Daisy Jones & The Six crown Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart (dated March 18), while the act’s debut album, Aurora, likewise launches at No. 1 on the Soundtracks chart.
The set, released March 3, earned 11,000 equivalent album units through March 9, according to Luminate. It also opens at No. 4 on both Americana/Folk Albums and Vinyl Albums (6,000 copies sold on vinyl) and No. 10 on Top Album Sales (8,000 sold overall).
The album accompanies Daisy Jones & The Six, the 10-part Amazon Prime Video series whose first three episodes also premiered March 3. The series brings to life Taylor Jenkins Reid’s best-selling 2019 novel about an imaginary rock band from the 1970s that releases its defining album – Aurora – before it breaks up amid the thorny relationship between singer-songwriter Jones (played by Riley Keough) and band co-founder Billy Dunne (Sam Claflin). The series is told via flashbacks from the band’s members 20 years after they split up.
The series was produced by Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine and Amazon Studios, with its companion album on Amazon Content Services, Ellemar (the label to which the band is signed in the book) and Atlantic Records.
Grammy Award-winning producer Blake Mills, who co-wrote and produced the album and supplemental songs heard in Daisy Jones & The Six, collaborated with Phoebe Bridgers, Marcus Mumford, Jackson Browne, Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith and others to create the 11 songs on Aurora, along with 14 non-album originals heard throughout the series.
Notably, Daisy Jones & The Six mark the first act to hit No. 1 on Emerging Artists whose formation stems from a scripted series. (Multiple artists that competed on NBC’s The Voice have led the list.) The chart dates to 2017, with acts that have reigned, on their way to even greater successes, including Dua Lipa, BLACKPINK, Billie Eilish, Bridgers, Kali Uchis, Måneskin, CKay, Latto, Zach Bryan and Dove Cameron.
“It’s been amazing to witness the historic response to Daisy Jones & the Six and their incredible debut album,” says Kevin Weaver, Atlantic Records president, West Coast. “The overwhelming reaction from fans around the world has confirmed what we at Atlantic, Amazon and Hello Sunshine have long known – that Daisy Jones & The Six are not only a true artist proposition, but a force to be reckoned with. We’re proud to be a part of their story and look forward for what’s to come.”
Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart tracks the most popular developing artists each week, using the same formula as the all-encompassing Billboard Artist 100, which measures artist activity across multiple Billboard charts, including the Billboard Hot 100, Billboard 200 and the Social 50. (The Artist 100 lists the most popular acts, overall, each week.) However, the Emerging Artists chart excludes acts that have notched a top 25 entry on either the Hot 100 or Billboard 200, as well as artists that have achieved two or more top 10s on Billboard’s “Hot” song genre charts and/or consumption-based “Top” album genre rankings.
