Adele Breaks *NSYNC’s Record Of Single-Week US Album Sales

When Adele came out with “Hello” on October 23, the lead single from her third album “25”, it set the record for being the first song to hit the one million download mark on Billboard. Its been four years since the artist released her previous album 21, giving us ample time to bask in anticipation for this newest work. An album from past these years doesn’t appear until Taylor Swift’s 2012 work “Red”. But her success likely owes more to the fact that Adele is a rare artist whose appeal crosses genres and fan demographics.

Adele made news last week when the singer and her record labels Columbia and XL made the strategic decision to restrict the album from being streamed on any streaming service including Apple Music and Spotify.

Are you sad that Adele has crushed *NSYNC’s record? That means other online radio services should be streaming songs from 25 as well. iHeartMedia, for instance, confirmed to The Verge that tracks from 25 are available on iHeartRadio. Swift’s record had sold 1.74 million copies in the U.S.as of November 12, so it’s safe to say she is already left in the dust, as Adele’s disc continues to sell at a remarkable pace. It’s also a boon for the album’s songwriters and producers, who get a much larger royalty rate for album sales than they do for streaming. It surpassed *NSYNC’s “No Strings Attached”, which sold 2,416,000 copies in the first week of its March 26, 2000 debut.

Streaming services have helped make over the album-sales landscape in 2015.

The phenomenally popular Millennium became one of the best-selling records of all time, staying at the No 1 spot on the Billboard charts for 10 consecutive weeks and selling 1,133,505 in the first week – and 28 million copies worldwide.

Adele isn’t the only one making it rain on the charts – and breaking records in the process. Several of the band’s members gave Adele their stamp of approval, including Joey Fatone, 38, and JC Chasez, 39.

“Within that same timeframe, spins for “Hello” are more than 5x the number for the next most popular song ‘Someone Like You'”.