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Billboard reports that The Very Best Of Prince and Purple Rain sit atop the albums chart this week. Listeners picked up 179,000 album equivalent copies of The Very Best of Prince, a greatest hits compilation that focuses on the star's best known songs. 100,000 of those were from traditional sales sources. According to Billboard, 85,000 copies of the compilation were scooped up on the iTunes Store on April 21, the day Prince was reported dead.
The Very Best of Prince is the singer's fifth No. 1 album and first since 2006.
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At No. 2 on the album's chart, you can find Purple Rain. Listeners bought the equivalent of 69,000 units of the iconic release, almost all of which (63,000) can be attributed to old-fashioned album sales. Prince is the first artist to have the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on the Billboard 200 since Nelly in 2004.
Down at No. 6, another Prince compilation hit the chart: The Hits/The B-Sides shifted 41,000 copies. In total, Billboard suggests that Prince sold 256,000 albums and has eight albums on the Billboard 200 this week.
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