Universal Music Group Sets Industry Record With Nine Of The Top 10 Digital Songs

Record-Breaking Performance from New and Established Artists Representing a Wide Variety of Genres

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Aug 22, 2013, 03:04 ET

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Aug. 22, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Universal Music Group (UMG), the world's leading music company, has set a new industry record by achieving nine of the Top 10 best-selling Digital Songs in the US on the Billboard chart dated August 31 – based upon Nielsen SoundScan's sales data for the week ending August 18. The nine songs are from a varied mix of emerging and established artists, covering a wide array of genres including country, pop, R&B, rock and EDM, and across every major label group in the UMG family.

Lucian Grainge, Chairman & CEO of Universal Music Group, commented, "While only a snapshot, this achievement is representative of our global commitment to long-term artist development and the performance of our labels, including our efforts to revitalize EMI, Capitol and Virgin. Further, this week's results also demonstrate the success we're having with artists across a wide array of genres."

Leading the Digital Songs chart is Katy Perry's "Roar" (Capitol Records) which has the highest weekly sales of any track this year with 557,024 downloads. Robin Thicke's massively successful "Blurred Lines" (Star Trak/Interscope) is at No. 2, selling 291,235 downloads. The song remains at the top of the Hot 100 chart for the 11^th consecutive week and has sold nearly five million units in the US since its release. Lady Gaga's "Applause" (Streamline/Interscope) debuts at No. 3 with 217,962 downloads. Remaining titles include Jay Z featuring Justin Timberlake's "Holy Grail" (Roc Nation) at No. 4, Luke Bryan's "That's My Kind Of Night" (Capitol Records Nashville) at No. 5, Avicii 's "Wake Me Up" (PRMD/Island Records) at No. 7, Imagine Dragons' "Radioactive" (KIDinaKORNER/Interscope) at No. 8, Lana Del Rey's "Summertime Sadness" (Polydor/Interscope) at No. 9, and Lorde's "Royals" (Lava/Republic) at No. 10.

For a second week in a row, UMG's artists and distributed labels also earned eight of the Top 10 Albums. The country's top-selling album this week is Luke Bryan's Crash My Party (Capitol Records Nashville) which debuted at No. 1 with 527,783 in sales.

This chart success builds momentum for UMG's upcoming releases from artists including Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Eminem, Drake, Jack Johnson, Keith Urban, Avicii, Lorde, and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Soundtrack.

ABOUT UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP

Universal Music Group is the global music leader, with wholly owned operations in 60 territories. Its businesses also include Universal Music Publishing Group, one of the industry's premier music publishing operations worldwide.

Universal Music Group's labels include A&M/Octone, Angel, Astralwerks, Blue Note Records, Capitol Christian Music Group, Capitol Records, Capitol Records Nashville, Caroline, Decca, Def Jam Recordings, Deutsche Grammophon, Disa, Emarcy, EMI Records Nashville, Fonovisa, Geffen Records, Harvest, Interscope Records, Island Records, Machete Music, Manhattan, MCA Nashville, Mercury Nashville, Mercury Records, Motown Records, Polydor Records, Republic Records, Universal Music Latino, Verve Music Group, Virgin Records, Virgin EMI Records, as well as a multitude of record labels owned or distributed by its record company subsidiaries around the world. The Universal Music Group owns the most extensive catalogue of music in the industry, which includes the last 100 years of the world's most popular artists and their recordings. UMG's catalogue is marketed through two distinct divisions, Universal Music Enterprises (in the U.S.) and Universal Strategic Marketing (outside the U.S.). Universal Music Group also includes Global Digital Business, its new media and technologies division and Bravado, its merchandising company.

Universal Music Group is a fully owned subsidiary of Vivendi.

SOURCE Universal Music Group