Justin Bieber album smashes Spotify record

NEW YORK — Justin Bieber’s new album has smashed the record for first week streaming on Spotify, the online music site said yesterday (Nov 20).

Purpose, the Canadian pop star’s first album in three years, was streamed 205 million times since its release a week earlier, with 77 million of the streams in the United States.

The figure was far above the previous first-week record set three months ago by another Canadian, the R&B singer The Weeknd.

Spotify announced the record the same day that English singer Adele released her hotly anticipated 25, which the music industry expects to be the best-selling album in years.

But amid high confidence in sales, Adele’s label did not make 25 available on streaming services, which provide unlimited on-demand music.

Streaming companies, led by Swedish site Spotify, have rapidly grown in size in recent years, although some artists have voiced concern at their level of compensation.

Bieber released Purpose, on which the often-troubled 21-year-old reflects on life in the public eye, the same day that British boy band One Direction — whose fan base is seen as overlapping with Bieber’s — put out its own album Made in the A.M.

Spotify said that Made in the A.M. also beat The Weeknd’s previous record but did not match Bieber.

Billboard, the pre-eminent US sales chart, also expects Bieber’s Purpose to debut at number one and surpass Made in the A.M., which One Direction has said will be its last before a hiatus. AFP