Drake released a new album today. It went straight the top of iTunes, and most of its tracks are lodged on the iTunes singles chart. They’re all getting lots of play on Spotify. “Scorpion” is a hit, whether you like it or not.
But Drake always sells like that. I’ve written about him before. He swamps the streaming songs chart.
This week, though, he’s also knocked off Beyonce and Jay, and Kanye West. The first couple of hip hop has “The Carters” album out. Kanye has his “Ye” album. They are really not selling, and not selling enough to have made a difference.
This week “The Carters” sold around 59,000 “copies.” They did streaming equivalent of 37,000 copies, and another 20,000 in paid downloads. (They skew older as it turns out.)
Kanye sold a total of 25,000 copies, most of which came from streaming. He had about 2,000 paid downloads.
These are not big numbers. Kanye certainly alienated his audience, so it’s understandable. But Bey and Jay have no hit single. “The Carters” has had a long lukewarm response despite the fact that they’re touring.
Listen, financially, I’m not worried about any of these guys. But the reality is, recordings is not where they’re making their money. Only Drake can say that.
By the way, an unreleased John Coltrane album was released today from the height of his career. The tapes were just put away. Now they’re finally out. If you’re interested in actual music, take a listen.
