
Adele's 21 is officially this year's album to beat, as it surpassed the 500,000 copies sold this week, selling 168,000 in its second week out, bringing its total sales to 520,000 copies. And being that there are few big name albums on the release horizon (at least until March 22 when Angles comes out), Adele should be out to a healthy lead in album sales by the time an album comes out to challenge her. Also of note is that this knocks Mumford & Sons out of the year's biggest selling slot, which is a win for everyone. [Billboard]