May 24, 2016 Drake stays on top of the Billboard album chart for a third time this week, as his latest album, “Views,” passes the half-billion mark in streams. When “Views” (Young Money/Cash Money/Republic) came out late last month, fans could get it only from Apple. Yet the album scored huge opening-week numbers: more than 850,000 downloads and almost 250 million streams, a new peak that more than doubled the streaming record set only a week before by Beyoncé. In its third week out, “Views” has gone to Spotify and other online services, giving the album a second wind online and keeping it securely at the top of the chart. In its latest week, “Views” had only 83,000 sales, but songs from it racked up 186 million streams, according to Nielsen. Since the album came out, the songs have been streamed 572 million times in the United States; in each of the three weeks that “Views” has been out, it has had higher streaming numbers than any album has ever had.
