This week, K-Pop boy group SuperM became the first Korean act to get No.1 on the Billboard 200 album chart with their debut.
Their album, SuperM: The First Mini Album, sold a first week total of 168,000 equivalent units. According to Billboard, 164,000 of those were sales, while 4,000 came from streaming.
Those numbers are practically unheard of in an era almost entirely dominated by streaming. Every 1,500 song streams count as the equivalent to one sale, meaning SuperM's seven-track album was streamed around 4.9 million times over the course of its first week.
The No. 2 spot went to Summer Walker, whose debut album Over It earned 134,000 equivalent units only 14,000 of which came from album sales. In comparison to SuperM, Over It gained almost 155 million streams in its first week.
SuperM released eight different versions of their album: one corresponding to each member of SuperM, and a "United Version". The collection finished a SuperM logo on the spines, which fans were encouraged to share pictures of in exchange for the chance to appear on the group's Instagram story.
And Also, The digital copies of their album were included with every sale of a merch item on the SM Entertainment official, including first sales of signed posters and picture disc vinyl. Items on the website included the option to purchase with Affirm, an app that lets you buy now and pay later.
Since BuzzFeed News raised the note in the Instagram bio, it's been updated to specify only sales from the US contribute to Billboard charts. It appears that it has said, "all orders" since April 2019.
The Digital copies of the album were included with the purchase of tickets to SuperM's US arena tour, which went on sale the day after the album was released.
A note on the SM Entertainment Global Shop claimed the album was "an official release from SM Entertainment and Capitol Records", and all sales would contribute towards the Billboard chart. A similar note appears in the bio of the store's official Instagram page.
The album is also available on several other e-commerce sites such as Cokodive, which expressly states on the page that sales from their website will apply to both Billboard and South Korea's Gaon music chart.
