In a slow sales week, Bruno Mars finally gets his first No. 1 on The Billboard 200, for “Unorthodox Jukebox,” moving 95,000 copies. He had a little help: special pricing at Amazon MP3 put the set up for sale for $1.99, aiding in a 96% sales gain. “Jukebox” has been out for around two months but hadn”t made it to the summit.
Thom Yorke”s project Atoms For Peace sees its first album “Amok” bow at No. 2 with 50,000.
Mumford & Sons” “Babel” falls from No. 1 to No. 3 (43,000, -31%) as Macklemore & Ryan Lewis” “The Heist” climbs No. 16 to No. 4 for the same basic reason Bruno Mars did this week: sale price tag at Amazon MP3. They also garnered sales increases from their “Saturday Night Live” performance.
And with that, albums at Nos. 2-4 on this chart are all distributed by indie distribution companies. According to Billboard, it’s the first time since SoundScan started collecting sales data for the chart in 1991 that three of the top four albums are independently-distributed.
Hillsong United, a Christian ministry music group for Hillsong Church, has its album “Zion” bow at No. 5 with 34,000. It is the group”s best debut ever, as its previous best came with “Aftermath” at No. 17 with 27,000 in 2011.
“Now 45” descends No. 4 to No. 6 (33,000, -13%), the Lumineers” self-titled album slips No. 5 to No. 7 (30,000, -13%), Josh Groban”s “All That Echoes” moves No. 3 to No. 8 (29,000, -29%), Rihanna”s “Unapologetic” stays at No. 9 (29,000, +1%) and recent Oscar winner Adele”s “21” returns to the top 10 ascending No. 14 to No. 10 (27,000, +17%).
Album sales are up 6% compared to the previous week and down 9% compared to the same week last year. Sales are down 7% for the year so far.