Luke Bryan’s No. 1 Album and Katy Perry’s No. 1 Digital Song Each Sell Over Half-Million
Billboardbiz
August 21, 2013
By Keith Caulfield
This week, for only the second time in history, an album and a digital song both simultaneously sell more than a half-million copies in a single week.
On the Billboard 200 albums chart, Luke Bryan’s “Crash My Party” debuts at No. 1 with 528,000 according to Nielsen SoundScan. While over on the Digital Songs chart, Katy Perry’s “Roar” bows at No. 1 with 557,000 downloads.
The only other time that a download song and an album have sold each 500,000 in the same frame was over the Christmas week of 2009. In the sales week that ended Dec. 27, 2009, Ke$ha’s “TiK Tok” sold 610,000 downloads, while Susan Boyle’s album “I Dreamed a Dream” sold 510,000 copies.
For Bryan, as reported yesterday, this marks his second No. 1 album — and second leader this year. “Crash My Party” follows his previous chart-topper, “Spring Break… Here to Party,” which opened at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 dated March 23.
“Crash My Party” logs the third-largest sales week of 2013, surpassed by only the debuts of Justin Timberlake’s “The 20/20 Experience” (968,000) and Jay Z’s “Magna Carta… Holy Grail” (slightly over 528,000).
“Crash My Party” also claims the largest week for an album by a male country artist since 2004. Tim McGraw was the last male country artist to sell more copies in a week — when his “Live Like You Were Dying” bowed with 766,000 in November of 2004.
As for Perry’s “Roar,” the song finished the week with a larger than expected sales sum. On Sunday, Aug. 18, forecasters had suggested the song was on course to sell between 525,000 to 550,000 downloads by the close of that week’s business (on Aug. 18). That projection itself was increased from “Roar’s” original forecast of 400,000 — made on its release date, Aug. 12.
“Roar’s” debut marks the sixth-largest sales week for a digital song ever, Perry’s own best week ever, and the biggest for her label, Capitol Records.
The only other larger weeks were logged by Flo Rida’s “Right Round” (a debut with 636,000; 2009), Ke$ha’s “TiK ToK” (610,000; 2009), Bruno Mars’ “Grenade” (559,000; 2010), Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” (debut with 623,000; 2012) and “I Knew You Were Trouble” (582,000; 2012).
But wait, there’s more! “Roar” also logs the third-biggest debut for a digital song. Only “Right Round” (636,000) and “We Are Never…” (623,000) started larger.
“Roar” is the lead single from Perry’s “Prism” album, which is due for release on Oct. 22.