Streaming activity keeps Drake on top of Billboard 200 chart

By Piya Sinha-Roy

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Canadian R&B artist Drake continued his reign atop the weekly U.S. Billboard 200 album chart on Monday for a fifth consecutive week on the strength of streaming activity, holding off country singer Dierks Bentley and R&B singer Beyonce.

Drake’s “Views” sold 152,000 units for the week ending June 2, comprising album and song sales and 137 million streams, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan.

The Billboard 200 album chart tallies units from album sales, song sales (10 songs equal one album) and streaming activity (1,500 streams equal one album).

Drake’s fourth studio album has been topping the Billboard 200 chart on the strength of streaming activity on platforms such as Spotify and Apple Inc’s Apple Music. It has soared past 100 million streams each week since its release.

Bentley’s latest album, “Black,” debuted at No. 2 with 101,000 units sold, including 5 million streams. Beyonce’s “Lemonade” album climbed one spot to No. 3 with 79,000 units sold including nearly 9 million streams.

Other new entries in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart included pop group Fifth Harmony at No. 4 with “7/27,” and electronic dance music producer Flume’s “Skin” at No. 8.

On the Digital Songs chart, which measures online single sales, Justin Timberlake’s upbeat “Can’t Stop The Feeling!” held the top spot for the third week running, with 155,000 copies sold.

(This copy corrects the June 6 story to “fifth consecutive week” instead of “third consecutive week,” paragraph 1)

(Editing by Matthew Lewis)