Beyoncé Knowles Earns Sixth No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 Chart With ‘Lemonade’

NYTimes.com:

American royalty has a lock on the Billboard album chart this week as Queen Bey and Prince continue to dominate the conversation.

In the biggest week for an album so far this year, Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” (Parkwood Entertainment/Columbia) debuts at No. 1 with 485,000 album sales and 115 million streams following its premiere on HBO on April 23. Beyoncé’s first six studio albums have debuted at No. 1, a feat never before accomplished, Billboard reports.

“Lemonade,” which was accompanied by a conceptual short film, was available for its first weekend exclusively via Tidal, the music service owned by Jay Z and other artists (including Beyoncé), before spreading to other retailers for digital download. Tidal has said it would be the only place to stream the album “in perpetuity,” while a physical version will be released on Friday, May 6. Individual songs from “Lemonade” were also purchased 908,000 times for a final tally of 653,000 album equivalent units, including downloads and streams, according to Nielsen Music.