Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon: Live’ Debuts in Top 10 on Album Sales Chart
Written by djfrosty on April 7, 2023
Pink Floyd’s archival album The Dark Side of the Moon: Live at Wembley, London, 1974 debuts at No. 8 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated April 8). The set also bows in the top 10 of Top Rock Albums (No. 9), Vinyl Albums (No. 5), Tastemaker Albums (No. 3) and Top Current Album Sales (No. 8). It additionally launches at No. 49 on the Billboard 200 chart.
The Dark Side of the Moon: Live was released on March 23, and was recorded in November of 1974 during the band’s winter tour at Wembley Empire Pool (the original name for Wembley Arena). This marks the first time the recording has been available as a stand-alone album, though performances from the shows were previously included on earlier deluxe reissues of some of the band’s studio albums. In addition, the Live album is also included as a bonus disc within the just-released 50th anniversary boxed set of The Dark Side of the Moon studio album.
Also on Top Album Sales, new albums from Jimin, Lana Del Rey, Fall Out Boy, Luke Combs and Depeche Mode all debut in the top 10.
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. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Top Rock Albums ranks the week’s most popular rock albums by equivalent album units. Vinyl Albums tallies the top-selling vinyl albums of the week. Top Current Album Sales lists the week’s best-selling current (not catalog, or older albums) albums by traditional album sales. Tastemaker Albums lists the week’s top-selling albums at independent record stores.
The Dark Side of the Moon: Live sold 15,000 copies in the United States in the week ending March 30, according to Luminate. Of that sum, vinyl sales comprise 8,500, yielding at No. 5 debut on the Vinyl Albums chart.
Meanwhile, the original The Dark Side of the Moon album was reissued in as both a multi-disc remastered deluxe boxed set and 10-track digital album on March 23rd for its 50th anniversary. The boxed set contains two CDs, two vinyl LPs, two blu-ray audio discs, a DVD audio disc, two hardcover books and two 7-inch singles. The former No. 1 set continues to hold the record for the most charted weeks on the Billboard 200 (977 weeks and counting).
The new deluxe boxed set’s sales are combined with the original studio album (and any later released iterations) for tracking and charting purposes. Combined, all of the versions sold just over 10,000 copies in the week ending March 30 (up 178%) and sends the album 28-11 on Top Album Sales.
On the latest Billboard 200, Dark Side vaults from 172-48 – marking its highest charting week in over eight years. It last placed higher when it zoomed 183-13 on the Dec. 20, 2014-dated chart, following ultra-cheap sale pricing by a digital retailer.
Back on Top Album Sales, the top 10 is flush with debuts, led by BTS’ Jimin, who sees his solo debut FACE open at No. 1. The set sold 124,000 copies in its first week – the third-largest sales week of 2023.
Like many K-pop releases, the CD edition of FACE was issued in collectible CD packages (five total, including exclusives for Target and the Weverse webstore) each containing a standard set of items and randomized elements (photo cards and postcards). It was also available as a standard digital download album, plus two alternative cover digital download variants that were sold exclusively through his official webstore. 79% of FACE’s first-week sales were CDs, while the remaining 21% were digital album downloads. It was not released in any other format (vinyl, cassette, etc.).
Lana Del Rey’s Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd debuts at No. 2 on Top Album Sales with 87,000 copies sold. Of that sum, physical sales comprise 81,000 (58,500 vinyl LPs, 20,500 CDs and 2,000 cassettes) and digital download album sales comprise 6,000.
The album’s robust vinyl sales mark the largest week for a vinyl album in 2023 and Del Rey’s best sales week on vinyl ever. It debuts at No. 1 on the Vinyl Albums chart.
Did You Know was issued in six vinyl variants: a standard black vinyl, a picture disc and four color vinyl editions (pink, green, red and white) all with different covers, exclusive to Amazon, independent retailers, Target and her webstore, respectively. Did You Know was also issued in nine CD iterations (a standard edition, four with alternative covers, and four deluxe boxed sets exclusive to her webstore containing either a T-shirt and a CD or a hoodie and a CD). Del Rey even dropped the album on cassette tape — in five different color variants (black, white, pink, green and red).
Fall Out Boy’s So Much (for) Stardust starts at No. 3 on Top Album Sales with 49,000 sold. Physical sales comprise 42,000 (21,000 vinyl LPs, 20,000 CDs and 1,000 cassette tapes) and digital download album sales comprise 7,000.
Stardust was supported by a hefty number of physical formats – one standard CD, two cassettes, nine stand-alone vinyl LPs in assorted colors, eight deluxe vinyl boxed sets (each containing a different color vinyl LP and branded merchandise) and 11 deluxe CD boxed sets (seven containing a CD edition of the album and branded merch — and four consisting of an autographed CD along with merch).
Luke Combs’ Gettin’ Old bows at No. 4 on Top Album Sales with a little over 32,000 sold. It was available in eight physical editions – two CDs (a standard version and a signed edition exclusive to his webstore), five vinyl LPs (standard black, a deluxe black edition containing a slipmat [either signed or unsigned, exclusive to his webstore], an opaque white-colored edition exclusive to Amazon and a blue-colored edition exclusive to Walmart), and a red-colored cassette tape.
Depeche Mode’s new Memento Mori rounds out the all-debuts top five on Top Album Sales, as the veteran band’s latest studio set enters at No. 5 with 29,000 copies sold. Physical sales comprise 21,000 of that sum (11,500 CDs, 9,000 vinyl LPs and about 500 cassette tapes) and digital download album sales comprise 8,000. The album was available in three vinyl variants (a standard black edition as well as a clear version and red-colored pressing), two CD editions (a version with enhanced packaging, as well as a standard edition) and one cassette tape.
Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping One Thing at a Time is pushed down 4-6 on Top Album Sales, though with a gain, as it sold 17,000 (up 36%) – following the release of its vinyl LP. It sold 8,000 copies on vinyl during the tracking week. TWICE’s former No. 1 Ready to Be: 12th Mini Album falls 2-7 with 16,000 sold (down 46%).
Two former chart-toppers close out the top 10, as Taylor Swift’s Midnights drops 3-9 with 12,000 (down 1%) and TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s The Name Chapter: Temptation dips 6-10 with 11,000 (up 1%).
In the week ending March 30, there were 2.197 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 19.9% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.803 million (up 20.8%) and digital albums comprised 394,000 (up 15.7%).
There were 791,000 CD albums sold in the week ending March 30 (up 26.1% week-over-week) and 997,000 vinyl albums sold (up 16.7%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 8.343 million (up 2.5% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 11.529 million (up 26.4%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 24.638 million (up 8.7% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 20 million (up 15.1%) and digital album sales total 4.639 million (down 12.2%).