs 11-9 with 40,000 (up 1%) and
Ariana Grande’s
Eternal Sunshine falls 7-10 with nearly 40,000 (down 17%). Hozier’s
“Too Sweet” ascends to No.
1, from No. 2, on the
Billboard Hot 100 songs
chart, three weeks after it
debuted at No. 5. The Irish
singer-songwriter achieves
his first Hot 100 leader. In
his sole prior run in the
top 10, he hit No. 2 with
his breakthrough hit “Take
Me to Church” in 2014-15.
“Too Sweet,” on
Rubyworks/Columbia Records,
becomes the 1,169th No. 1 in
the Hot 100’s history. It
drew 35.6 million streams
(down 3%) and 14.1 million
radio airplay audience
impressions (up 136%, good
for top Airplay Gainer
honors on the Hot 100) and
sold 6,000 (down 17%) April
12-18. The single, which
Hozier co-wrote and
co-produced, rises 2-1 to
become his first leader on
the Streaming Songs chart;
dips to No. 5 from its No. 3
high on Digital Song Sales;
and debuts at No. 42 on
Radio Songs. “Too Sweet”
marks the fifth Hot 100 No.
1 by an Irish act. It’s the
first since Sinéad
O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares
2 U” in 1990 and the first
by a male soloist since
Gilbert O’Sullivan’s “Alone
Again (Naturally)” over a
half-century ago. Sabrina
Carpenter brews up her first
Hot 100 top 10 as “Espresso”
debuts on the chart at No.
7. Released April 12, it
drew 19.8 million streams
and 5.1 million in airplay
audience and sold 4,000 in
its first week. Future,
Metro Boomin and Kendrick
Lamar’s “Like That” drops to
No. 2 after spending its
first three weeks on the Hot
100 at No. 1. Benson Boone’s
“Beautiful Things” holds at
No. 3 on the Hot 100, after
reaching No. 2, and Teddy
Swims’ “Lose Control” keeps
at No. 4, four weeks after
becoming his first No. 1.
The latter logs a second
week atop Radio Songs (69.9
million, essentially even
week-over-week). Beyoncé’s
“Texas Hold ‘Em” rises 6-5
on the Hot 100, after it
reigned for two weeks in
early March. Rounding out
the Hot 100’s top 10, Jack
Harlow’s “Lovin on Me” lifts
7-6, following six
nonconsecutive weeks at No.
1 beginning in December;
Ariana Grande’s “We Can’t Be
Friends (Wait for Your
Love)” is steady at No. 8,
after it debuted at No. 1 in
March; Noah Kahan’s “Stick
Season” climbs to a new No.
9 high, from No. 10; and
SZA’s No. 6-peaking “Saturn”
returns to the region
(15-10).
Record Of The Month
24-year old British /
Cypriote singer-songwriter
Artemas Diamandis lands his
first global smash
with the retro-futuristic
sound collage 'I Like The
Way You Kiss Me'.
United Kingdom
Music Week Report
(excerpt)
Hozier's 'Too Sweet' remains
at number one
Monday, April 22, 2024
by Alan Jones, London
It took nearly 10 years to progress from first hit to first No.1 for Hozier, and
the Irish singer / songwriter is in no hurry to relinquish his hard-earned
crown, with consumption of
Too Sweet ramping up a
further 17.68% to 71,822
units (1,790 digital
downloads and 70,032
sales-equivalent streams) as
its
logs its second
week at the summit.
Beverage news: While current Top 10 hits by Hozier, Beyonce and Dasha extol the
virtues of whiskey, Sabrina Carpenter’s new hit, Espresso, uses coffee as a
metaphor for relationship addiction. It is Carpenter’s fourth hit and first Top
10 entry, debuting at No.6 (40,308 sales).
Illusions debuts at No.9 (26,974 sales), becoming Dua Lipa’s 16th Top 10 and
28th Top 75 entry. Her fourth straight Top 10 hit, it is the third from upcoming
third album, Radical Optimism.
Meanwhile, Perrie (Edwards) – veteran of 45 hits, including 19 Top 10 entries
and five No.1s with Little Mix – debuts at No.10 (25,915 sales including 1,283
CDs) with her first solo single, Forget About Us. Little Mix are on extended
hiatus at the moment. Her bandmate Leigh-Anne Pinnock reached No.11 last year
with her debut solo single, Don’t Say Love, while former Little Mix member Jesy
Nelson reached No.4 with Boyz (feat. Nicki Minaj) in 2021. The band's other
member, Jade Thirwall, has yet to release any solo material.
In a Top 10 comprising only solo acts for the second week in a row, there are
new peaks for I Like The Way You Kiss Me (5-3, 46,306 sales) by Artemas and
Austin (8-7, 32,858 sales) by Dasha. In fact, the highest-ranking hit by
anything but a solo act is No.14.
The rest of the Top 10: Beautiful Things (2-2, 48,798 sales) by Benson Boone,
Lose Control (4-4, 45,167 sales) by Teddy Swims, Texas Hold ‘Em (3-5, 41,237
sales) by Beyonce and We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Love) (7-8, 30,944 sales) by
Ariana Grande.
Overall singles consumption is up 2.69% week-on-week to 29,156,712 units, 11.62%
above same week 2023 consumption of 26,121,536 units. Paid-for sales are down
1.12% week-on-week at 265,306 – 10.01% below same week 2023 sales of 294,808.
Twenty-six years to the month after they topped the chart with compilation The
Best Of, indie rock legends James finally return to No.1 with 18th studio album,
Yummy on consumption of 18,542 units (11,651 CDs, 4,695 vinyl albums, 1,623
digital downloads, 573 sales-equivalent streams).
Still spearheaded by 1982 founder members Tim Booth (vocals) and Jim Glennie
(bass), it is their first album as a nontet, arriving just 10 months after they
reached No.3 (13,972 sales) with its immediate predecessor, Be Opened By The
Wonderful, on which they reimagined previously recorded material in
stripped-down orchestral versions.
Their 20th Top 75 and 12th Top 10 album, Yummy arrives at the summit nearly 38
years after their introductory 1986 album Stutter debuted and peaked at No.68.
Four of their subsequent studio albums reached No.2 – Gold Mother (1990), Seven
(1992), Millionaires (1999) and Girl At The End Of The World (2016). It secures
James’ highest debut sale since Millionaires opened its account with 34,136 pure
sales in 1999. Their biggest ever first week sale came from The Best Of, which
sold 58,503 copies as it toppled Celine Dion from No.1 in 1998. Although they
have released subsequent, more comprehensive compilations, The Best Of remains
James’ biggest selling album, with to-date consumption of 1,013,286 units.
The only other act to have their first No.1 studio album further into their
chart career than James is The Specials, who topped with Encore in 2019, more
than 39 years after their debut, breaking the record held by The Eagles since
their one and only No.1, Long Road Out Of Eden in 2007, came more than 34 years
after their 1974 chart debut. Mark Knopfler’s 10th regular solo studio album – 18th including soundtracks –
One Deep River debuts at No.3 (14,996 sales), equalling the highest solo chart
position yet for the 74-year-old Glasgow-born Geordie, matching the peak of 2015
set, Tracker. As leader of Dire Straits, Knopfler racked up four No.1 albums
between 1982 and 1991; and reached No.2 with Missing: Presumed Having a Good
Time, his only release fronting one-off country rock band The Notting
Hillbillies in 1990. Across his entire career, One Deep River is his 20th Top 10
album. In Germany, it debuts at No.1 this week, becoming his seventh
chart-topper there in total, and fourth solo.
Seven years after their most recent studio effort, Californian rockers Linkin
Park’s first ever bona fide hits set, Papercuts (Singles Collection 2000-2023),
debuts at No.4 (10,830 sales). It is their 15th Top 75 and ninth Top 10 entry.
Former martial arts fighter Kris Barras fell short of the Top 75 with his first
two albums – Lucky 13 in 2016 and The Divine And Dirty in 2018 – fronting his
eponymous band, but gets more popular with every release. Third album, Light It
Up, reached No.49 in 2019, fourth album Death Valley Paradise reached No.27 in
2022, and this week his Earache label debut, Halo Effect, opens at No.5 (10,427
sales, including 25 USB sticks). The 38-year-old singer/songwriter is from
Torquay.
Leeds indie quartet English Teacher’s first full-length album, This Could Be
Texas, debuts at No.8 (7,807 sales).
Glasgow hard rock veterans Gun’s ninth studio album in a 35-year-chart career,
Hombres is their eighth chart entry, third Top 10 album and highest-charting set
since Swagger reached No.5 in 1994, opening at No.10 (7,166 sales). Some 88.11%
of that total (6,314 sales) is physical (4,751 CDs, 1,493 vinyl, 70 cassettes).
3,513 of those physical sales are in Scotland, where the album duly debuts at
No.1.
Increased physical availability more than offset declining streaming to help
boost consumption of Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter by 3.20% week-on-week to 15,355
units as it holds at No.2. It is still No.1 on streaming, despite its
consumption there tumbling 32.99% week-on-week to 8,894 units, while its pure
sales are up 302.05% to 6,461.
The rest of the Top 10: The Highlights (6-6, 8,552 sales) by The Weeknd, Guts
(5-7, 7,862 sales) by Olivia Rodrigo and Stick Season (10-9, 7,298 sales) by
Noah Kahan.
Overall album sales are up 0.49% week-on-week at 2,396,004, 10.18% above same
week 2023 sales of 2,174,548. Physical product accounts for 305,160 sales,
12.74% of the total.