There once was a time that Billboard record sales charts meant something. It reflected the actual records (or cassettes, or CDs) that people were buying from phsyical record stores. It was a representation of the music that people were listening to based on the purest metric we had: the music that people were bringing home and playing on their stereos.
Today, we don't have reliable metrics for what people are paying to listen to. Sure, we can grep data from Spotify or Apple music and extrapolate, but without the barrier to entry that is a per-item cost, that's more akin to mixing what's played on the radio with what people search for. Yes, it represents what people are actually hearing, but it's not representative of what people are ponying up to add to their music collections (remember those?).
But people are still buying music - vinyl sales are on the rise, and Amazon is still selling CDs. The records and CDs that people buy on America's largest e-commerce site are, at the very least, an indication of what people are buying and which artists are still making money from sales royaly.
With that, here are the top-10 CDs and Vinyl sold at Amazon in the month of April.
|
Category |
Name |
Category Rank (Average) |
Category Rank (Count) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
CDs & Vinyl |
The Greatest Showman |
2.2 |
20 |
|
CDs & Vinyl |
I Can Only Imagine - The Very Best of MercyMe |
3.9 |
20 |
|
CDs & Vinyl |
From The Fires |
9.4 |
20 |
|
CDs & Vinyl |
Golden Hour |
10.3 |
20 |
|
CDs & Vinyl |
Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Recording)(Explicit)(2CD) |
10.5 |
20 |
|
CDs & Vinyl |
Ember |
14.0 |
20 |
|
CDs & Vinyl |
Rearview Town |
15.9 |
20 |
|
CDs & Vinyl |
Precious Memories Collection [2 CD] |
17.2 |
20 |
|
CDs & Vinyl |
The Tree of Forgiveness |
19.0 |
25 |
|
CDs & Vinyl |
Revamp: The Songs Of Elton John & Bernie Taupin |
20.1 |
20 |
At the top of the April charts is the soundtrack for musical flick The Greatest Showman, with music composed by John Debney and Joseph Trapanese. It features the singing talents of Zac Efron, Zendaya, Hugh Zackman, and beloved underdog Keala Settle busting out crowd-favorite "This is Me". It charted at least 20 days in the month of April, with an average category rank of 2.2.
Other notables include "The Very Best of MercyMe," a hugely popular Christian Rock band with an average rank of 3.9. The soundtrack for "Hamilton" remains an excellent seller as well, with a 10.5 average rank.