Troye Sivan’S MIGRATION FROM you- Tube to music’s mainstream continues at broadband speed. The Australian social media star celebrates his second top five release on the Billboard 200 with Wild, his acclaimed new six-song EP that starts at No. 5 with 50,000 equivalent-album units earned in the week ending Sept. 10, according to Nielsen Music. (That sum includes 45,000 in pure album sales, with the rest from track-equivalent albums and streaming-equivalent albums.)
While the 20-year-old Capitol signee has yet to chart an airplay hit — the Wild EP has garnered only 16 plays on U.S. radio through Sept. 14, and nothing from the set was promoted to radio — he does post two entries on the latest Billboard + Twitter Top Tracks chart: The EP’s title cut bows at No. 4, and “Fools” starts at No. 48. Sivan overcame the lack of airplay with help from major social media endorsements by Sam Smith and Taylor Swift. On Sept. 10, Smith, a Capitol labelmate of Sivan, wrote on Instagram to his 4.7 million followers: “My boy Troye Sivan, his voice does things to my body.” Swift — who has one of the top 10 most followed Twitter accounts, with 63.5 million followers — also hyped up Sivan. On Sept. 7, she tweeted, “GO @TroyeSivan WILD IS STUNNING AND AWESOME #EPgoals.” She also Instagrammed an image of Wild‘s cover. (It’s only a matter of time before Swift welcomes Sivan as a surprise guest on her 1989 World Tour, right?)
Wild previews Sivan’s first live shows, which he recently announced will take place in October starting in the United States, and more music that’s due before the end of the year. It follows his debut EP, TRXYE, which also bowed and peaked at No. 5 more than a year ago (on the Aug. 30, 2014 chart, selling 30,000 copies in its first week). Though the five-song EP has sold just 73,000 copies, it has generated 39 million non-programmed audio and video streams. That’s a robust figure in line with Sivan’s large appeal on the Internet: His YouTube channel boasts 3.6 million subscribers (and 203 million views), and he has 2.9 million followers on Twitter.