Thursday, March 28, 2024

Pop: The Weeknd Steals the Week with Surprise Release, Lands at Number 1

Share

The Weeknd won the week.

A surprise release last Friday sent the R&B star to the top of the charts today. “My Dear Melancholy,” sold 167,000 copies according to BuzzAngle. Most of those sales– 100,000– were from streaming. The rest came from paid downloads. There was no CD because the album doesn’t exist in that format.

Actually, “Melancholy” is an EP- as they used to say so quaintly– just six tracks. It only costs $6.99 so it was the bargain of the week for the downloaders who paid that way. Individually, the six songs occupied six of the top 10 spots on the Streaming chart. “Call Out My Name” was also number 1 all week on iTunes.

Surprise releases are good for the record biz. They shake things up. But will “Melancholy” get worked by the record company like a real album, or just evaporate after a couple of weeks? Hard to say. But its release made the charts a little livelier even for a short time.

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
spot_img

Read more

In Other News