As the COVID-19 pandemic forces most of us to spend our days cooped up inside, there's truly no better time to release and listen to new music.
The Weeknd likely didn't know his timing would be so spot on when he originally planned to release the new album After Hours on March 20, but Billboard's statistics show that — whether it's due to timing or quality (or most likely, both) — After Hours is doing better than any other album so far this year.
The Toronto-born artist's new album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, marking the Weeknd's fourth number one album.
For the second time in his career, @theweeknd has the #1 album and #1 single simultaneously in the US.
— The Weeknd Charts (@TWeekndCharts) March 30, 2020
— He previously achieved this in 2015 when both "Can't Feel My Face" and "The Hills" went #1 alongside "Beauty Behind the Madness". pic.twitter.com/t2bPpbWMrV
And according to Billboard, stats from Nielsen Music/MRC Data show that this was the year’s biggest week for any album, with 444,000 equivalent album units sold in the U.S. in the week ending on March 26.
An equivalent album unit — for the record — is a measurement unit in the music industry that quantifies music consumption of all kinds (album sales, track equivalent albums and streaming equivalent albums) in terms of the purchase of one album copy.
The 444,000 equivalent album units sold last week also mark the Weeknd's personal weekly best, according to Billboard.
His previous best was the 2015 album Beauty Behind the Madness, which started at number one with 412,000 units sold in its first week.
The Weeknd hits No. 1 with After Hours
— Hip Hop By The Numbers (@HipHopNumbers) March 29, 2020
444k 1st Week - Highest 1st week of 2020
Weeknd's highest 1st week (412k by BBTM is 2nd)
275k in Pure Sales (incl. Merch Bundles)
220.7 Million Streams - Highest ever for an R&B Album
Weeknd's 4th No. 1 project
AOTY contender? IMO YES
Before After Hours was released, the album with the best weekly numbers for 2020 was BTS’ Map of the Soul: 7 with 422,000 units.
Billboard also notes that After Hours received so many streams in its first week (220.7 million on-demand streams) that it would have debuted at number one without a single album sale.
So while you're most definitely stuck at home and running out of things to do right about now, why not help an artist from Toronto break even more records by listening to After Hours?
by Mira Miller via blogTO
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