Weekly Register: Bryan Crashes Back To No.1

Although the nation’s temperatures are rising, sales are experiencing their own polar vortex in the first week of 2014, with overall album sales down 43 percent from last week and Country album sales down 54 percent week over week.

Luke Bryan’s Crash My Party (Capitol Nashville) is the top Country album this week (No. 7 overall), selling another 43k units (1.5 million RTD) and unseating Garth Brooks from the top of the chart. The top overall album is aptly Frozen: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Various Artists, selling 132k units this week and 306k units RTD.

Overall album sales are down 13.9 percent compared to first week in 2013, while Country album sales are down 17.5 percent.

Bryan’s takeover of the chart continues with “Drink A Beer” as the top Country track this week (No. 29 overall), selling 65k units this week (485k RTD). The top overall track remains Pitbull and Ke$ha’s “Timber,” selling 301k units this week (2.2 million RTD).

Overall track sales are down 11.5 percent from same week last year, while Country track sales are down 17.6 percent, competing against Taylor Swift’s release of “I Knew You Were Trouble,” which sold 326k units (2.3 million RTD) around the same time last year.

Nielsen’s 2013 Roundup

Nielsen Entertainment has released its report reviewing sales in 2013. The report notes that streaming rose 32 percent with 118.1 billion streams in 2013. Nielsen’s Sr. VP, Industry Insights David Bakula commented on the rise in streaming, saying “With more than 118 billion streams in 2013 reported by our data providers, which is the approximate revenue equivalent of 59 million albums purchased, the industry remains vibrant as consumption continues to change and expand.”

The report noted that sales across the board – total album sales, overall music sales, physical music sales, digital track sales – were down in comparison with 2012. Country also saw a decline; whereas 14.2 percent of albums sold in 2012 were Country,  a slightly less 13.8 percent of the albums sold in 2013 were Country.

There are no major debuts next week, but the following week will see releases from Jennifer Nettles, Jon Pardi, Rosanne Cash and Mary Chapin Carpenter.