Metallica, Linkin Park Fare Well in Nielsen 2017 Mid-Year Rock Charts
Two of rock's giants -- Metallica and Linkin Park -- have proved their staying power in terms of music sales as Nielsen has released their mid-year rock charts.
For Metallica, they've topped two of the sales lists with their Hardwired ... To Self-Destruct album. The disc is No. 1 on the Top 10 Rock Albums chart, which takes into account equivalent album units and factors in music streams as well. The album tallied 540,000 units in the period between Dec. 30, 2016 and June 29, 2017, finishing just ahead of Twenty One Pilots' Blurryface and the Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 soundtrack.
The band also topped the Mid-Year Top 10 Selling Rock Albums which is based on pure album sales, pushing 487,000 units. The rock charts are a little more inclusive welcoming select Alt-Rock and even a few pop-leaning artists into the equation. You have to drop down to No. 6 on the Top 10 Selling Rock Albums list before you find Linkin Park's One More Light, which has sold 130,000 units.
Linkin Park also scored big on the Mid-Year Top 10 Selling Digital Rock Songs chart, with their collaboration with Kiiara on the song "Heavy" placing second for the year with 361,000 units sold, well behind the 905,000 of Imagine Dragons' "Believer" which tops the list. Several crossover alternative acts also made the cut, with Twenty One Pilots' "Heathens" at No. 4 (329,000), Rag'N'Bone Man's "Human at No. 5 (248,000), Kaleo's "Way Down We Go" at No. 6 (219,000) and The Revivalists' "Wish I Knew You" at No. 8 (147,000). Disturbed's 2015 cover of "The Sound of Silence" continues to thrive on the chart well into 2017, placing seventh with 211,000 sold.
According to Billboard, the total rock album consumption, based on equivalent album units, has fallen 7.8 percent during the first half of 2017. Total rock album sales also took a hit, down 20.9 percent and rock digital song sales fell 27.9 percent. However, that can be shown as a continued shift in how people consume music. Overall streaming of rock songs jumped 21.6 percent, while on-demand audio streams climbed 36.5 percent.
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