Latin Albums (formerly Top Latin Albums) is a record chart published by Billboard magazine and is labeled as the most important music chart for Spanish language, full-length albums in the American music market. Like all Billboard album charts, the chart is based on sales. Nielsen SoundScan compiles the sales data from merchants representing more than 90 percent of the U.S. music retail market. The sample includes sales at music stores, the music departments of electronics and department stores, direct-to-consumer transactions, and Internet sales of physical albums or digital downloads. A limited array of verifiable sales from concert venues is also tabulated. Listings of Top Latin Albums are also shown on Telemundo's music page through a partnership between the two companies. Before this chart, all Latin music information was featured on the Latin Pop Albums chart, which began on June 29, 1985, and is still running along with the Regional Mexican Albums and Tropical Albums chart. The Latin Pop Albums chart features music only from the pop genre, while the Regional Mexican Albums chart includes information from different genres like duranguense, norteño, banda and mariachi, and the Tropical Albums includes different genres particularly salsa, merengue, bachata, and cumbia. In 2005, another chart, Latin Rhythm Albums, was introduced in response to growing number of airplays from reggaeton.
The first album to appear at number-one on this chart was Mi Tierra by Gloria Estefan on July 10, 1993. This album spent 58 non-consecutive weeks at the top of this chart, a record that stands to date. Mexican singers Marco Antonio Solís holds the record for the most number-one albums by an artist overall with 10. Fellow Mexican performers Los Temerarios is the group with the most chart-toppers, eight.
The late Tejano performer Selena is the woman with most albums peaking at the top of the chart, with seven. Her album Dreaming of You is the only album to peak at number one during three different calendar years (1995–97).
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