|
 Country group Florida Georgia Line far outperformed the Irish
rockers by selling 197,000 copies of "Anything Goes" in its
first week for the top spot on the chart, compared with U2's
28,000 units sold, according to sales figures compiled by
Nielsen SoundScan.
"Songs of Innocence," the 13th studio album from U2, became the
largest album release in history after being made available for
free in September on Apple Inc's iTunes online store to half a
billion iTunes users.
Billboard does not count sales of albums priced under $3.49 for
its weekly album chart listings.
U2's lead singer Bono apologized last week to users who objected
to receiving an automatic download of the band's latest album,
after thousands complained they did not want the album and that
it took up precious storage space on Apple devices.
Florida Georgia Line is the third consecutive country music act
to top the chart after Jason Aldean, who landed at No. 1 with
"Old Boots, New Dirt," and Blake Shelton, who notched the top
spot with "Bringing Back the Sunshine" two weeks ago.
Aldean's album dropped to No. 2 this week, while Shelton's
record dropped from No. 6 to No. 15.
[to top of second column] |
Other new debuts in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart this week
include veteran rocker Bob Seger at No. 3 with "Ride Out," and
You+Me, the duo formed by pop singer Pink and folk artist Dallas
Green from City and Colour, at No. 4 with "Rose Ave."
Rapper The Game debuted at No. 7 with "Blood Moon: Year of the
Wolf," former Google employee-turned-rapper Hoodie Allen landed at
No. 8 with "People Keep Talking" and British singer Jessie J rounded
out the top 10 with "Sweet Talker."
For the week ended Oct. 19, total album sales clocked in at 4.4
million units, down 6 percent from the comparative week in 2013,
while year-to-date album sales tallied at 199.93 million, down 14
percent from the same point last year, Billboard said.
(Editing by Mary Milliken and Lisa Shumaker)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
