“Blond(e),” the new album by Frank Ocean, didn’t hit last week until late Saturday– meaning, it missed a whole day– Friday– and most of Saturday for sales.
Also, there’s no actual CD, it’s all digital, either for download or for streaming only on Apple Music.
The result: “Blonde” came in at number 1, with so so numbers. The album had 232,140 downloads and the equivalent of 50,000 streams on Apple Music. If it had been available on other streaming services, the number might have been higher. If there had been a physical CD, people might have bought it. ALso, a radio friendly single wouldn’t have hurt.
As it is, without “Blonde,” this would have been another classic low sales week in the depressed record business. The number 2 album, by Lindsey Stirling, sold 42,690 copies. The number 50 album sold around four thousand copies.
The big news of the week is that Emeli Sande, our favorite new singer of 2012, is releasing a new album in September. It’s about freakin’ time.
