The Jonas Brothers returned to No 1 on Billboard’s album chart for the first time in a decade, thanks to a bundling deal that tied copies of the album to tickets to the band’s reunion tour.
‘Happiness Begins’ (Republic), the Jonas Brothers’ first studio album since 2009, claimed the top spot with the biggest overall number of the year so far. According to Nielsen, it had 414,000 “equivalent album units” in the United States — a number that includes 68 million streams and 357,000 copies as a full album. But many of those full albums went to fans who bought tickets to the Jonas Brothers’ tour, rather than buying the album by itself.
How many of them? Nielsen does not break out those numbers. But Billboard’s report on the chart notes that the Jonas Brothers’ opening-week sales position for ‘Happiness Begins’ was “largely powered” by those ticket sales. Deals like those have increasingly come under scrutiny as critics — and even some artists who participate in them — have questioned whether they distort Billboard’s weekly rankings.
Also this week, Billie Eilish’s ‘When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?’ holds at No 2, and a number of new releases debuted in high positions. Santana’s ‘Africa Speaks’ starts at No 3, the 15th time that band — led by guitarist Carlos Santana — has reached the Top 10. Country singer Luke Combs opened at No. 4 with ‘The Prequel’, a five-song EP, and Future is No 5 with ‘Save Me’, another mini-album, with just seven songs.
Last week’s No 1, ‘Centre Point Road’ by Thomas Rhett, fell to No 16.
