Virtually every music industry metric confirms the extent to which the two “50 Shades of Grey” singles amounted to blockbusters.
In addition to going as high as #3 (thus far for “Earned It”) on the all-encompassing Hot 100, The Weeknd’s “Earned It” and Ellie Goulding’s “Love Me Like You Do” have performed impressively in the areas that contribute to that overall chart.
Strong radio performers, they have each topped the overall Radio Songs chart and at least one single-genre airplay listing. While the existence of juggernauts like Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk (featuring Bruno Mars)” prevented either from reaching the top of the Streaming Songs chart, both claim peaks within the Top 5. “Love Me Like You Do” went as high as #3 on the US Streaming listing, while The Weeknd’s “Earned It” sits at its #4 peak.
They have also driven considerable amounts of paid US downloads.
In selling approximately 96,000 copies during the April 20-26 tracking week (#8 for the week), “Earned It” brought its cumulative total past the 1.5 million mark. Through the end of that tracking period, it had driven approximately 1.503 million paid downloads in the US.
While Goulding’s “Love Me Like You Do” has begun to cool off from a weekly sales standpoint, it currently possesses a greater cumulative total. By driving what Nielsen Music reports as approximately 72,000 sales during the April 20-26 tracking week (#13), “Love Me” brought its cumulative US total to approximately 1.915 million.
Projected to sell roughly 60,000 copies during the April 27-May 3 tracking week, “Love Me” should be able to cross the 2 million mark by the week ending May 10.
