Taylor Swift Song Sets a Record for Digital Sales

By BEN SISARIO

This week on the music charts, Taylor Swift's new song set a digital sales record, and the debut album by the rapper 2 Chainz opens at No. 1.

Ms. Swift's latest single, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” was released last week and shot to the top of radio playlists and iTunes' song ranking. It sold 623,000 downloads in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, the biggest one-week total for any female artist. (Counting all acts, only Flo Rida's “Right Round” had more, with 636,000 downloads back in 2009.)

But for Ms. Swift an even more notable accomplishment is that the song has become her first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, the magazine's standard pop singles chart. Although she has had two No. 1 albums and been on the top of the country chart numerous times, until “We Are Never” she had never reached the pinnacle for pop singles. Her next album, “Red,” is due in October.

Also th is week, 2 Chainz, an Atlanta rapper who has made something of a career of announcing his name on other people's records, reached No. 1 on the album chart. “Based on a T.R.U. Story” (Def Jam), his first proper solo album after many mixtapes and releases by his earlier group, Playaz Circle, sold 147,000 copies in its first week out, making it only the third album this year to debut at No. 1. (The others are by One Direction and Jack White - blame it on Adele, who has dominated the chart for much of the year.)

Vol. 43 of the pop compilation “Now That's What I Call Music!” fell one spot to No. 2 with 75,000 sales, and Rick Ross's “God Forgives, I Don't” (Maybach/Def Jam), is No. 3 with 43,000. Insane Clown Posse opened at No. 4 with its latest album, “The Mighty Death Pop” (Psychopathic), which sold 41,000.

Speaking of Adele, her album “21” (XL/Columbia) has sold another 26,000 copies, putting it in eight place this week and bringing its total to 9.7 million. This is the album's 78th consecutive week in the Top 10.