When Chance the Rapper dropped his collaborative Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment album Surf on iTunes for free last week, he did so modestly as an out-of-the-blue surprise not even bearing his name. But that didn’t stop it from making a big impact.
Chance the Rapper’s Experimental Album ‘Surf’ Has Arrived on iTunes…and it’s Free
According to the Chicago MC, who tweeted the iTunes download figures Friday, Surf racked up 618,000 full-album downloads in its first week and more than 10.1 million single track downloads.
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First week #Surf @iTunesMusic stats: 618k full album downloads, 10,198,708 single tracks total pic.twitter.com/ls0wKubm7n
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) June 5, 2015
Though it’s not a fair direct comparison, it’s worth noting A$AP Rocky moved 146,000 equivalent album units in the week ending May 31, according to Nielsen Music, with his Billboard 200 chart-topping At.Long.Last.A$AP. Of those, 117,000 were through traditional album sales and the rest were by track equivalent albums and streaming equivalent albums.
Review: Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment Aim To Melt Your Cynicism On ‘Surf’
Chance also said that the album will remain free forever — good news for new and future fans.
The best thing about #surf is that this is only the first week of it being free, forever https://t.co/Zu57CVrNzz pic.twitter.com/y4MUeMjV6u
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) June 5, 2015