(Adds Spotify figures in paragraph 4)
LOS ANGELES, Nov 2 (Reuters) - British singer Adele smashed
records with her comeback single "Hello", selling more than 1.1
million digital songs in the first week and becoming the first
song ever to break the 1 million download mark on the Billboard
charts.
Adele also roundly beat Canadian teen heartthrob Justin
Bieber, whose latest single "Sorry" sold 276,800 downloads in
its debut week, taking second place, according to data released
by Nielsen Music on Monday for the past week.
"Hello" was the first single from Adele's upcoming new album
"25", to be released this month, and follows a four-year break
from music after her "21" album won six Grammy awards and sold
more than 30 million copies worldwide.
"Hello" was streamed 47.5 million times globally on Spotify,
making it the most-streamed song over a week in the online
streaming platform's history.
The music video also broke records at entertainment
platform Vevo.com, delivering more than 27 million views in the
first 24 hours after its release last week.
Nielsen Music said the previous best-selling digital song in
a single week was American rapper Flo Rida's "Right Round" in
2009, which sold 636,000 downloads.
On the Billboard 200 album chart, Australian pop punk band 5
Seconds of Summer grabbed the No.1 spot selling 192,000 units of
their new release "Sounds Good Feels Good."
That pushed country singer Carrie Underwood into second
place with her new album "Storyteller" with some 177,000 units
sold. Blake Shelton, country music star and a judge on TV show
"The Voice," saw his greatest hits collection "Reloaded; 20 #1
Hits" debut in 5th place.
The Billboard 200 chart tallies units from album sales, song
sales (10 songs equal one album) and streaming activity (1,500
streams equal one album).
Canadian rapper The Weeknd held on to the No. 3 position
with "Beauty Behind the Madness," and last week's chart toppers,
Pentatonix, slipped to 8th with their self-titled album of a
cappella songs.