No album has sold as well in Germany this year as Abba's comeback album.
Released 40 years after the last album by the Swedish superstars, "Voyage" is number one on the list of the best, as the investigators of the Official German Charts, GfK Entertainment, announced on Friday.
Second place is taken by Helene Fischer with “Rausch”, ahead of “Power Up” by the Australian rock band AC / DC - the front runner from 2020. Fourth place is followed by Die Ärzte (“Dunkel”), Adeles “30”, published on November 19th, comes in at number seven.
Benjamin Fischer
Editor in business.
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In the single charts, the title goes to the Scottish folk singer Nathan Evans.
With his version of "Wellerman", an old New Zealand sailor's song, he caused a sensation on TikTok at the end of last year.
In January the song was released on the Universal Music label Polydor.
This puts Evans ahead of superstar Ed Sheeran (“Bad Habit”) and “The Business” by Tiësto.
The annual charts include sales from the 50th calendar week of the previous year up to the 49th in 2021.
Abba as logical number 1
In contrast to their counterparts in Great Britain or the USA, the Official German Charts are calculated according to sales and not according to the number of units of a publication sold. In Germany, too, streaming has long represented the majority of sales in the music recording market. It was 70.6 percent in the first half of the year. However, sales of physical sound carriers are still very important, especially in the album charts.
The turnover system reinforces this effect again.
After all, the album business is flourishing with lavishly made special editions.
T-shirts, posters or other fan articles are attached to the sound carrier here.
And this, too, is only too happy to be offered in limited, specially designed (and more expensive) variants, especially with a view to vinyl versions.
This is of course also an option for CDs.
In the case of Abba, Universal Music also offered four of its own variants with the likeness of the Abba heads on CD and even on cassette.
"Germany is probably the most crazy Abba country"
Such “bundles” are only taken into account with a maximum value of 40 euros, even if the actual sales price is higher.
The additions to the sound carrier must also have a clear reference to the artist and be included as a "haptic product".
In an interview with the FAZ a few days before the release of “Voyage” at the beginning of November, Frank Briegmann, head of European Music for Universal Music, emphasized that the demand for physical sound carriers at Abba would be very high compared to other stars such as Drake.
Streaming dominates the singles charts
The music industry is usually very reluctant to provide information on sales and often also on sales figures.
One week after the release of “Voyage”, Briegmann said at least that “Germany is probably the most Abba-crazed country in the world, at least judging by the album sales figures”.
The importance of sound carriers is naturally also due to the generally older and, in comparison, less streaming-affine Abba target group.
Conversely, this fact explains - in addition to the fact that the new music was released rather late in autumn - that the Swedes do not play a major role in the singles charts.
Because here the streaming numbers are the decisive factor.
Abba has released physical singles as well, but this is just a marginal phenomenon.
Top ranking in a week can be deceiving
Especially German rappers with an enormous presence in social media and fans who love streaming have a subscription to top positions in the singles rankings.
This is one of the reasons why the system repeatedly meets with criticism in the industry.
Ignoring ad-financed streams, i.e. by users without a subscription to Spotify & Co, or watching YouTube videos for free is sometimes criticized.
After all, this also shows the relevance of a work.
Since the end of 2020, however, radio usage has been included in the single charts.
Streams are generally only included in the album and single charts using two separate formulas from a length of 31 seconds.
This is also the limit from which the call is taken into account when distributing the music to the rights holder.
All sales figures are recorded from data from more than 2,800 retail stores - from large electronics stores to small vinyl stores - as well as the various download portals and streaming services.
The lists are recalculated week by week.
The length of time you stay in the charts is therefore a better indicator of success than the mere highest ranking of a work in a week - or the cumulative list at the end of the year.