STAR POWER

With an Oscar boost, sale pricing and, well, perhaps some sort of Gaga-related enchantment that transcends the physical realm, Interscope's A Star Is Born soundtrack zooms to #1 on this week's Top 50 Chart with about 125k, edging Republic champ Ariana Grande, who's no slouch herself with 117k.

Star's big Oscar-night look, along with on-demand and other availability for the film and news of an extended version returning to theaters, kept the Gaga-Bradley Cooper vehicle top of mind. The folks behind ASIB and Grande pulled all sorts of marketplace levers for advantage this week, including sale pricing at online stores, merch bundles and more (as the top story link below elaborates).

Star, in case you were wondering, is approaching 1.6m RTD, while Ariana is at about 977k.

The highest-charting bow, however, comes from QC/Motown/Capitol’s Offset, who arrives at #3 with more than 88k for his debut solo full-length, Father of 4. Other noteworthy new releases include two Warner Bros. albums; Lil Pump’s Harverd Dropout and Gary Clark Jr.’s This Land come in at #6 and #7 with 46k and 41k, respectively. There’s also Kehlani’s While We Wait (Atlantic) at #9 with 33k.

When it comes to marketshare, UMG is #1 with 53%, WMG follows with 34% and SME is #3 with 11%, while the indies claim 2%.

Streeting this week are projects by Columbia labelmates Solange and Hozier, as well as sets from Gamebread/Def Jam’s 2 Chainz and Crush Music’s Weezer.

In other news, we just learned that March 1st is both Employee Appreciation Day and National Pig Day, which may explain why there were extra raisins in our feed.