The Billboard 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by Billboard magazine and is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists. Often, a recording act will be remembered by its "number ones", those of their albums that outperformed all others during at least one week. The chart grew from a weekly top 10 list in 1956 to become a top 200 list in May 1967, and acquired its current name in March 1992. Its previous names include the Billboard Top LPs (1961–1972), Billboard Top LPs & Tape (1972–1984), Billboard Top 200 Albums (1984–1985) and Billboard Top Pop Albums (1985–1992).
The Digital Songs or Digital Song Sales chart ranks the best-selling digital songs in the United States, as compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published by Billboard magazine. Although it originally started tracking song sales the week of October 30, 2004, it officially debuted in the issue dated January 22, 2005, and merged all versions of a song sold from digital music distributors. Its data was incorporated in the Hot 100 three weeks later. Since October 2004, digital sales have been incorporated into many of Billboard's music singles charts. The decision was based on the dramatic increase of the digital market while commercial single sales in a physical format were becoming negligible.
American rapper and record producer Ye, better known as Kanye West, has released 10 studio albums, two collaborative studio albums, one compilation album, one demo album, two live albums, one video album and six mixtapes. All ten of his studio albums have been certified at least gold in the United States. As of June 2021, West has certified 25 million equivalent solo albums units in the United States, placing him among the highest-certified music artists in the United States.
American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift has released 10 original studio albums, 2 re-recorded studio albums, 9 extended plays, and 7 live albums. She has sold an estimated 114 million album units worldwide and, in terms of pure sales, tallied 37.3 million in the United States and 3.34 million in the United Kingdom. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), her albums have garnered 51 million certified units in the United States. As of June 2023, she is the woman with the most weeks (61) at number one on the US Billboard 200.
Now That's What I Call Music! 34 was released on June 15, 2010. The album is the 34th edition of the (U.S.) Now! series. Four tracks, "Nothin' on You", "Rude Boy", "OMG" and "Imma Be", reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The final four tracks are "What's Next New Music Preview" bonus tracks.
Now That's What I Call Music! 35 was released on August 31, 2010. The album is the 35th edition of the (U.S.) Now! series. It features the number-one Billboard Hot 100 hit, "California Gurls".
Now That's What I Call Music! 37 was released on February 8, 2011. The album is the 37th edition of the (U.S.) Now! series. Seven tracks selected for the album were number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100: "Love the Way You Lie", "Just the Way You Are", "Firework", "Raise Your Glass", "We R Who We R", "Only Girl " and "Like a G6".
Now That's What I Call Music! 39 was released on August 9, 2011. The album is the 39th edition of the Now! series in the United States. Three tracks on the album, "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)", "Party Rock Anthem" and "Give Me Everything", reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
Now That's What I Call Music! 41 was released on February 7, 2012. It is the 41st edition of the Now! series in the United States. The album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 for the week ending February 24, 2012, after selling 142,000 units in its first week of release. A month later, it returned to number three on the chart and jumped to number one on the Billboard Digital Albums chart after a one-day, 25-cent promotion of its downloadable version by Google Play and Amazon.com pushed digital sales up 1,367%.
Now That's What I Call Music! 47, released on August 6, 2013, is the 47th edition of the Now! series in the United States. The album features the number-one Billboard Hot 100 hit, "When I Was Your Man", by Bruno Mars.
Now That's What I Call Music! 49, released on February 4, 2014, is the 49th edition of the Now! series in the United States. The album features three Billboard Hot 100 number-one hits: "Timber", "Royals", and "Wrecking Ball".
"Uptown Funk" is a song by British record producer Mark Ronson, featuring American singer and songwriter Bruno Mars. It was released on 10 November 2014, as the lead single from Ronson's fourth studio album, Uptown Special (2015). "Uptown Funk" was written by Ronson, Mars, Jeff Bhasker, and Philip Lawrence; it was produced by the first three writers mentioned. The song began to be written during a freestyle studio session while they worked on a jam Mars and his band had been playing on tour. Copyright controversies arose after the song's release resulting in multiple lawsuits and amendments to its songwriting credits.
The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, is a measurement unit in music industry to define the consumption of music that equals the purchase of one album copy. This consumption includes streaming and song downloads in addition to traditional album sales. The album-equivalent unit was introduced in the mid-2010s as an answer to the drop of album sales in the 21st century. Album sales more than halved from 1999 to 2009, declining from a $14.6 to $6.3 billion industry. For instance, the only albums that went platinum in the United States in 2014 were the Frozen soundtrack and Taylor Swift's 1989, whereas several artists' works had in 2013.
