Kylie Minogue ‘Golden’ physical sales well and truly proved that the CD is still the music format of choice for fans in Australia.
Kylie’s ‘Golden’ clocked up 8,745 sales units this week made up of 5,894 physical discs, 2606 digital downloads but only 245 sales allocated towards streaming. Yes, streaming accounted for less than 5% of the total sales.
‘Golden’ was 3,700 units ahead of the number two disc ‘There Is More’ by Hillsong Worship, despite the church being its own chart store and selling directly to its congregation. As expected, Hillsong United also had minimal streams with 323 sales allocated toward to total 5,087 sales.
Ed Sheeran has had a consistent run on the chart but even Ed is doing minimal streams compared to overall sales. Ed’s 4,584 sales gave him the number three poll position including around 25% sales for streams or 1,265 streaming sales.
Of course, when we talk “streaming sales” no money is exchanged for what is called “the sale”. It is purely a calculation made up across 150-200 listens which can be from multiple people. One streaming sale is exactly like you and 150 of your mates chipping in to buy a record and then all borrowing it off each other.
We can drill further down the chart to show that Australian listening habits are not dependent on streaming.
At number 4 ‘The Greatest Showman’ sold 3819 units, 1,130 were included for streaming.
At number 5, ‘Revamp: The Songs of Elton John & Bernie Taupin’ sold a total of 3,573 units, 174 were allocated for streaming.
The Cardi B album had over 50% sales for streaming – 1,793 to a total of 2,908 and 1,115 from downloads. Hardly anyone is actually buying her ‘Invasion of Privacy’ album. Today’s chart is full of examples where you can have a hit record with next to no sales.
That is especially true of the singles chart. If you believe the reports (including ones we publish in Noise11.com), Drake’s ‘God’s Plan’ is the biggest hit song of the year and is as big as hits by Abba, Elvis and The Beatles. WHAT A LOAD OF SHIT.
‘God’s Plan’ should be called ‘Dog’s Plan’. The Drake song isn’t even in the top 10 in real sales. With streaming (again, where you and 150 of your mates kick in for the one sale) it is number one. In actual sales, it is at no 14.
Last week Drake’s ‘God’s Plan’ was actually number 11 in real sales. It was also at 11 the week before that, number 11 the week before that, number 7 the week before that, number 4 the week before that, number 5 the week before that, number 8 the week before that, number 17 the week before that, number 19 the week before that, number 12 the week before that and number 10 the week before that.
THE NUMBER ONE SONG IN AUSTRALIA FOR THE PAST 11 WEEKS HAS NEVER REALLY BEEN NUMBER ONE.
ARIA changed the methodology for compiling the chart in March 2017 but did not change the comparisons. Forget the apples and oranges analogy. This is more like comparing apples with dog turds.
As we head into the 11th year of Record Store Day Australia, music fans go leave their homes to enjoy the reality of a great industry. People love music and the music people love they love to collect. That is the essence of what Record Store Day is all about. Forgot the chart hype, that is all smoke and mirrors.
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