Bieber tops One Direction on Billboard chart, but Adele on the horizon

By Piya Sinha-Roy
LOS ANGELES, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Canadian pop star Justin
Bieber edged out British boy band One Direction in a battle to
the top of the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart on Monday, but his
reign will be short-lived as British singer Adele looks to break
records with her new release.
"Purpose," the fourth studio album by Bieber, sold 520,000
albums, 602,000 songs and was streamed 100 million times in its
first week, totaling 649,000 units, according to figures from
Nielsen SoundScan.
It is Bieber's best-selling debut in his career so far. One
Direction's "Made in the A.M." sold 459,000 units in its first
week, landing at No. 2.
Adele's "25," released on Friday, won't officially enter the
Billboard charts until next week, but Billboard said Saturday
that the album sold more than 900,000 copies on Apple (O:AAPL) Inc's
iTunes store in its first day.
The current first week U.S. sales record is held by boy band
NSync's 2000 record "No Strings Attached," which opened with 2.4
million copies.
On the Digital Songs chart, which measures online download
sales, Adele's heartbreak ballad "Hello" held onto the top spot
with another 327,000 copies sold this week.
As album sales have dropped drastically due to the rise in
online streaming, it's increasingly rare for an artist to top 1
million copies sold in the first week. Taylor Swift was the last
artist to achieve the milestone, with her "1989" album opening
with 1.29 million last year.
Both Bieber and One Direction set new streaming records on
Spotify last week with their latest albums.
The boy band came away the big winners at the American Music
Awards on Sunday and was one of the night's top performances, as
well as Bieber.
Eight new albums debuted in the top ten of the Billboard 200
chart. Rapper Logic's "Incredible True Story" debuted at No. 3,
rapper Jeezy's "Church In These Streets" at No. 4 and country
artist Chris Young's "I'm Comin' Over" at No. 5.
Progressive rock group Trans-Siberian Orchestra's "Letters
from the Labyrinth" debuted at No. 7, Canadian R&B singer
Alessia Cara's "Know-It-All" came in at No. 9 and gospel
musician Kirk Franklin's "Losing My Religion" entered at No. 10.
Last week's chart-topper, "Traveller" by country artist
Chris Stapleton, dropped to No. 6 this week.
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).