The all-star charity album Good Music to Ensure Safe Abortion Access to All debuts at No. 1 on Billboard’s Compilation Albums chart and also bows at No. 9 on Top Album Sales.
The 49-track set sold nearly 8,500 copies in the U.S. in the week ending Oct. 13 according to Luminate – the largest sales week for a non-soundtrack compilation album in two years.
The benefit album boasts music from Death Cab for Cutie, Fleet Foxes and Pearl Jam, among others, and was exclusively available via Bandcamp’s webstore for one day only, on Oct. 7, as a digital download. According to a press release, the album’s net proceeds will benefit non-profit organizations working to provide abortion care access to all: Brigid Alliance and NOISE FOR NOW (who are working with Abortion Care Network).
The last time a non-soundtrack compilation album sold more in a single week was two years ago, when the last Good Music charity album, Good Music to Avert the Collapse of American Democracy, Volume 2 debuted at No. 10 on Top Album Sales with 13,500 sold (Oct. 17, 2020 chart).
Good Music to Ensure Safe Abortion Access to All also debuts at No. 8 on Top Current Album Sales and in the top 40 on Independent Albums, Top Rock & Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums and Top Alternative Albums.
Good Music additionally enters at No. 151 on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart – the highest debut by a non-R&B/hip-hop compilation in over a year. The last such set — again, excluding soundtracks — to bow higher was A-list-loaded rock tribute set The Metallica Blacklist, which debuted at No. 132 on the Sept. 25, 2021-dated chart (peaking at No. 103 on the Oct. 16, 2021 chart).
In 2020, the two Good Music to Avert the Collapse of American Democracy albums raised over $600,000 for voting-rights organizations (according to the Good Music organization).
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album.
Compilation Albums ranks the week’s top-selling compilations by traditional album sales. Top Album Sales and Top Current Album Sales tally, respectively, the overall top-selling albums of the week, and the top-selling current (excluding older, or “catalog” albums) albums of the week.
Top Rock & Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums and Top Alternative Albums rank the week’s most popular rock and alternative albums, rock albums and alternative albums, respectively, by equivalent album units. Independent Albums reflects the week’s most popular albums, by units, released by independent record labels.