By Joe Coscarelli
In its eight weeks on the Billboard album chart so far, Puerto Rican rapper, singer and pop star Bad Bunny’s latest release, “Un Verano Sin Ti,” has remained a streaming steamroller, frequently topping 150 million online plays per week. This time, the album’s 160 million streams were enough for a return to No. 1, despite two new releases in the Top 5 and just 657 copies of “Un Verano Sin Ti” sold as a full album.
Bad Bunny, who was Spotify’s top streaming artist globally for the past two years, called his latest “a record to play in the summer, on the beach, as a playlist.” That seems to be working: In the week ending June 30, “Un Verano Sin Ti” totaled 115,000 equivalent sales units — combining streams, sales and track downloads — according to tracking service Luminate.
That was enough to easily hold off the debut of “Growin’ Up” by hit-making country singer Luke Combs, which earned 74,000 total units, including 56 million streams — a healthy total in country, where streaming has been slower to take over. Although “Growin’ Up” comes in at No. 2, its streaming total was the lowest of all of the albums in the Top 5.
“Breezy,” the latest by R&B singer Chris Brown, was the week’s other big debut, finishing at No. 4 in a close race, with 72,000 total units and 87 million streams. Sales activity for last week’s No. 1, the surprise release “Honestly, Nevermind,” by Drake, fell 64%, but the album holds on to No. 3 with 73,000 units, including 94 million streams.
Rounding out the Top 5 is the deluxe edition of “7220” by Chicago rapper Lil Durk, which topped the chart when it was released in March. The new version, which sent “7220” back up from No. 18 last week with 95 million fresh streams, added 13 songs, bringing the total track list to 31.