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THE GREAT DIVIDE

Ed Sheeran Wins With 2017’s Biggest Album Yet

It’s basic math. Ed Sheeran + Divide + fandemonium – bullshit = $$$. The singer/songwriter’s highly personal (and much-anticipated) album has topped the HITS Sales Plus Streaming (SPS) Chart with north of 445k, becoming the biggest release of the year so far.

Divide also broke Justin Bieber’s record of 101m Purpose streams to become the most-streamed pop album thus far. At press time, the set looks poised to reach at least 130m streams. That would give Divide the seventh-biggest streaming week of any album since we started tracking. Drake’s Views remains the largest to date with nearly 250m streams in its first week. J. Cole (177m) and The Weeknd (175m) hold down the second and third spots.

The set’s predecessor, Multiply—originally released in 2014—receives a huge boost, unsurprisingly. That soars #43-17, tacking on an additional 21k for an RTD of 2.15m.

All that said about Sheeran, it’s worth noting that the only other debut to make the Top 50 (yes, 50) is Khalid’s American Teen (RCA), which bows at #9 with 37k.

And fueled by a ticket bundle, the Q-Prime-repped Metallica’s Hardwired… to Self-Destruct (Blackened) explodes, re-entering at #2 with a whopping 83k.

Republic up-and-comer Post Malone (who’s featured on the cover of this New & Developing rag) sees his Stoney go #15-12, while Streaming King Drake breaks back into the Top 15 with YMCMB/Republic set Views. Remember: Drake was also the big winner at the iHeartRadio Music Awards, walking away with seven trophies.

And as Childish Gambino’s “Redbone” gets certified gold and continues to climb the Urban, Urban AC and Rhythm radio charts, Glassnote album Awaken, My Love! re-enters at #46. Coincidentally, “Awaken, my love!” is the phrase we’ve been uttering to ourselves since November 8th, refusing to accept that this ain’t no bad dream.

When it comes to SPS marketshare, WMG leads with 50%. Then there’s UMG at #2 with 30%, SME at #3 with 18% and indies at #4 with 2%.

Over on the Album Sales Chart, of course, Sheeran also holds court at #1 with 322k. There, Metallica moves #28-2 with more than 80k. And Sheeran’s Multiply re-enters at #17.

The results from the Album Sales marketshare battle look similar to the SPS rankings. There, WMG is #1 with 63%, UMG is #2 with 22%, SME is #3 with 13% and the indies follow at #4 with 3%.

Streeting this week is Disney’s Beauty and the Beast soundtrack, as well as a new album from Columbia’s The Shins.

Now, how many sprays of this stuff can we have and not fall over? The guy at the dispensary wasn’t sure.

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