Adele's "25" has sold more copies in four days than any other album in 2015

For those not in the music industry, the record-
breaking sales of Adele ’s 25 are a nice story
and a sign that quality still means something
when it comes to consumers’ musical
preference.

For those of us who cover the music business,
Adele’s success is something much more
exhilarating. It’s like getting to see a unicorn or
Halley’s Comet or a once-in-a-lifetime storm of
the century.

Though official numbers won’t be in for a
week, it looks like 25 will sell more than 2.5
million in its first week, surpassing ’N Sync’s
record of 2.42 million for a single sales week
with No Strings Attached in 2000. Adele’s set
sold more than 900,000 via iTunes on day of
release, Nov. 20, in the U.S. ( Update : As of
Tuesday morning, 25 has officially sold more
than 2.43 million in its first two days of release,
breaking ‘N Sync’s record, according to
SoundScan. The final number when the chart
closes Thursday night is expected to be around
2.9 million, reports Billboard) .

Album sales have been in freefall—sometimes
in double digits year-over-year, sometimes only
mildly so— since 2000. Albums whose first-
week sales numbers 15 years ago would land
them at No. 100 or so now come in at No. 1.

Here are two stats that will help put Adele’s feat
into perspective: So far this year, three albums
have surpassed a million units in sales: Taylor
Swift ’s 1989 , which came out last year, but has
continued to sell well this year; Drake ’s If
You’re Reading This It’s Too Late , which, until
25 , was the only album released this calendar
year to sell a million copies; and now 25. (The
only other albums possibly looking at moving 1
million units by Dec. 31 are Justin Bieber’s
Purpose , which sold a staggering 649,000 last
week, One Direction’s Made in the A.M. and
Luke Bryan’s Kill The Lights.)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/melindanewman/2015/11/23/two-staggering-stats-that-illustrate-how-remarkable-adeles-sales-are/?utm_campaign=Forbes&utm_source=TWITTER&utm_medium=social&utm_channel=Business&linkId=19035740