Ghost Stories is the sixth studio album by British rock band Coldplay and sold a total of 3.037,000 copies in 2014 making it by far the biggest selling Rock Album of the past year and Coldplay the top selling rock act!
The album was recorded by the band throughout 2013 and 2014 at the band's purpose-built home studios in London, England, and in Los Angeles. It features guest producers Avicii, Timbaland and Madeon, and the band's frequent collaborator Jon Hopkins. It was heavily promoted by the band and Parlophone in the lead-up to its release, with an accompanying prime time TV special, a visual album, and a special six-date promotional tour of the album, as well as various appearances on television and radio. The album was further promoted by five singles: "Magic", the lead single, released in March; "Midnight", released in April; "A Sky Full of Stars", released in May; "True Love", released in August; and "Ink", released in October. For the 57th Grammy Awards, it was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Music Film.
Ghost Stories debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, selling 168,000 copies in its opening week, the second largest sales of 2014. By July 2014, it had already become the best-selling album of the first half of 2014 with 375,000 copies sold in the UK. In the US, the album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 383,000 copies sold the week, then the biggest debut week sales of 2014. In Canada, the album debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart with 49,000 copies sold in its first week.
Taylor Swift's '1989' was released very late in October 2014 yet it has sold a massive 5.121.000 copies in only a few weeks, with over 4.600 million of those copies sold in 2014 making Taylor the best-selling Artist of the past year.
But just two weeks prior to the album's release, Industry forecasters had predicted that it would only sell 750,000 copies in its opening week. it actually sold over 600,000 copies the first day of release!! Billboard announced a sales projection of 1.2 million copies for the week, which was then revised to a total in excess of 1.3 million, after 751,000 units were sold in just two days. The album eventually sold 1,287,000 copies during the first week of release in the US. Additional copies were sold for US$0.99 through a Microsoft promotion but were not included in the total due to a Nielsen Soundscan policy of not including sales priced under $3.99!
The album's performance broke Swift's own personal sales record, and became the 19th album to sell over one million copies in a single week since SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991. It was the seventh highest sales week in history, and the highest sales week since 2002, when Eminem's The Eminem Show sold 1.3 million units. Swift also became the first artist to release three albums that sold one million or more copies within a single week. Upon release, '1989' became the best-selling album in the U.S. in 2014, surpassing Coldplay's Ghost Stories (745,000 copies), but ranked below the Frozen soundtrack. The album remained in the top spot of the Billboard 200 during the second and third week of release, selling over two million copies in total. In its fourth week, the album was replaced by One Direction's Four, but returned to number one again for the fourth time in its fifth week. The album went on to sell 200,000 or more copies in the US in each of the 10 successive weeks after its release. It has sold over 3,660,000 copies, becoming the best-selling album in America this past year outselling Frozen!
By the end of the first week of January 2015, 1989 had topped the chart for eight non-consecutive weeks, establishing Swift as the female artist with the second-highest number of total weeks with 33 weeks in the number-one Billboard position for all of her albums, while Whitney Houston's record total of 46 weeks at number one remains intact.In Canada, the album debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums chart, selling 107,000 copies In its second week, the album remained at number one with sales of 37,000, bringing its two week sales total to 144,000 copies.In the UK, 1989 sold 90,000 in its first week and debuted at number one on the UK Albums chart. It became her second number-one album in the UK, following Red (2012), and was the fastest-selling female solo album in 2014.
Pharrell Williams' 'Happy' is the top selling Single of 2014. Released in the summer of 2013, the song slumbered for months untill November 2013, when a 24-hour video for the tune was published and suddenly 'Happy' exploded: 19 weeks at no.1 globally was almost a historic record! Only Bryan Adams' '(Everything I Do) I Do It For You' from 1991 stayed for as long a time at the summit. After 50 weeks on the chart, 'Happy' is by far the top seller of 2014. And it's not only the biggest hit of the year, but its the biggest smash of the 21st century so far.
In the all time chart, 'Happy' ranks at no.6 behind the Beatles' I Want To Hold Your Hand' (1963), USA For Africa's 'We Are The World' (1985), Bryan Adams' '(Everything I Do) I Do It For You', Whitney Houston's 'I Will Always Love You' (1992) and Elton John's 'Candle In The Wind' (1997).
The second biggest hit of 2014 is a quiet, magnificent song. An impressive voice accompanied only by a piano: John Legend's 'All Of Me' was 54 weeks on the chart. The third biggest seller of the year is the Neo-Soul smash 'All About The Bass' by the 21 year-old American singer / songwriter Meghan Trainor. The song is currently no.5 on the weekly chart after 23 weeks.
Disney's soundtrack to 'Frozen' was released in November 2013. It has sold a total of 7.508.000 copies, 7.057.000 of them in 2014, and is the World's Best-selling Album of 2014 by far.
The World's second best-selling Album of 2014 is Taylor Swift's '1989'. Released very late in October 2014, 1989 sold a massive 4,619 copies before the end of the year driven mainly by Taylor's two global hits "Shake It Off' and "Blank Space" which both debuted at No.1 in the World charts.
Ed Sheeran new album 'X' is the third biggest seller of 2014 with sales of 3.907.000, driven by excellent single hits like 'Sing' and 'Thinking Out Loud'.
Taylor Swift's '1989' holds the no.1 spot of the Global Album Chart for a sixth non-consecutive week with another massive 502.000 copies. Ed Sheeran's 'X' hangs still at no.2 with 421.000 copies, its second-highest weekly sales frame since the start in the week 28, 2014 with 549.000 units. AC/DC's 'Rock Or Bust' remains at no.3 with 330.000 units, a 9% sales decline compared to the previous week. In the final sales week of 2014 Michael Bublé's 'Christmas' overtakes this season's most successful holiday album, Pentatonix' 'That's Christmas For Me'. The latter slides at no.9 with 151.000 copies, a 35% sales slump compared to the previous week. Bublé's album rises from no.10 to no.8, and lost 8% in sales to 194.000. That's a total of 9.630.000 copies since its release three years ago. In December 2015 the set will surely reach the 10 million border. Over on the Global Track Chart almost all tunes showing massive points increases this week. The reason is an annual tradition in many countries, where online Christmas-week shopping is aided by gift cards given as presents.
WORLD'S TOP 20 BEST-SELLING ALBUMS OF THE WEEK
1. Taylor Swift - 1989 - 502.000
2. Ed Sheeran - X - 421.000
3. AC/DC - Rock Or Bust - 330.000
4. SAM SMITH - In The Lonely Hour - 321.000
5. One Direction - Four - 275.000
6. Soundtrack - Frozen - 201.000
7. Pink Floyd - The Endless River - 200.000
8. Michael Bublé - Christmas - 194.000
9. Pentatonix - That's Christmas To Me - 151.000
10. Nicki Minaj - The Pinkprint - 139.000
11. Soundtrack - Guardians Of The Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol.1
- 124.000
12. J. Cole - 2014 Forest Hills Drive - 119.000
13. George Ezra - Wanted On Voyage - 118.000
14. Ikomono Gakari - Fun! Fun! Fanfare! - 110.000
15. Olly Murs - Never Been Better - 109.000
16. David Guetta - Listen - 108.000
17. Barbra Streisand - Partners - 101.000
18. Foo Fighters - Sonic Highways - 99.000
19. Take That - III - 84.000
20. Hozier - Hozier - 80.000
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