Drake, Future cinch Billboard 200 top spot with surprise album

By Piya Sinha-Roy
LOS ANGELES, Sept 28 (Reuters) - A surprise album by rappers
Drake and Future soared to the top of the weekly U.S. Billboard
200 album chart on Monday, edging out new entries by Lana Del
Rey and others.
"What A Time To Be Alive," announced by Drake on Instagram
on Sept. 19 and released exclusively through Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Music and
iTunes the next day, sold 334,000 albums, 172,000 songs and was
streamed more than 35 million times, totaling 375,000 units
according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan.
It is the second No. 1 album of the year for both Canadian
rapper Drake, who topped the Billboard 200 chart with "If You're
Reading This It's Too Late," in February, and Atlanta rapper
Future, whose "DS2" topped the chart in July.
Surprise album releases, while not common, have paid off for
some of music's biggest stars. Beyonce's self-titled digital
album, which featured new songs and accompanying music videos,
came as a complete surprise to both fans and collaborators when
it was released without fanfare on Dec. 13, 2013.
The album, released exclusively on iTunes, promptly topped
the Billboard 200 chart with more than 1 million copies sold in
its first week, setting a new iTunes record.
Last week's chart-topper, The Weeknd's "Beauty Behind the
Madness," dropped to No. 3.
The Billboard 200 chart tallies album sales, song sales (10
songs equal one album) and streaming activity (1,500 streams
equal one album).
Other new entries on this week's Billboard 200 chart include
pop singer Lana Del Rey's "Honeymoon" at No. 2, rapper Mac
Miller's "GO:OD AM" at No. 4 and rocker David Gilmour's "Rattle
That Lock" at No. 5. Hard rockers Shinedown came in at No. 6
with "Threat To Survival" and Christian hip hop artist Andy
Mineo's "Uncomfortable" debuted at No. 10.
Singer-songwriter Ryan Adams' cover album of Taylor Swift's
"1989" entered the chart at No. 7 this week, just ahead of
Swift's original version at No. 8.
On the Digital Songs chart, which measures online sales, The
Weeknd's "Hills" ousted Justin Bieber's "What Do You Mean?" for
the top spot, selling 110,000 digital singles.