Hurricane Helene Benefit Album Makes Chart-Topping Debut
Written by djfrosty on October 16, 2024
Cardinals at the Window: A Benefit for Flood Relief in Western North Carolina, a massive 136-track digital download album benefiting victims of Hurricane Helene, makes a big debut on Billboard‘s charts. The set, which is sold exclusively by Bandcamp for $10, sold nearly 12,000 copies in the U.S. in the week ending Oct. 10, according to Luminate — the biggest sales week for a non-soundtrack compilation album in four years.
Among the acts on the collection, which was released on Oct. 9, are The Decemberists, Iron & Wine, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Phish and R.E.M.
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Cardinals debuts at No. 1 on Billboard’s Compilation Albums chart, and in the top 10 on both Top Album Sales (No. 5) and Americana/Folk Albums (No. 8) — all charts dated Oct. 19.
According to the Bandcamp website, all of the proceeds from the album will be split evenly among Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, Rural Organizing and Resilience (ROAR) and BeLoved Asheville.
The last time a non-soundtrack compilation album sold more in a single week was four years ago, when another benefit album sold via Bandcamp, Good Music to Avert the Collapse of American Democracy, Volume 2, sold 13,500 copies in its first week (debuting at No. 1 on the Compilation Albums chart dated Oct. 17, 2020).
On Top Album Sales, Cardinals is the highest charting non-soundtrack compilation of 2024.
Rounding out the top five of the latest Top Album Sales chart: Coldplay’s Moon Music debuts at No. 1 (104,000), Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess is a non-mover at No. 2 (13,000; down 27%), The Smile’s Cutouts enters at No. 3 (13,000) and Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet is steady at No. 4 (nearly 13,000; down 10%).
Leon Bridges’ Leon bows at No. 6 (10,000), Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works, Volume II debuts at No. 7 (9,000), Stray Kids’ ATE is stationary at No. 8 (nearly 9,000; up 23%), Toosii’s Jaded debuts at No. 9 (8,000) and Finneas’ For Cryin’ Out Loud! bows at No. 10 (8,000).
Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units.