Taylor Swift logs her 48th week at No. 1 on the Billboard Artist 100 chart (dated June 12), extending her record for the most time spent as the top musical act in the U.S., thanks to unprecedented sales for the newly released vinyl version of her December 2020 album Evermore.
Evermore rebounds from No. 74 to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 202,000 equivalent album units, according to MRC Data. Of that sum, 192,000 were in album sales, marking the biggest sales week of 2021 for an album, surpassing the opening frame of Swift’s own Fearless (Taylor’s Version), which started with 179,000 in April.
Meanwhile, Evermore sold 102,000 on vinyl in the week ending June 3, following its May 28 vinyl release, shattering the mark for the biggest vinyl sales week for an album in the U.S. since MRC Data began tracking sales in 1991. It more than doubles the prior record-holder, Jack White’s Lazaretto, which opened with 40,000 in vinyl sales in June 2014.
Swift tallies five albums on the latest Billboard 200, as Evermore is followed by Folklore (No. 34, 17,000 units); Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (No. 57, 13,000 units); Lover (No. 65, 12,000 units); and 1989 (No. 106, 9,000 units).
Since the Artist 100’s launch in 2014, Drake has spent the second-most weeks at No. 1 (32), followed by The Weeknd (22) and BTS (16).
The Artist 100 measures artist activity across key metrics of music consumption, blending album and track sales, radio airplay, streaming and social media fan interaction to provide a weekly multi-dimensional ranking of artist popularity.
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