It appears the Internet was just waiting for two French musicians pretending to be robots to return to the scene with their mellow, retro funk music. Last month, “Get Lucky,” the lead single from the band’s new album, became the most played track in Spotify’s history – with more than 27 million streams to date since its debut in late April. Now, Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories has been named the most streamed album in the first week of release on Spotify as well.
According to Spotify, it’s not just that Random Access Memories was streamed more in its first week of U.S. release than previous record holder Babel by Mumford & Sons (an album released back in October of last year) – the critically acclaimed album has reportedly set a new record for the highest number of streams for any album in one 24 hour period. Which comes as no surprise, as Random Access Memories is already the fastest-selling album of the year in the U.K. and is a chart topper in the U.S. and Australia.
As in the case of “Get Lucky”‘s immediate success, Spotify isn’t releasing estimates for the number of streams the album enjoyed in its first week, although taking the title from Babel means that it must have vaulted over that album’s total of eight million streams in the first seven days of release.
Perhaps the most important thing to take from Random Access Memories‘ success on both Spotify and the sales chart is the seeming proof that streaming music services are not cannibalizing music sales. After all, it’s not simply that Random Access Memories was a hit in terms of sales on both sides of the Atlantic; it was the fastest-selling album of the year in the U.K.. This suggests that when an album is a genuine hit record, the urge to own it can be stronger than just wanting to listen to it whenever you’re able to access a streaming service.
For the music industry, the message is clear if not entirely easy to act upon. There’s an obvious way to save the music industry: It just needs to be filled with more earworms and toe-tappers. Maybe Pharrell could guest star on every track for a few months, just to see how things go?
