British rock band Coldplay’s new album “Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends” sold 316,000 copies in the United States in its first day of release and it is expected to reach No.1 this week with over 720,000 copies sold in its first week. The band’s previous album, “X&Y” also debuted at No.1, with 737,000 copies sold during its first week in June 2005, Reuters noted.

The success of Coldplay’s new album comes a week after Lil Wayne’s album, “Tha Carter III,” sold more than 1 million copies in a week. This way, Lil Wayne became the first artist since 50 Cent in 200 to sell more than 1 million copies of an album in a single week. Apple said “Viva la Vida” had the best advance and first-week of sales of any album in the five-year history of iTunes.  

“The music industry has held up better this year than we had feared,” said Richard Greenfield, who is a media analyst at Pali Research. “We’ve seen a moderation in CD sales declines instead of an acceleration,” according to the same source.

The four musicians, Chris Martin, Jonny Buckland, Guy Berryman and Will Champion, are also ruling the album charts in Japan, Australia, Canada, France and Germany, according to Capitol Records.