Weekly Register: Kacey Musgraves Crowned With No. 1 Debut

The country albums chart had two noteworthy debuts this week. Queen Kacey Musgraves reigns with Pageant Material debuting at No. 1 country/ No. 3 overall, with activity of 60,000 (55,000 album only).

The critically acclaimed sophomore album is the follow-up to her Grammy winning debut album Same Trailer Different Park which also entered at No. 1 on the Billboard country albums chart. Musgraves co-wrote all of the tracks on Pageant Material as well as co-produced with Shane McAnally and Luke Laird. She celebrated the release last month in Nashville with a party at Play, complete with performances by drag queens.

Musgraves’ Mercury Nashville labelmate Canaan Smith also scored a top 5 debut, coming in at No. 4 country with 16,000 (12,000 album only). His debut album Bronco features hit single “Love You Like That” which has been certified Gold by the RIAA for digital sales in excess of 500,000. It garnered almost 33 million combined streams (total streaming partners). He worked with producers Brett Beavers, Jimmy Robbins, Ryan Tyndell and Luke Wooten on the project.

Elsewhere, Corey Smith’s Sugar Hill release entered the country chart with 3,100. He just wrapped a week of special events in Nashville surrounding the release, including concerts at Bluebird Café and Grand Ole Opry.

It’s worth noting that this is the mid-year point for 2015. As regular Weekly Register readers know, sales continue to slump:

YTD Albums
Overall -4 percent
Overall digital -.1 percent
Country -9.1 percent
Country digital -1.8 percent

YTD Tracks
Overall -10.4 percent
Country -15.8 percent

Starting July 10, the official worldwide release day for music will move to Fridays. Accordingly, the Nielsen SoundScan week will run Friday through Thursday.

*sales according to Soundscan