Kacey Musgraves’ Deeper Well album makes a splash on Billboard’s charts (dated March 30), as the set debuts at No. 1 on Top Album Sales, Top Country Albums, Americana/Folk Albums, Vinyl Albums, Top Current Album Sales and Tastemaker Albums.
With 66,000 copies sold in the tracking week ending March 21 in the U.S., according to Luminate, Deeper Well notches Musgraves her biggest sales week ever. And, of that sum, vinyl sales account for 37,000 – her biggest sales week on vinyl, the largest vinyl week of 2024, and the fourth-largest week for a country album on vinyl since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991. (The only bigger sales weeks on vinyl for country sets were all registered by Taylor Swift’s re-recordings.)
Also in the top 10 of the new Top Album Sales chart: Justin Timberlake’s Everything I Thought It Was starts at No. 2 while The Black Crowes’ Happiness Bastards bows at No. 5.
Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Top Country Albums and Americana/Folk Albums rank the week’s most popular country and Americana/folk albums, respectively, by equivalent album units. Vinyl Albums tallies the top-selling vinyl albums of the week. Top Current Album Sales ranks the week’s top-selling new/current albums (non-catalog/older titles). Tastemaker Albums ranks the week’s best-selling albums at independent and small chain record stores.
Of Deeper Well’s 66,000 sold, physical album sales comprise 48,000 (37,000 on vinyl, 11,000 on CD and negligible sum on cassette) and digital album sales comprise 18,000.
Deeper Well’s first-week sales were supported by its availability across nine vinyl variants, including eight different-colored versions and exclusive editions for Amazon, Spotify and Target. Deeper Well was also issued in four different CD versions, three different digital editions (two were exclusive to her webstore – one with a bonus track, and another with the same bonus track an alternate cover art) and as a cassette tape.
Deeper Well is Musgraves’ second No. 1 on Top Album Sales, fifth leader on Top Country Albums, third on both Americana/Folk and Vinyl Albums and second on both Top Current Album Sales and Tastemaker Albums.
At No. 2 on Top Album Sales, Justin Timberlake’s Everything I Thought It Was debuts with 41,000 copies sold. It’s the sixth consecutive top two-charting effort for Timberlake, the entirety of his full-length studio albums. Of the 41,000 sold, physical sales comprise 27,000 (15,000 on CD and 12,000 on vinyl) and digital album sales comprise 14,000.
Everything’s first-week sales were aided by its availability across four different vinyl variants (including exclusives for Amazon, Target and his webstore), four different deluxe CD boxed sets (each with a piece of branded clothing and a CD) and a standard CD.
Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine falls 1-3 (13,000; down 84%) after debuting atop the tally a week ago. Taylor Swift’s chart-topping 1989 (Taylor’s Version) rises 6-4 with 10,000 sold (up 14%).
The Black Crowes collect its first top 10 in 16 years as Happiness Bastards enters at No. 5 with 9,000 sold. The band was last in the top 10 with 2008’s Warpaint, which debuted and peaked at No. 5 on the March 22, 2008-dated list. The new album sold 3,500 on vinyl, 2,500 on CD and about 3,000 copies via digital download. All told, Happiness is the fourth top 10-charting effort, and 16th total entry, on Top Album Sales for The Black Crowes.
Three former No. 1s are next up on the list: Swift’s Lover (7-6 with nearly 9,000; up 16%), TWICE’s With YOU-th (4-7 with nearly 9,000; down 15%) and Swift’s Folklore (10-8 with 7,000; up 7%). LE SSERAFIM’s Easy falls 8-9 with just over 6,000 (down 16%) and Swift’s chart-topping Midnights rises 12-10 with 6,000 (up 13%).
In the week ending March 21, there were 1.207 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 0.9% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 901,000 (down 0.9%) and digital albums comprised 306,000 (up 6.7%).
There were 437,000 CD albums sold in the week ending March 21 (down 7.8% week-over-week) and 458,000 vinyl albums sold (up 6.5%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 5.229 million (down 30.8% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 5.489 million (down 47.9%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 1 million (down 36.1% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 10.773 million (down 40.8%) and digital album sales total 3.566 million (down 16%).