Congrats go out to Chance The Rapper. His Coloring Book has made a historic debut on the Billboard 200. His third independently released project has become the first album (or mixtape) to break the Billboard 200 off streams alone.
Released exclusively through Apple Music on May 12, the project landed at No. 8 on the chart.
According to Billboard, Coloring Book was streamed 57.3 million times in its first week, which, following their streams-to-sales formula, equates to around 38,000 units. Hits Daily Doubleprojected the mixtape to hit between 40-50,000 first-week units, based off 60-75 million streams.
Coloring Book will remain an Apple Music exclusive until May 27 before it hits all other streaming services. Similar to Kanye West, Chance has no plans to sell physical (or even digital) copies of the mixtape.
Whether that rules it out of being eligible for a Grammy remains to be seen; the guidelines state music “must be commercially released in general distribution in the United States,” but a rep for the Grammys recent told Complex they are “currently reviewing language submitted to them regarding streaming only projects.”
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