The pop charts are dead.
Is there a song of the summer of 2016? Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling” sort of was headed in that direction. But it’s unclear if it held on long enough.
Otherwise, this week’s total sales of Top 20 CDs and digital downloads came to 325,000. That’s the whole top 20. Need to Breathe’s “Hard Love” album notched just under 45,000 to be number 1. That is a truly awful number 1.
The number 50 album, by Switchfoot, sold 4000 copies.
Blake Shelton’s newest album was number 14 and sold just 10,000 copies. After that, from number 15 down to 50, it’s all less than 10,000 copies for everyone.
Streaming added a little but not a lot to the equation. For example, Drake sold 16,562 CDs and downloads. If you add in streaming, he gets up to 87,567. But Drake is the EXCEPTION. And for some reason, his audience doesn’t care about owning his music.
There are no big name releases scheduled between now and August 29th, when 70 year old Barbra Streisand has an album of duets with odd ball non singers. September looks pretty bleak too. I know of one big single by a Rock Star coming on September 2nd that will surprise everyone. But otherwise, it’s slim pickens.
Have the record companies just given up? Feels like it. We need a real surprise album drop fast. But who could it be? The only superstars are over 50, and even they get one big week during release. This is a broken business.
