Update 2: While Slipknot is no longer winning the iTunes battle, it will win the overall sales war. Slipknot’s “.5: The Gray Chapter” will claim #1 on next week’s Billboard 200 album sales chart thanks to a first week total of 100-110,000. Sales projections for this week’s key new albums are here.
Update: Twenty four hours have passed since the week’s new releases debuted on iTunes, and there has been a changing of the guard.
The iTunes album sales chart is now led by Logic’s “Under Pressure.” Slipknot’s “.5: The Gray Chapter,” which spent much of Tuesday in the lead, is now #2.
Taylor Swift’s “1989” (pre-order), TI’s “Paperwork” and Pentatonix’s “That’s Christmas to Me” remain in their respective #3, #4 and #5 positions.
=======
Signposted by the success of its instant gratification tracks, Slipknot’s new “.5: The Gray Chapter” cruised to the top of the iTunes album sales chart following its release early Tuesday morning.
The album, which sent several individual tracks into the iTunes top five last week, is currently outpacing a fellow new release in Logic’s “Under Pressure.”
Taylor Swift’s “1989,” which is in its pre-order phase, follows in third place, while TI’s new “Paperwork” and Pentatonix’s new “That’s Christmas to Me” claim #4 and #5, respectively.
Other top ten albums include Aretha Franklin’s “Aretha Franklin Sings the Great Diva Classics” (#6), Florida Georgia Line’s “Anything Goes” (#7), Ben Howard’s “I Forget Where We Were” (#8), Annie Lenox’s “Nostalgia” (#9) and Little Big Town’s “Painkiller” (#10).
Noteworthy releases just below the top ten include Kiesza’s “Sound of a Woman” (#12) and Neil Diamond’s “Melody Road” (#13).