LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, United States (Reuters) – Taylor Swift and Adele may have boycotted streaming platforms when releasing their latest albums, but rapper Kanye West proved the power of online consumption as “The Life of Pablo” debuted at the top of the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart through the strength of streaming numbers.
“The Life of Pablo,” West’s seventh studio album and his seventh No. 1 record on Billboard 200, sold 28,000 physical albums and was streamed 99 million times in the U.S., accounting for 66,000 album units, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan. The chart equates 1,500 streams as one album unit.
West first released “Pablo” on premium streaming service Tidal in February, which offered new subscribers a free trial before paying between $9.99 and $19.99 a month.
The rapper kept tweaking tracks and titles before making “Pablo” available on platforms such as Apple Music and Spotify last week. Spotify said “Pablo” was streamed 50 million times in the U.S. last week, accounting for half of the overall streams.
“Pablo” came in ahead of country artist Chris Stapleton’s Grammy-winning “Traveller” album, which climbed from No. 8 to No. 2 this week with sales of 73,000 units, comprising 59,000 physical copies sold and 5 million streams.
And rounding out the top three was Danish band Lukas Graham with its self-titled album which earned 59,000 units, fueled by its hit single, “7 Years.”
