Features
Pink Takes Over Elite 100, Playboi Carti Rises
Jim Hill – Pink
Pink performs at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Mich., March 18.
Showing the power of album-ticket bundles, Pink has ascended to the top of the Elite 100 Artists chart for the week ending May 17.
Pink had an onsale for the next leg of her Beautiful Trauma tour May 11 , with a bundled CD copy of the tour’s namesake album with each ticket purchase. This meant that she moved an impressive 121,600 albums in the week, about 100,000 more than the next closest artist. She added 20,900 song sales and 12 million streams, meaning a total of 131,700 album units. She also is No. 2 on the Pollstar Global Concert Pulse, averaging just under $2.5 million per city and with tour dates taking her clear into next May.
Post Malone led the chart in streams, with 163.5 million, and he also led in song sales, with 67,600. Postie also sold 11,900 albums, giving him a total 127,600 album units, making him the only artist within striking distance of Pink for the week. The artist continues his tour with 21 Savage, SOB X RBE and Paris tonight at Philadelphia’s Festival Pier. One show on the tour has been reported to Pollstar so far, April 29 at Acceso ShoWare Center in Kent, Wash., which sold out at 6,648 tickets and grossed more than $603,283. The deep bill and hit-making power of Post Malone, who just dropped his Beerbongs And Bentleys LP, has the ticket price at a very strong $60-$248.
See Also: Pollstar’s SOB X RBE Cover Feature
Standing above the chart’s regular entries is Drake at No. 3 thanks to his 120.9 million streams. Drizzy also sold 56,300 songs for the week in question, but he was weak in album sales since he hasn’t released a proper album since 2017.
J. Cole came in at No. 4, though his album sales for the recent KOD seem to have mostly plateaued, with 5,800 for the week in question. Jermaine is now riding the strength of his streams, with 89.3 million. The rapper recently announced he will be putting on his own Dreamville Festival in Raleigh, N.C., Sept. 15.
One new artist rounding out the Top 5 is Playboi Carti, whose Die Lit album released May 11 and got him 80.4 million streams. He didn’t sell many albums, with 2,000 moved, but he did a bit better in song sales, with 8,100.
The artist who did slay song sales this week was Childish Gambino (No. 6), whose “This Is America” is likely responsible for the 56,000 song sales for the week in question.
Moving down the list, Tee Grizzley also shot up the charts to the No. 14 position with the release of his Activated album. He mostly saw streams, with 41.8 million on the week.
The release of Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino May 11 meant Arctic Monkeys re-entered the chart at No. 18. The band had balanced stats, with 11,000 album sales, 6,200 song sales, and 26.1 million streams.
Another artist to keep an eye on is Youngboy Never Broke Again who rose to No. 26 from No. 37 last week, with 29.5 million streams and 9,100 song sales. Youngboy managed to climb in popularity on a chart full of artists with new releases.
A clarification: Rae Sremmurd is now being listed as “Rae Sremmurd, Swae Lee & Slim Jxmmi,” to match their new moniker on streaming services. Swae Lee & Slim Jxmmi are the members of the duo group previously simply known as Rae Sremmurd (which is Ear Drummers, their label, spelled backward).
Other artists with new albums who charted:
Next week projects from the following artists will be charting: James Bay, Low Cut Connie, Lil Baby, Courtney Barnett, Five Finger Death Punch, NAV, Kyle and Ray LaMontagne.
Also, music fans keep your eyes peeled for new releases from A$AP Rocky, Pusha T, Snow Patrol, Chvrches, Big Scoob, Hoobastank, Jonathan Davis, Zaytoven and Wifisfuneral. Bow Wow’s Greenlight 6 mixtape was supposed to drop May 21, but it seems like the release has been postponed, most likely to Friday.