Chris Stapleton’s “From A Room: Vol.1” Goes #1 All Genre in Pure Album Sales
Chris Stapleton’s sophomore album From A Room: Vol. 1 is the #1 selling record this week in pure album sales across all genres, beating out rapper Logic’s new album Everybody by roughly 6,000 copies. Stapleton tallied 202,000 copies sold, compared to Logic’s 196,000 in the latest weekly tabulations.
However with the new chart rules for the Billboard 200 and other charts considering in streaming data, Logic will edge Stapleton in many of the industry leading indexes due to streaming equivalent sales. Stapleton will still be awarded the #1 on the pure album sales charts, but his 13.5 million streams compared to Logic’s 70.2 millions streams put From A Room: Vol. 1 in 2nd place on the Billboard 200. After factoring in streaming data, Logic is awarded 247,000 equivalent records sold, while Stapleton racked up 219,000.
This is not the first time streaming data had decided the victor on the Billboard 200. But this was one of the closest races since Billboard and other charts began to factor in streaming data in December of 2014. Country fans tend to continue to support artists by purchasing physical albums and downloading full records, while the hip-hop and EDM space is dominated by streaming.
The win for Chris Stapleton means he will also handedly take #1 on the Billboard Country Albums chart, where his next nearest competition is, well, Chris Stapleton. Along with the big sales week that welcomes the release of From A Room: Vol. 1, his first solo album Traveller has also seen a big sales spike, rocketing 67% in sales plus streaming data, and doubling in pure album sales according to Hits Daily Double’s building sales charts. Traveller has been on a sales tear ever since Stapleton shocked the world by virtually sweeping the major awards at the CMA Awards in November 2015, and performing a high-profile duet with Justin Timberlake.
However, underscoring just how good the showing was for From A Room: Vol. 1 in it’s first week, his sales mark makes the best showing for Stapleton in a single week, including the week after the 2015 CMA Awards when he moved 153,000 units. It’s also the best one week showing from any country artist since Luke Bryan released Kill The Lights in August of 2015.
Other albums that performed well on this week’s Country Albums chart include Willie Nelson’s most recent album God’s Problem Child, which was #1 in country last week, and Keith Urban’s Ripcord.
May 15, 2017 @ 6:46 pm
Yes, no surprise. Good music will stay steady as the time goes on.
People to grow and change and it looks like more people are willing
to give this artist his place on the charts. As I say, give time for the change in
country music to swing to COUNTRY MUSIC again. It will happen.
May 15, 2017 @ 7:20 pm
been listening to this album quite a bit since its release. Stapleton has an incredibly soulful voice and i enjoy all the styles employed on his latest. i AM hoping that Vol.2 has some more recently written songs of his. I heard that he hasn’t penned many songs since Traveller. still, this album has been in heavy rotation at my house. even people who don’t listen to much country music have been talking about this badass record. i’m excited for vol.2 later this year. Stapleton deserves all the credit he gets. ???
May 15, 2017 @ 7:21 pm
No shock there. A below average 2nd album piggy backing off a great debut album. The music industry hasn’t changed in decades. The sheeple automatically buy the second expecting it to be as good as the first. You’d think in this day and age they’d be sharper. Btw I got it at my local library.
May 15, 2017 @ 7:52 pm
I normally just disregard any comment that uses the word “sheeple” but what is this record below average to? Chris could sing a record composed only of songs written Rebecca Black and it would be above “average”
May 16, 2017 @ 9:43 am
Chris is anything but some American Idol knock-off. He’s been writing classic songs forever and he just happens to have a great voice. If he’s not your thing, that’s cool, but do your research on the dude before you start bashing him.
May 16, 2017 @ 12:27 pm
It sounds like a bunch of songs he had laying around thrown together to get out some product. It’s a below average effort even if the songs are ___________. (Fill in the blank with whatever makes all of you feel good) I’m not bashing his voice or his songwriting ability. The word sheeple doesn’t refer to all of you who would buy the album if he was singing the phone book. It refers to people who just run out and buy the “New Chris Stapleton” album to hear songs that sound “like the last album”.
May 15, 2017 @ 8:21 pm
Calling it below average is just disingenuous and not at all helpful. Sure it’s not as good as Traveller, but it’s still going to be one of the best albums released this year, especially among the mainstream.
May 16, 2017 @ 6:06 am
The sheeple automatically buy the second expecting it to be as good as the first. You’d think in this day and age they’d be sharper.
Come on, man.
May 16, 2017 @ 8:19 am
Sorry guys. JB called it right. He’s like an american idol winner parading around singing the classics. Nothing to see here…carry on
May 16, 2017 @ 10:29 am
Well, if you agree with him, then he obviously called it right.
May 16, 2017 @ 10:52 am
Did the American Idol winner write all but one of these “classics” he’s parading around singing, in this scenario?
May 15, 2017 @ 7:49 pm
Chris Stapleton dusts off some old songs, records them basically live in studio, and still kicks the shit outta everybody. The public wants this kind of soulful music, and the sales numbers certainly send that message loud and clear.
May 15, 2017 @ 8:12 pm
He really almost defies analysis. When you think of all the Thomas Rhett’s of the country world that never sniff these types of numbers. I guess it just shows you that there is still such a thing as an album artist.
May 15, 2017 @ 9:01 pm
Honestly, 28,000 units is a pretty decent size gap. Country albums have lost the #1 BB spot to Rap albums streaming a whole bunch of times in the last year. In back to back weeks last May Drake beat out Blake (by 19k) and Dierks (by 50k) respectively due to streaming & track sales.
How rap and country artists market albums is honestly completely different. I sort of wish they’d just have separate charts, instead of trying to have one chart that considers everything.
May 15, 2017 @ 9:03 pm
At the end of the day, I think what matters are the actual numbers, not the BB chart position. Chris Stapleton sold a sh*t ton. Numbers most artists can only dream of (honestly I’ll be surprised if even Luke hits these #’s…unless he does a massive ticket bundle).
May 15, 2017 @ 9:41 pm
The streaming component so distorts things it’s really a joke that it counts for the Billboard 200. Obviously streaming is huge and the biggest thing going forward but I don’t see how one can compare an actual physical sale or download with a stream in any real way. It’s too arbitrary for me.
We have seen the singles charts warped beyond belief by dozens of songs by Drake, Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar and it happens with the Billboard 200 also. They’re trying to combine things that are too different in my opinion but that’s just me.
May 16, 2017 @ 2:53 am
I am really enjoying this album. It is not pure country by any stretch of the imagination, it combines country, Americana, blues, rock, soul, southern-rock, and some other “genres” into a great assemblage that is just really nice to listen to. Stapleton is not Faron Young or Ernest Tubb, but there are traces of Marshall Tucker Band, Otis Redding, Conway Twitty, as well as Young and Tubb, all wrapped up for 2017.
May 16, 2017 @ 11:33 am
That’s a pretty spot-on description of his sound. 🙂
But anyway, yay for the #1 album! I haven’t had a chance to pick it up yet; hopefully, I will soon…
May 16, 2017 @ 8:08 am
I am a bit surprised by how much I am enjoying this new one. A bit of a grower. Doesn’t have the highs of “Traveller” but also doesn’t have the lows. No songs that annoy me that I need to skip over (Hello “Parachute”). Looking forward to Vol. 2. This one is very solid.
May 16, 2017 @ 8:25 am
Trigger, why do you think there is such a large disparity between the chart position of garbage songs like “body like a backroad” and album sails for Stapleton. It seems like crap keeps floating to the surface on radio but real country (of varying quality) keeps rising to the top in terms of album sales. Does it simply come down to demographics? I honestly can’t imagine too much crossover between the listening audience for Sam Hunt/Kelsea Balerini and Stapleton/Aaron Watson types. It’s like there are two different worlds that are completely out of touch with each other.
You’ve probably covered this already at some point, so I am sorry in advance if I missed that article.
May 16, 2017 @ 10:33 am
I don’t know the article offhand, but search the site for “Aaron Watson Bobby Bones” and you’ll get an idea of where Trigger has written about this in the past. The major labels are more than happy to acquiesce album chart positions to “real country” artists, where there are some weeks where 15,000 copies sold can get you the #1 spot, as long as your Sam Hunts and Thomas Rhetts can keep selling singles a buck a download at a time.
May 16, 2017 @ 2:21 pm
You can’t fake or manufacture album sales. They are a pure measurement of public sentiment. It is an act of judgement and commitment to purchase a record. Since radio is not operated on public appeal, but the agenda of the industry, it’s not really a fair gauge of how the public feels about anything, except that if you play a song enough times people will start to enjoy it via Stockholm syndrome.
May 16, 2017 @ 3:07 pm
It is an act of judgement and commitment to purchase a record.
I have long thought exactly this. It’s one thing to stream the song or album on someone else’s dime. It’s quite another to spend your own money to have your own copy of the music, more than what that advertiser’s paying, to boot.
May 16, 2017 @ 5:00 pm
I don’t mean to sound naive, but what exactly then is the agenda of the industry? I would think that selling records would be a big part of it. Why just cede that ground?
May 16, 2017 @ 11:04 am
I really appreciate what Chris Stapleton is doing. I think the argument about whether he is country or not is irrelevent because he is authentic. Some of my favorite country records for example, were cut by typically non country singers (bob dylan, Neil young). While we are all country fans I think we are, above all, authentic music fans. Stapleton brings a creativity and finesse to music that is uncommon today. I also think Stapleton has developed his own unique sound or style. In some of the older country artists like Willie and Waylon, you could always tell whose song it was by the unique sound of the recording. Regardless of whether Stapleton sings 100% traditional country, he is cutting the musical possibilities in Nashville wide open and god bless him for that.
May 16, 2017 @ 2:21 pm
I personally love this album even more than Traveller. Country/Blues is my favorite. I’m in my 60’s though and remember when great country music use to be more like this. Best artist out there today imo.
May 17, 2017 @ 2:56 am
Shitpileton may have album sales on lockdown but call me back when he gets airplay and top selling singles chart. Otherwise, Music Row and country radio would be best to invest in the guys who are making music that appeals to the people that actually consume it and make THEM money. No brainer.
I’m talking Luke, Thomas, Sam, FGL, etc etc. Even up and comers like Brett Young, Michael Ray, Chris Lane, Morgan Wallen, Dylan Scott, Luke Combs, etc. And you can throw Jon Pardi in since he’s doing new country stuff now, which I’m happy to hear. Now THAT is on fire country music right now.
I anticipate Luke Bryan’s next album to be AMAZING, because he’s going to turn in a even more RnB/EDM direction to compete with Sam and Thomas and the likes. Kill The Lights was huge. But he will be giving up the rock/metal/rap edge that Luke and Jason kind of started and going for that light RnB/EDM/Pop, which is way cool. I certainly anticipate hearing about it soon. Hell, Jason is already working on the next album and he had an album just come out. Exciting times, people. Very exciting.
All in all, Chris’s whole album is expected to sell a lot because the people that listen to Chris and his cohorts still buy “records”….and not iTunes and streaming. It’s good to have on a shelf at Cracker Barrel for the grandmas and grandpas of the world clinging to the sounds of yesteryear. That’s vomit worthy.
Oh PS Trig, this wasn’t a flat disagreement with no thought, so please post this too bud. Kthxbye.
May 17, 2017 @ 10:47 am
…this wasn’t a flat disagreement with no thought…
The fact is that you put thought into this is alarming, that kool-aid must be awesome!
May 17, 2017 @ 4:02 pm
You are the one drinking the old timey music Koolaid Gabe.
May 17, 2017 @ 10:45 pm
Cool story, bruh. Go to bed earlier so you can stay awake to talk to all your woke friends about it during homeroom.
May 18, 2017 @ 2:00 am
Jon, I’m not a kid and I don’t go to school. You aren’t my dad…so I kindly ask that you bugger off.
May 17, 2017 @ 10:27 am
Trigger, I really want to hear your review of this record. IMO it’s been there, heard that, boring. It sounds like a really talented cover band with a wicked good singer. I start to listen and then I switch over to Colter Wall or Angeleena Presley, or Sunny, or Jason Eady (there has been a sh#t ton of great music this year). My guess is that people are buying it and listening to it once or twice while they make dinner or throw a party and then it’s going to collect dust. Nothing about this record makes you want to listen to it.
May 17, 2017 @ 10:49 am
He already did…
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/album-review-chris-stapletons-from-a-room-volume-1/
May 17, 2017 @ 11:17 am
I think it’s a good record, but I agree it lacks a vitality, and I made that point in my review (linked to by Gabe above).
And yes, there are plenty of better records out there, but that always the way it is in popular music. I think we should still be happy it’s someone like Chris Stapleton on top as opposed to Florida Georgia Line.