NEW RELEASES: A THREE-WAY RACE FOR NEXT WEEK'S #1?

We could have a three-way battle for the top-selling album spot next week, while The Weeknd (XO/Republic) is the early favorite to retain the #1 berth on our SPS chart.

New releases from rapper Travis Scott (Epic) and Five Finger Death Punch (Prospect Park) will open with sales in the 90-100k range, based on one-day reads. A second-week drop of 70% or less for The Weeknd will put him in heavy competition to remain atop the heap.

In the SPS world, we’re giving The Weeknd the edge; with 85k in combined TEA/SEA last week and streams surpassing 6 million yesterday, we’re projecting he’ll easily remain at #1 for week two.

We should point out that only a single track from Five Finger Death Punch’s Got Your Six is available for streaming. Rock certainly hasn’t yet achieved the streaming success of Urban titles, which have dominated the streaming charts all year. Will holding back FFDP from streaming services boost sales or, in a close race such as this, will the absence of album streams ultimately keep the release from hitting #1?

On the other hand, it's not unreasonable to expect that Scott's Rodeo, which features such guests as The Weeknd, Kanye West, Justin Bieber, ScHoolboy Q, 2 Chainz and Future, will be streamed plentifully. Stay tuned.

In other news, a prominent neo-Nazi blog has endorsed Donald Trump, noting that his presidency would bring about the classiest ethnic cleansing ever.