Adele’s juggernaut of album sales rolls on

Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES

Adele’s chart reign continues, and it’s looking like her rescheduled tour dates have turned out to be something of a blessing, given that the August and September shows stand a good chance of bolstering her chart presence into the fall.

In June, the singer was forced to halt her largely sold-out tour after being stricken with laryngitis. She recently announced that she had rescheduled the 14 dates that had to be cancelled and added six more .

Earlier this month, Eminem’s “Recovery” became the first album to sell 1 million digital downloads in the U.S. Last week Adele broke that record.

The singer’s breakout disc, which was released Feb. 22, logged an additional 25,000 downloads last week, bringing its total to 1,017,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan, making it the bestselling digital album of all time.

With that achievement, Adele became the second artist with a million-selling digital album and the first female to do so. Also, with it being available for only about five months, “21” is the fastest selling digital album.

Her album has remained a chart presence, and it’s not looking like it has plans to slow down anytime soon. “21” remains the year’s top selling album to date with 2.5 million copies, and Adele’s single “Rolling in the Deep” has logged nearly 4.1 million digital sales so far, according to Nielsen SoundScan’s midyear report on U.S. music sales.

The disc is also expected to remain at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart this week.