Taylor Swift had her chance this week, but her streak is over.
Still, she can’t complain about selling 885K equivalent copies of “Lover,” her new CD. And 700,000 of those were actual CDs and downloads. (Well, downloads, since you can’t buy CDs anywhere. I just tried to buy Lana Del Rey’s new CD in Manhattan, and the few record stores that exist don’t carry it. They have vinyl, which doesn’t fit in my car’s audio slot.)
Anyway: Taylor also had three of the top five most streamed songs this past week. On the rest of the top streaming chart you can find most of the tracks from “Lover.”
The number 50 album of the week was Ed Sheeran’s 2017 album, “Divide,” with 11,545 copies sold including 942 paid CDs and downloads. The majority of sales came from streaming.
Missy Elliott’s “Iconology” sold 17,486 copies. Of those, 10,000 were CDs and downloads. Elliott had a lot of push this week from the MTV Video Music awards.
All this streaming produces a small amount of revenue for the artists. According to BuzzAngle and hitsdailydouble, the number 1 streamed song from August 21-28st was something called “Ransom” by Lil Tecca. It made $215,775. Half goes to taxes, so now you’re at $110,000. Then you split that with the record company, the music publisher, the guy who promoted it to Spotify and AppleMusic, and so on. Lil Tecca needs to keep a second job.
But I digress: “Lover” has already been dethroned from number 1. Even though it will cross the million mark next week, Swift’s album has seen its greatest glory. Digital chews you up and spits you out, baby.
