A BRAVE NEW CHART STORY

A new era is upon us. The Global Release Date has officially been instated and, thusly, the HITS Building Album Sales Chart and the Sales Plus Streaming (SPS) Chart will finalize on Fridays from here on out. So, essentially, Friday is the new Tuesday.

Sales will now be accounted for on a Fri-Thursday basis, and mid-week projections will appear on Tuesday, instead of Thursday.

Another new attribute to note: The chart will be reset on Monday afternoons and the numbers will continue to build throughout the week. So, be sure to keep checking the charts to follow the action as it happens.

Thanks to the transition period, this week's numbers account for an eleven-day period. It's a bit perplexing, we know, but just focus on those deep breaths, buddy. Everything will normalize shortly.

The wonky week leaves Meek Mill at #1 and RCA’s Miguel at #2. Also debuting are albums from Watertower's Magic Mike XXL soundtrack at #6, KidinaKorner/Interscope's X Ambassadors at #7, Fearless' August Burns Red at #8 and Mercury Nashville's Easton Corbin at #11.

Reprise's Neil Young bows at #18 with his 41st studio album, The Monsanto Years.

Meanwhile, Big Machine's Taylor Swift continues to prove the brightness of her mega-stardom. 1989, which has been on the chart for 36 weeks, just passed the 5x platinum mark. In album sales alone, it moves #6-4, earning another 41k, up 42%, and at SPS, it jumps #5-2, earning 72k, up 61%. There's just no stopping Tay Tay.

MCA Nashville's Sam Hunt sees a #5-13 difference between SPS and album sales alone, thanks to three huge singles. And 222/Interscope's Maroon 5 sees a #28-9 difference between the two charts, thanks to the massive success of "Sugar" and the current buzz from "This Summer's Gonna Hurt."

Drake's mixtape, If You're Reading This, It's Too Late (YMCMB/Republic), on the other hand, may have lacked stand-out singles, but it certainly profited from excessive streaming. Drizzy enjoys a #14-33 difference between SPS and album sales.

And that's all, folks. In related news, our brains hurt. A tumbler full of booze and fully loaded bong top our weekend plans.