Bruno Mars Gets First #1 On BIllboard 200 With Unorthodox Jukebox Posted by Joseph Lee on 03.06.2013
And Adele returns to the top ten...
Bruno Mars achieved his first #1 on the Billboard 200 as Unorthodox Jukebox climbs one spot with 95,000 copies sold. This is a gain of 96% thanks to the album being on sale for $1.99 with albums like Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' The Heist on Amazon MP3.
The sales count to their weekly total because the albums have been out for over four weeks. Billboard doesn't count sales of albums priced below $3.49 in their first four weeks of release. After the $1.99 sale, both albums went up to $3.99 for the rest of the week and as of this writing, are still at that price.
For Unorthodox Jukebox, it might not have been #1 if not for the sale. 64,000 of its sales were from downloads, which is 46,000 more than what the album was selling on average for the past two months in downloads (18,000). Without the sale, it would have been at 48,000, slightly less than the #2 album on the chart, Atoms for Peace's debut album Amok (50,000).
Atoms for Peace includes Radiohead's Thom Yorke, producer Nigel Godrich, Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea, drummer Joey Waronker and percussionist Mauro Refosco. The album also managed to get #1 on Rock Albums, Independent Albums and Dance/Electronic Albums.
The Heist manages to get #4 thanks to the Amazon Mp3 sale and their performance on NBC's Saturday Night Live on March 2. It's the highest rank and sales week since it debuted at #2 with 78,000. The albums at 2-4 were all from independent distribution companies. It's the first time since 1991 that three of the top four albums are independently-distributed. Alternative Distribution Alliance distributed Amok and The Heist, while RED Distribution handled the #3 album, Mumford & Sons' Babel.
At #5 is the debuting Hillsong United, a youth ministry from the Australian Hillsong Church. Their album Zion sold 34,000 copies. It's the best sales week, beating 2011's Aftermath which debuted and peaked at #17 with 27,000. It's also #1 on the Christian Albums chart, their seventh.
At #10 is the returning 21 by Adele, which benefited from her Academy Award-winning song "Skyfall", even though it's not featured on the album. The album is two years old and hasn't been in the top ten since November 3, 2012 when it was #9.
1. Bruno Mars - Unorthodox Jukebox (95,000)
2. Atoms for Peace - Amok (50,000)
3. Mumford & Sons - Babel (43,000)
4. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - The Heist (42,000)
5. Hillsong United - Zion (34,000)
6. Now 45 (33,000)
7. The Lumineers - The Lumineers (30,000)
8. Josh Groban - All That Echoes (29,000)
9. Rihanna - Unapologetic (29,000)
10. Adele - 21 (27,000)
Album sales this week totaled 5.79 million, up 6% compared to last week (5.46 million) and down 9% compared to last year (6.33 million). Year to date album sales stand at 50.36 million, down 7% compared to the same total at this point last year (54.34 million).
