Justin Bieber Tops the Chart, but Is It a Smash?

Are the sales figures for Justin Bieber’s latest album a modest success, or a major smash? The answer shows how complicated the music industry’s accounting has become in the digital age.

Mr. Bieber’s latest album, “Believe” (RBMG/Island), opened at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart this week with 374,000 sales, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It is his fourth No. 1, and it had the biggest opening week of any album so far this year. Smash, right? Hold on. Its sales fell significantly short of industry predictions, which were at 400,000 and above. And while it is the year’s biggest debut, it is far from the biggest sales week of the year. That honor belongs to Adele, whose “21” (XL/Columbia) sold 730,000 copies in the week after she won the Grammy Awards, in February.

By another measure, though, “Believe” is already a big hit. Nearly 3.4 million tracks from the album have already been sold, an extraordinary number for a brand-new record. When Taylor Swift’s “Speak Now” came out in late 2010, for example, it had just over 1 million album sales and 2.5 million track sales. (Adele’s number was only 757,000.)

The way the beans are counted by the music industry, 10 individual tracks are considered equivalent to an album. So adding up Mr. Bieber’s 374,000 albums and his “track equivalent albums” of about 340,000, he would end up with about 714,000. Great, but still not better than Adele.

Also on Billboard’s album chart this week, a number of new releases take over the top slots. Kenny Chesney’s “Welcome to the Fishbowl” (Blue Chair/Columbia) opens at No. 2 with 193,000 sales. Fiona Apple’s first new album in seven years — its long title begins “The Idler Wheel…,” and it was released by Epic — is No. 3 with 72,000 sales, her highest chart position, although previous albums have had greater weekly sales.

The Smashing Pumpkins are No. 4 this week with “Oceania” (Martha’s Music/EMI), the group’s first since 2007 and its first with a new lineup; it sold 54,000 copies. The “Rock of Ages” soundtrack is No. 5 with 49,000 sales, and last week’s No. 1, Usher’s “Looking 4 Myself” (RCA), fell to No. 6 with 48,000, a 62 percent sales drop.

Adele’s “21,” by the way, fell out of the Top 5 this week for only the second time in its 70 weeks out. It sold just less than 47,000 copies, falling four spots to land at No. 7. Its total sales are 9.4 million, a figure nobody else — by pretty much any count — is even close to.

Source & Image : New York Times