In a Billboard 200 week that probably made many a record executive slap a forehead (either belonging to them or a nearby assistant), this week’s total album sales saw a 23% decline from last week’s tally, and the No. 1 album, Now 24, sold a mere 89,000 copies–a 58% dip from last week’s total, but enough to hold on to the top slot.
Biggest Debuts: Bright Eyes’ Cassadaga sold 58,000 copies, matching our readers’ predictions and snagging the No. 4 spot on the chart. Elsewhere in the top 10, HellYeah–a side project for members of Pantera, Mudvayne and Nothingface–sold 45,000 copies of its self-titled debut to enter at No. 9.
Biggest Slides: Who didn’t drop like a stone this week? Even the venerable Daughtry saw a 45% sales decline, although that didn’t stop the album from climbing a notch on the chart, from No. 7 to No. 6.
Charting The Decline: Album sales last week were down 32% from this week in 2006, when the total albums sold totaled 11.78 million units. Also: a year ago last week, seven albums sold more than 100,000 copies; no single album sold more than 100,000 copies on this week’s chart.
Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: Akon’s Konvicted vaulted to the No. 3 spot, no doubt helped along by the strength of his “Ignition (Remix)” ripoff, “Don’t Matter.” Honestly, at this point his success is even more inexplicable than Hinder’s was those many months ago–don’t these people already have Chocolate Factory in their catalogues somewhere?
‘NOW’ Remains No. 1 As Bright Eyes Debuts High [Billboard]
For the first time in YEARS, mtv.com hasn’t dedicated the usual article on record sales for the prior week, but it only mentions the albums in the Top 5 in its “For the record” section. Another bad sign? Or only a particularly uneventful week?
Give dennisobell a column!
i don’t know, i’ve been thinking about this a lot lately.
obviously any band worth their salt is getting downloaded rather than purchased on disc. rolling stone and every other music publication has articles about this trend. i suspect that the billboard charts mean absolutely nothing any more. the only people actually buying CDs just don’t know how to work a computer. you’d assume they are either too old or too young to keep up with the technology and that’s why there are so many pop and country acts at billboard. i’d love to see someone compare the top sellers on itunes to billboard and see what’s really getting play in the world.
Of course the record companies will blame the low sales on filesharing, rather than the fact that they have totally lost touch with consumers..who want good music, not crap.
I have never understood the success of these ‘now’ comps. Who actually needs a hard copy of these songs? Middle-aged ad execs trying to get in touch with the ‘youth culture’?