NEW RELEASES:
THIS WEEK'S RACE (UPDATE)

The battle for #1 has heated up substantially over the weekend, with an additional contender now in the mix. Mercury Nashville’s Chris Stapleton, after winning four ACM awards last night and getting the CBS Sunday Morning treatment, surges nearly 600% in digital sales over his previous day’s numbers. Much data remains to be crunched, but as of now Stapleton appears headed to 43-48k in album sales plus an additional 10-13k from tracks and streams, for an SPS projection of 53-61k.

Meanwhile, Kanye West's frequently revised The Life of Pablo (G.O.O.D./Def Jam) could be a contender for #1 based almost entirely on streams. Preliminary numbers suggest Pablo is scoring enough action on Spotify and other services since going wide last week that it could zoom to the top—even though you can only purchase it on his website. Stay tuned.

Here are the updated new release projections.

Twenty88 (Def Jam) 39-43k album, 44-48k SPS
Weezer (Crush Music) 36-40k, 38-43k
Lukas Graham (Warner Bros.) 34-38k, 56-61k

In other uncertain races, will the GOP see a contested convention this summer? We can't say for sure, but it couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys.