(MENAFN- Arab Times) Rap artist Future topped the US Billboard 200 album chart for the first time with the debut of his album "DS2" this week. "DS2" is the third studio album from the 31-year-old. The 13-track album sold 151,000 units in its first week, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan, making it Future's highest earner yet. The Billboard 200 chart tallies album sales, song sales (10 songs equal one album) and streaming activity (1,500 streams equal one album). Pop star Taylor Swift's best-selling album of 2014, "1989" held its No. 2 spot.
The album, which includes the hit song, "Shake it Off," has spent 38 weeks on the chart. "Black Rose," by hip-hop artist Tyrese fell to No. 3. It premiered at No. 1 last week, marking Tyrese's first chart-topper in his nearly two-decade career. Australian psychedelic rockers, Tame Impala, entered the chart in the No. 4 spot with their album "Currents," the band's third studio album and its highest chart earner. "Angels and Alcohol," the 20th studio album from country music veteran Alan Jackson debuted at No. 5. Jackson, 56, has had 13 previous albums reach the top 10. Alt-country singer-songwriter Jason Isbell earned his highest ranking on the chart with the debut of "Something More Than Free."
The sixth album from the former Drive-By Truckers band member took the No. 6 spot. Rapper Meek Mill's "Dreams Worth More than Money" fell to the seventh spot on the chart after debuting at No. 1 two weeks ago. Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, country singer Sam Hunt and cover group Kidz Bop Kids rounded out the top 10. On the Digital Songs chart, which tallies digital single downloads, OMI's summer reggae hit "Cheerleader" remained in the top spot for the third week in a row with 163,000 downloads.
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Multichannel network operator BroadbandTV and BMG, Bertelsmann's music publishing and rights subsidiary, have formed Windfall - a joint venture promising up-and-coming YouTube music artists a comprehensive solution for producing, distributing and making money from their content. German media conglom Bertelsmann owns both BMG and European broadcaster RTL Group, which owns a controlling stake in BroadbandTV.
Via Windfall, BMG will provide YouTubers services including music publishing, rights management, promotion and distribution; BBTV brings to the table a suite of online-video services including production, premium channels and fangenerated content management. BroadbandTV operates two of the largest music networks on YouTube: Opposition, focused on hip-hop; and WIMSIC, an electronic dance music (EDM) network backed by such artists as Major Lazer, Dillon Francis and Will Sparks. BBTV's pact with BMG will help the MCN company hit its target of more than doubling the size of its music network over the next 12 months, according to BroadbandTV founder and CEO Shahrzad Rafati.
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Apple Music who also happen to be customers of T-Mobile don't have to worry about going over their data caps anymore: T-Mobile is now giving Apple Music users unlimited streaming over the company's mobile network, and won't count any of it against its users monthly data allotments. T-Mobile first started to exempt select music streaming services from data caps a year ago. Customers of the carrier can now use a total of 33 services, including Spotify, Pandora and SoundCloud, without incurring any mobile data usage. However, not all TMobile plans qualify, and some functionality, like video streams and music downloads, is exempt from the exemption.
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It's taken him two weeks, but Neil Young has finally followed up on his threat to remove his music from streaming services. Some time this past weekend, most of Young's albums disappeared from Spotify, Apple Music, Rdio and other subscription streaming services. A Spotify spokesperson confirmed the removal when contacted by Variety. Albums removed include Young's most recent, "The Monsanto Years," as well as classics like the 1972 album "Harvest" and the 1992 follow-up "Harvest Moon." Young has recorded more than 40 live and studio albums throughout his career, most of which are now unavailable for streaming. Young took to Facebook and Twitter earlier this month to declare that he was going to take his music off streaming services.
Unlike other musicians, Young's primary beef with Spotify and similar services wasn't about the economics of streaming. Instead, he complained that the audio quality of music services was too low. "I don't need my music to be devalued by the worst quality in the history of broadcasting or any other form of distribution," he said, adding: "I don't feel right allowing this to be sold to my fans. It's bad for my music."
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