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Jay-Z’s First-Week Sales: Not Quite Eminem-Level, But Not Bad By Any Stretch

Maura — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:45:42 +0000

Unsurprisingly, Jay-Z’s Blueprint 3 debuted atop today’s Billboard 200, thanks to sales of 476,000 copies in the time that elapsed between its release last Tuesday and Sunday night. But how did Jay’s first-week numbers fare in the more rarefied arena of No. 1 debuts? I crunched a few numbers to figure out just how all of the albums that topped the charts in their first week of sales fared, and came away slightly surprised!

It wasn’t surprising that Eminem’s first-week numbers for Relapse were the best posted by a debuting album all year, but I was a bit taken aback by the fact that a little rock band called U2 beat Jay out by a slim margin:

1. Eminem, Relapse (608,000, June 6)
2. U2, No Line On The Horizon (484,000, March 14)
3. Jay-Z, The Blueprint III (476,000, Sept. 26)
4. Dave Matthews Band, Big Whiskey And The GrooGrux King (424,000, June 20)
5. Rascal Flatts, Unstoppable (351,000, April 25)
6. Maxwell, BLACKsummer’snight (316,000, July 25)
7. Whitney Houston, I Look To You (305,000, Sept. 19)
8. Black Eyed Peas, The E.N.D. (304,000, June 27)
9. Daughtry, Leave This Town (269,000, Aug. 1)
10. Kelly Clarkson, All I Ever Wanted (255,000, March 28)
11. Jonas Brothers, Lines, Vines, And Trying Times (247,000, July 4)
12. Bruce Springsteen, Working On A Dream (224,000, Feb. 14)
13. Green Day, 21st Century Breakdown (215,000, May 30)
14. The Fray (179,000, Feb. 21)
15. Keith Urban, Defying Gravity (171,000, April 18)
16. Rick Ross, Deeper Than Rap (158,000, May 9)
17. George Strait, Twang (155,000, Aug. 29)
18. Now 30 (146,000, April 11)
19. Bob Dylan, Together Through Life (125,000, May 16)
20. Demi Lovato, Here We Go Again (108,000, Aug. 8)
21. Colbie Caillat, Breakthrough (106,000, Sept. 12)
22. Fabolous, Loso’s Way (99,000, Aug. 15)
23. Reba McEntire, Keep On Loving You (96,000, Sept. 5)
24. Chrisette Michele, Epiphany (83,000, May 23)
25. Sugarland, Live On the Inside (75,000, Aug. 22)

Maybe it’s just that the expectations for U2′s album were a lot higher than those for Blueprint 3—recall that last week, early estimates had Jay’s first-week sales somewhere around the 300k mark—but the reaction when the numbers finally came out was very different than the semi-triumphant reception this week’s numbers are getting, no? I guess the summer was really that bad for the biz…

Beatles, Jay-Z Dominate Album Charts [Billboard]

Sales Don’t Lie: People Really Like Buying Shakira Songs

Maura — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:30:14 +0000

A blogger at Yahoo! has a list claiming to count down the world’s 20 biggest-selling singles released after 2000, all of which have topped the five-million-sold mark around the globe. The surprising thing about the list, aside from Shakira’s dominance (songs by the hip-shaking Colombian singer take up 20% of the list), is how many recent songs are on it; from the last 18 months alone, you have Britney Spears’ “Womanizer,” Katy Perry’s “I Kissed A Girl,” Lady GaGa’s “Just Dance,” and Pink’s “So What.” Sure, the ruling of later-decade singles can probably be chalked up in part to the rise of iTunes as the single-serving store of choice, but I really thought that “So What” would at least have taken a backseat to “Umbrella,” sales-wise. Full list after the jump.

1. Hips Don’t Lie (featuring Wyclef Jean) – Shakira
2. Crazy In Love (featuring Jay-Z) – Beyonce
3. My Humps – Black Eyed Peas
4. Toxic – Britney Spears
5. Womanizer – Britney Spears
6. Oops!… I Did It Again – Britney Spears
7. Stan – Eminem
8. Low – Flo Rida
9. Boulevard Of Broken Dreams – Green Day
10. I Kissed A Girl – Katy Perry
11. Just Dance (featuring Colby O’Donis) – Lady Gaga
12. Bleeding Love – Leona Lewis
13. Hung Up – Madonna
14. We Belong Together – Mariah Carey
15. So What – Pink
16. Umbrella (featuring Jay-Z) – Rihanna
17. Whenever, Wherever – Shakira
18. Underneath Your Clothes – Shakira
19. La Tortura – Shakira
20. Can’t Get You Out Of My Head – Kylie Minogue

Biggest Selling Singles Since The Year 2000 [The Y! Music Playlist Blog]

Grizzly Bear’s Nice Pricing Pays Off

Maura — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:00:02 +0000

I haven’t reported much on the album charts lately, because, frankly, “another sucky week of sucky sales” isn’t really news, and really there needs to be a move toward a better way of gauging popular interest in music, if only because actually going out to buy an album is an experience that fewer and fewer people are even able to engage in, let along want to. But the news that Grizzly Bear’s much-hyped, long-ago-leaked Veckatimest had landed in the top 10 this week is notable, if only because of a note buried in this week’s Billboard story running down the mag’s top albums:

Indie rock band Grizzly Bear is having its best week ever as its third full-length studio set, “Veckatimest,” arrives at No. 8 with 33,000. That’s the first album to chart on the Billboard 200 for the Massachusetts band and it also gives the quartet its best sales week. 40% of its sales came from downloads while another 24% were shifted at independent and small chain stores.

So, 40% of its sales–roughly 13,000 of them–came from downloads… and conveniently, Veckatimest was a mere $3.99 at Amazon MP3 last week. Now, the Top Digital Albums chart doesn’t break out data by store, and as anyone who glances at the Internet knows, the album was given kudos in almost every quarter of the Internet that fancies itself a place where “important” music gets discussed. But given that similarly lauded bands have seen monetary resistance to their recorded efforts, isn’t Amazon’s low price point at least worth noting? Especially as people figure out how to finance records that, like Veckatimest, took a notable effort to put together, that probably won’t be on the ever-shrinking music-centric shelves at Wal-Mart (although hey, if it is, kudos to whatever distributor hooked that up), and that can’t be paid for by just simply “making it back on the road”?

Eminem Stays Atop Billboard 200; Grizzly Bear, Manson Debut Top 10 [Billboard]

Yep, Lots Of People Will Get The Taylor Swift Album For Christmas This Year

Maura — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 12:30:00 +0000

Taylor Swift’s Fearless moved back into the top spot on the album charts this week, thanks to a 29% sales gain that brought the album’s one-week sales totals just shy of the 250,000-sold mark. And the eagle-eyed folks at the trade mag Hits, who have access to one-day sales figures from various retailers around the nation, are projecting that the next chart week will be even better for the album, with sales somewhere between 330,000 and 350,000 copies. After the disappointing Black Friday numbers for Chinese Democracy and 808s And Heartbreak, I engaged in a little bit of prediction as far as what albums would get big sales boosts from the run-up to the gift-giving season. So, how am I doing, keeping in mind that sales overall were down 14.4% compared to last year and 45% from this period in 2006?

1. Taylor Swift, Fearless: As noted, its momentum is unstoppable.
2. Coldplay, Viva La Vida: Up 15% from the previous week, with 35,000 sales (No. 41).
3. Pink, Funhouse: Up 32% from its previous week, with 61,000 sales (No. 19).
4. Jonas Brothers, Jonas Brothers / A Little Bit Longer / Camp Rock soundtrack: Up 25% (19,000 sold, No. 64); up 32% (59,000 sold, No. 22); up 25% (25,000 sold, No. 54).
5. David Archuleta: Up 6% (59,000 sold, No. 21).

Hey, do I know what people want to give for the holidays or what? Other big gainers included Miley Cyrus’ Breakout (No. 20, 60,000 copies sold), AC/DC’s Black Ice (No. 8, 110,000 copies sold), and Rascal Flatts’ new greatest-hits collection (No. 23, 53,000 sold). Also of note is that in its third week on the chart, Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak only stumbled about 10%, remaining in the top 10 for a third week (No. 6, 127,000 sold)—that’s a far cry from the fate of its Black Friday competitor, Chinese Democracy, which is skidding down the charts and nearly dropped out of the top 30 this week (No. 29, 47,000 sold). I wonder if Best Buy’s way of dealing with “rapid” and “seismic” sales losses from the past six weeks will result in any deep discounting of the album?

Taylor Swift flies high on chart as sales slide [Reuters]

The Top Five Albums That Are Going To Be Given As Holiday Gifts This Year: An Unscientific Survey

Maura — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 07:00:00 +0000

Sure, Black Friday was a disappointing day for artists who had new releases out, but a little bit of digging into SoundScan shows that the numbers weren’t all bad. Taylor Swift, for example, had quite the banner week; her new album Fearless experienced a rare third-week upswing, one that was so dramatic, she nabbed the No. 2 spot on the chart, ahead of Chinese Democracy—and her old album surged back into the Top 30, too. There were many other artists whose albums’ sales tallies improved from the prior week, no doubt thanks to some people out there still being OK with the prospect of holiday shopping. (Not too many, but a few.) After the jump, a look at which albums actually performed well on the first-gift-giving-week’s chart, and the family members for whom they’re likely being snagged.

1. Taylor Swift, Fearless
THE NUMBERS: Up 23% in its third week on the chart, Fearless sold 267,000 copies during Black Friday week, or about 6,000 more units than Guns N’ Roses’ much-talked-about Chinese Democracy. And her two-year-old debut album was up 68% week-to-week as well, selling 40,000 copies and coming in at No. 29.
THE GIFTEE: Oh gosh, anyone, really. She’s adorable! And her sparkly guitar! OK, maybe those people who want Black Ice will balk at opening this. And so will the Jonas Brothers. But anyone else.

2. Coldplay, Viva La Vida
THE NUMBERS: Up 127% from the previous week, Viva sold 43,000 copies and vaulted to No. 25 (from No. 54). That’s no doubt thanks in part to the release of a deluxe edition that tacked on the Prospekt’s March EP—which sold 77,000 copies on its own and debuted at No. 15—but one can’t overestimate the broad appeal of Chris Martin & Co, and the fact that they’re one of the few rock bands left who actually have some sort of wide-spanning celebrity status.
THE GIFTEE: The cool aunt who has everything. (And who probably has this disc already, and will exchange it for a copy of the Killers’ Day & Age.)

3. Pink, Funhouse
THE NUMBERS: A 46% increase over the previous week gives Pink a reverse bullet (she slipped from No. 19 to No. 20 on the chart, despite seeing a sales increase of about 19,000 copies); her two performances on the American Music Awards telecast probably helped her show the album’s “serious” side to prospective buyers, since she eschewed the bratty “So What” for a wrenching performance of “Sober” and a duet with Sarah McLachlan on the tear-jerker “Angel.” (I’m kind of surprised that song isn’t available for purchase on iTunes yet, honestly—all the money could go to the ASPCA!)
THE GIFTEE: The awkward cousin who wears PETA t-shirts to family events.

4. Jonas Brothers, A Little Bit Longer; Jonas Brothers; Camp Rock soundtrack
THE NUMBERS: The mop-topped siblings’ new effort shot back into the Top 25 (43,000 sold, up 58%); the self-titled debut was up 94% (18,000 sold, No. 65); and the soundtrack to their Disney vehicle—which is just past the platinum mark—shot up 96% (23,000 sold, No. 53).
THE GIFTEE: The 12-year-old niece who seems excitable, but spends all of her time at family gatherings watching Disney On Demand.

5. David Archuleta
THE NUMBERS: Only off by about 300 copies in its third week on the chart (No. 19, 66,000 sold). Sure, David Cook’s self-titled album has already lapped his to-date total despite being out for seven fewer days, but c’mon, even I am starting to warm to the newest Osmond, and I could just see many a lady cooing over his just-about-to-sneeze face when they open their gifts.
THE GIFTEE: Your mom. (No, really.)

The Record Business Celebrates The Bad Kind Of Black Friday

Maura — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:00:18 +0000

If anyone in the music business was hoping that the one-two punch of a holiday weekend and big-name releases would magically convince people to pay for music one last time, they may want to pour themselves a stiff drink, or at least spike their morning latte: Billboard is reporting that the No. 1 album, Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak, sold 425,000-450,000 copies over the course of last week, while Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy woefully underperformed, moving between 250,000 and 260,000 copies during its first week on Best Buy’s shelves. And that’s not all: Depending on who you ask, overall music sales were down anywhere between 10% and 30% when compared with last year’s holiday weekend, although online numbers were OK. Meanwhile, a UK tabloid is claiming that bigwigs at Universal Music Group are blaming the soft landing of Chinese Democracy squarely on Axl, because he didn’t do enough press for the album. Even though it probably received more free press than any other record this year. Yeah, it couldn’t be that people currently see Guns N’ Roses as something of a novelty act, and that people who liked Appetite probably aren’t so into the new sound, and that even those people who wanted to give Axl a shot were a bit weirded out by the whole preserved-in-1999-amber feel of the final recorded product, could it?

Bosses at label Geffen are blaming unpredictable Axl for the disappointing sales after he went AWOL for two months before the release date.

Despite all the effort put into one of the most extravagant rock albums of all time, staff could not contact Axl to get him to promote his rock epic.

In fact, they failed to make contact with him from the day he delivered the final cut. …

An insider said: “Everyone knows Axl is a bit of a maverick genius and won’t do anything he doesn’t want to do.

“The label is really glad to have him back. But it is frustrating because the album would have had a much better chance of going to No1 if he had only been prepared to show his face.

“People have been trying to contact him for two months and he’s been completely AWOL.

“You would have thought after spending 15 years on an album you might do a few weeks promotion.”

Of course, this has to be taken with the usual Grain Of UK Tabloid Salt (approximate diameter: 12 inches), but you have to admit that the idea of Axl going into hiding immediately upon handing in his album, and only speaking through his lawyers when he wants to get pissy with carbonated-beverage manufacturers over their online coupons not working, doesn’t seem all that far-fetched.

Axl goes AWOL [The Sun]

Maura — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:45:00 +0000

First-week sales of Christina Aguilera’s Target-exclusive greatest-hits package Keeps Getting Better, which contains two new songs and two reworkings of old tracks: 73,000. Single-week sales of the title track, which also happens to be one of the two fresh entries on the album: 63,000 (it’s sold 479,000 copies to date). You have to wonder: At what point do these cash-in greatest-hits packages get to be, well, not worth the effort, even with the one-big-box-only deals? [Target]

Teenage Vampire Freaks Take A Bite Out Of AC/DC

Maura — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 03:30:00 +0000

This week’s No. 1 album: The soundtrack to the forthcoming vampire movie that I am apparently too unfeeling to understand Twilight, which sold 165,000 copies in its debut week on store shelves. The soundtrack, which features a couple of new songs by Paramore as well as tracks by Muse, Linkin Park, and Iron & Wine, was $3.99 at Amazon’s MP3 store for one day last week, which no doubt contributed to the 48,000 digital sales it racked up. In other fire-sale news, Maroon 5′s Songs About Jane–which was priced under $5 at the iTunes Store last week–moved 14,000 digital copies last week, placing it at No. 3 for the week on the online-only chart, just behind Hinder’s Take It To The Limit. See? Variable pricing can move records! Sort of. This week’s full top 20 (and digital-albums top 10) after the jump.

Top 20 Albums (sales totals in parentheses)
1. Twilight soundtrack (165,000)
2. AC/DC, Black Ice (160,000)
3. High School Musical 3: Senior Year soundtrack (110,000)
4. Hinder, Take It To The Limit (81,000)
5. Pink, Funhouse (73,000)
6. John Legend, Evolver (72,000)
7. T.I., Paper Trail (69,000)
8. Andrea Bocelli, Incanto (62,000)
9. Brad Paisley, Play (54,000)
10. Rascal Flatts, Vol. 1–Greatest Hits (39,000)
11. Q-Tip, The Renaissance (34,000)
12. Metallica, Death Magnetic (33,000)
13. Toby Keith, That Don’t Make Me A Bad Guy (32,000)
14. Kid Rock, Rock N’ Roll Jesus (30,000)
15. Kenny Chesney, Lucky Old Sun (29,000)
16. Jennifer Hudson (26,000)
17. Celine Dion, My Love: Essential Collection (26,000)
18. Ne-Yo, Year Of The Gentleman (25,000)
19. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III (24,000)
20. Yo-Yo Ma, Songs Of Joy And Peace (22,000)

Top 10 Digital Albums (sales totals in parentheses)
1. Twilight soundtrack (48,000)
2. Hinder, Take It To The Limit (14,000)
3. Maroon 5, Songs About Jane (14,000)
4. High School Musical 3: Senior Year soundtrack (12,000)
5. Q-Tip, The Renaissance (11,000)
6. Pink, Funhouse (11,000)
7. John Legend, Evolver (9,600)
8. Brad Paisley, Play (9,300)
9. T.I., Paper Trail (5,900)
10. Snow Patrol, A Hundred Million Suns (5,700)

Kenny Chesney Moves Down To A Deluxe Apartment

Maura — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 07:30:00 +0000

This week’s No. 1 album is Kenny Chesney’s bummed-out Lucky Old Sun, which sold 176,000 copies in its first week on shelves–not a bad number by current standards, although slightly off from his 387,000-copy first week total of last fall’s Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates. But as it turns out, the official release date for the album was yesterday, at least, if you’re going by the day on which the plain old, bell-and-whistle-free version of Sun hit stores. It’s a tactic that Sugarland employed earlier this year for the release of Love On The Inside, and to great effect: It came thisclose to outselling Miley Cyrus’ Breakout in its first week. But in these hard times, will people wait for the plain old edition to hit the shops, and cause Chesney to be the rare recipient of a second-week uptick in sales–if they buy it at all?

A look at how the two albums differ:

• The single-disc version of Lucky Old Sun has 11 tracks on it, including duets with Dave Matthews and Willie Nelson.
• The double-disc version has that 11-track CD as Disc 1; Disc 2 has four live tracks, two videos (one is of the video introduction to his tour), and “a chance to be one of two lucky winners of the ‘Kick it Off with Kenny’ contest, in which the winners will be flown to the opening of Kenny’s 2009 tour (date/location are pending).”

On Amazon, the price differential between these two editions is $2 ($9.99/$11.99); at Wal-Mart, it’s $2.16 ($9.72 / $11.88); on iTunes, it’s $4 ($9.99/$13.99). Could two or four dollars separate an impulse buy from something that’s worth an extra week’s wait? First-day projections haven’t come out yet, but I’m very interested to see if the economy has resulted in “deluxe editions” not being as sales-padding as they’ve been in the past–even if they beat the albums they’re blowing out to the marketplace.

Not that these sales will prevent Chesney from being pushed aside next week–AC/DC is apparently on track to sell 800,000-plus copies of the Wal-Mart-only Black Ice. But maybe people will throw Sun in their carts alongside it?

The 27 Albums On This Week’s Billboard 200 That Didn’t Experience A Week-To-Week Sales Drop

Maura — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 07:00:00 +0000

While reading over this week’s SoundScan, I noticed–among the thicket of debuts that included Disney’s “new Miley Cyrus” Demi Lovato, Kings Of Leon, TV On The Radio (No. 12!), and the Pussycat Dolls (who just managed to squeak into the top five)–that not many full-lengths that had been out for a while were gaining in sales from the previous week. The No. 1 album, Metallica’s Death Magnetic, held on despite a 61% drop from the previous sales week, while Ne-Yo’s Year Of The Gentleman only dropped from No. 2 to No. 3 on a 67% loss. And the numbers didn’t get much prettier from there. In fact, the first album on the chart to experience a week-to-week gain was all the way down at No. 46: M.I.A.’s Kala, which had a modest-in-any-other-week 6% bump. So I decided to figure out just how many non-debuting albums gained momentum during a week that was marked by a lot of chaos on the financial front, and a 6.8% week-to-week decline in overall sales, not to mention a 28.8% year-over-year drop. Those albums–which constitute a mere 13.5% of the chart–are listed, with their big-board placements and overall sales, after the jump.

1. M.I.A., Kala (No. 46; sold 11,000 copies, up 6%)
2. Los Pikadientes de Caborca, Vámonos Pa’l Río (No. 52; sold 9,800 copes, up 144%)
3. V/A, Sex And The City soundtrack (No. 53; sold 9,300 copies, up 305%)
4. MGMT, Oracular Spectacular (No. 60; sold 8,200 copies, up 24%)
5. Hollywood Undead, Swan Songs (No. 72; sold 7,000 copies, up 4%)
6. Shinedown, Sound Of Madness (No. 73; sold 7,000 copies, up 3%)
7. V/A, Idolos de Mexico Para el Mundo (No. 77; sold 6,600 copies, up 9%)
8. Rehab, Graffiti The World (No. 90; sold 5,800 copies, no change from last week)
9. Flobots, Fight With Tools (No. 92; sold 5,700 copies, up 4%)
10. Apocalyptica, Worlds Collide (No. 132; sold 4,500 copies, up 5%)
11. Ting Tings, We Started Nothing (No. 138; sold 4,300 copies, up 6%)
12. Danity Kane, Welcome To The Dollhouse (No. 139; sold 4,300 copies, up 22%)
13. Offspring, Rise & Fall, Rage & Grace (No. 142; sold 4,200 copies, up 2%)
14. Enrique Iglesias, 95/08 Exitos (No. 145; sold 4,100 copies, slight uptick from last week)
15. Fleet Foxes (No. 163; sold 3,500 copies, up 6% )
16. Vampire Weekend (No. 164; sold 3,500 copies, up 3%)
17. Across The Universe soundtrack (No. 167; sold 3,500 copies, up 20%)
18. Robert Plant/Alison Krauss, Raising Sand (No. 168; sold 3,500 copies, up 18%)
19. Radiohead, In Rainbows (No. 175; sold 3,400 copies, up 5%)
20. Santogold (No. 176; sold 3,300 copies, up 43%)
21. Sigur Ros, Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust (No. 184; sold 3,200 copies, up 28%)
22. Casting Crowns, The Altar & The Door (No. 185; sold 3,100 copies, up 11%)
23. Marco Antonio Solis, La Mejor Coleccion (No. 186; sold 3,100 copies, slight uptick)
24. V/A, Another Cinderella Story soudntrack (No. 190; sold 3,100 copies, up 27%)
25. Jesse McCartney, Departure (No. 193; sold 3,000 copies, up 5%)
26. Jim Brickman, Unspoken (No. 198; sold 2,900 copies, up 112%)
27. Ra, Black Sun (No. 199; sold 2,900 copies, up 93%)

And that’s it. Sadly, the album at No. 200–Ashanti’s The Declaration–didn’t join in the “ending things on a high note” party. (Note: This week also had 24 chart debuts.)

So what have we learned, as far as “ways to increase sales” go? Well, apparently being in a band that’s covered by our “Corporate Rock Still Sells” column helps–many of the albums above are by artists whose albums are firmly in the rock-radio camp–Rehab, Flobots, Offspring, Vampire Weekend. The Santogold uptick was likely helped in part by various ads featuring her songs getting a lot of airplay during NFL games. The Sex & The City push seems to be helped in part by the release of a (sigh) sequel to the soundtrack, which sold about 2,000 more copies than its predecessor and landed at No. 45. And as for Enrique Iglesias… who knows.

But mostly the lesson seems to be “start small, and let things build from there.” There isn’t one “blockbuster” album on the above list unless you count the Danity Kane album, which at this point is its own, hair-extension-covered, MTV-synergy-powered exception that proves the rule. Sure, things might bounce back overall for the music market next week–even if the stock market crashes, the new T.I. album is out!–but the suits at all labels, after looking at the above numbers, might want to cut back on their self-satisfied smiling for a bit.

Slipknot Find A Few Chads Hanging Out Under The Game’s Couch

Maura — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 06:45:00 +0000

When I saw the SoundScan charts this morning, I felt kind of bad for Slipknot. The masked metallers haven’t been having the best string of luck recently, and now their album All Hope Is Gone was narrowly beaten out for the top spot on the album tally by LAX, the new album from tormented name-dropper the Game. How small of a margin did they lose by, you ask? Try 13 sales. Well, apaprently I wasn’t the only one who felt bad about this: Slipknot, upon seeing this statistic, gathered up its brooding rage and did what any red-blooded American would do: They demanded a recount from the SoundScan folks. You can probably guess what happened next.

Yes, the SoundScan people found some 1,244 sales hiding within the bowels of their system, or maybe at a neglected Hot Topic somewhere in the ‘burbs, and that was enough to give Slipknot the one-week win over the Game. All Hope Is Gone‘s final sales total is 239,516 to LAX‘s un-revised 238,382; whether or not the Game is going to further appeal his own SoundScan total is unknown at this point, but surely he’s at least comforted by the fact that his first-week sales beat out those achieved by his former cronies in G-Unit earlier this summer.

Slipknot Edges The Game Atop Billboard 200 [Billboard]

Abba Takes It All (This Week, At Least)

Maura — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 05:00:00 +0000

Hands up, those of you who thought that the soundtrack to the big-screen adaptation of Mamma Mia!, starring Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, and Amanda Seyfried as people who just bust out into Abba songs at seemingly random intervals, would be this week’s top album. Anyone? No? Well, bully on you; the collection sold 131,000 copies, a 5% week-to-week drop that was enough to best both Miley Cyrus’ Breakout (102,000 sold) and Sugarland’s Love On The Inside (91,000 sold) for the top spot.

Biggest Debuts: The best-selling new album this week: Lessons In Love by Idolator favorite Lloyd, which moved 51,000 copies and entered at No. 7. Meanwhile, other-blogs favorite Conor Oberst bowed at No. 15 with his self-titled Merge Records debut, selling 29,000 copies. At No. 10 was country singer Heidi Newfield, whose solo debut What Am I Waiting For sold 34,000 copies; No. 12 belonged to another country artist, Keith Anderson, whose C’mon! moved 32,000 units.

Notable Jumps: M.I.A.’s Kala is finally starting to feel a lift from “Paper Planes” being featured in the trailer for Pineapple Express; sales saw a 32% week-to-week jump (11,000 copies), and the album leapt from No. 62 to No. 45 on the chart. Even more impressive is that some 7,200 copies off that total were off the digital version, which has been featured on iTunes’ front page in the run-up to the flick’s release. (Amazon had it for a buck-ninety-nine this week, and we’ll see the effects of that pricing on next week’s chart.)

Dropping Off: Sugarland’s Love On The Inside had its chart debut when the album’s “special edition” came out, and a second-week boost to No. 1 when the plain old CD came out. This week, though, it falls 47% from its sales mark last week (91,000 sold), tumbling from the top spot to No. 3.

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: I bet you didn’t know that the post-grunge outfit Trapt was around and still making records. But it is: Only Through The Pain (eesh, that title) debuted at No. 18, selling 25,000 copies. Hey, it’s better than Katy Perry, right?

This week’s top 20, with sales figures in parentheses:
1. Mamma Mia! soundtrack (131,000)
2. Miley Cyrus, Breakout (102,000)
3. Sugarland, Love On The Inside (91,000)
4. Kid Rock, Rock N Roll Jesus (90,000)
5. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III (67,000)
6. Coldplay, Viva La Vida (55,000)
7. Lloyd, Lessons In Love (51,000)
8. Camp Rock soundtrack (47,000)
9. Rihanna, Good Girl Gone Bad (44,000)
10. Heidi Newfield, What Am I Waiting For (34,000)
11. Jonas Brothers (32,000)
12. Keith Anderson, C’mon! (32,000)
13. Now 28 (30,000)
14. Kidz Bop 14 (30,000)
15. Conor Oberst (29,000)
16. Taylor Swift (28,000)
17. Nas (25,000)
18. Trapt, Only Through The Pain (25,000)
19. Third Day, Revelation (24,000)
20. Katy Perry, One Of The Boys (23,000)

The top 10 digital albums, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Mamma Mia! soundtrack (15,000)
2. Coldplay, Viva La Vida (13,000)
3. Conor Oberst (9,900)
4. Various Artists, Songs For Tibet (7,300)
5. M.I.A., Kala (7,200)
6. Miley Cyrus, Breakout (6,500)
7. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III (5,900)
8. Sugarland, Love On The Inside (5,600)
9. Trapt, Only Through The Pain (5,200)
10. Randy Newman, Harps & Angels (5,100)

Nas Doesn’t Need A Title To Wind Up On Top

Maura — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:00:00 +0000

Nas’ new album, which was stripped of its epithetastic title in the months leading up to its release, took the No. 1 spot on this week’s album charts, selling 187,000 copies in its first week out. The album, which leaked earlier this month, had a first-week total that was a little more than half of the 355,000-sold mark achieved by Hip-Hop Is Dead a year and a half ago. Nas is Nas’ fourth career No. 1.

Biggest Debuts: Fresh off waking me up with his soundcheck, John Mellencamp enters the chart at No. 7, selling 56,000 copies of Life Death Love & Freedom; right behind him is David Banner, whose Greatest Story Ever Told moved 52,000 copies. Taylor Swift sold 45,000 copies of her Wal-Mart-exclusive Beautiful Eyes to enter at No. 9. O.A.R., Randy Travis, and the soundtrack to The Dark Knight also had top-20 debuts.

Notable Jumps: Bolstered by its attached film debuting in theaters last week and attracting a lot of people not interested in seeing the latest Batman installment, the soundtrack to the movie version of Mamma Mia! enjoyed an 89% jump, leaping to No. 3–ahead of Coldplay!–and selling 91,000 copies.

Dropping Off: Beck’s Modern Guilt, last week’s No. 4, was off 66% week-to-week and dropped to No. 18 (29,000).

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: There’s nothing really inexplicable this week, although it should be noted that Kid Rock’s boasting about sales got more ammo this week, as sales for Rock N Roll Jesus were up 20% week-to-week; of course, that gain wasn’t enough to prevent the album from falling one spot to No. 6. (And really, the true durability test is going to come a year from now, when we see how many copies of this CD are in the used bins.)

The top 20 albums, with sales totals in parentheses (an asterisk indicates a debut):
1. Nas (187,000)^*
2. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III (105,000)
3. Mamma Mia! soundtrack (91,000)
4. Coldplay, Viva La Vida (90,000)
5. Camp Rock soundtrack (78,000)
6. Kid Rock, Rock N Roll Jesus (73,000)
7. John Mellencamp, Life Death Love & Freedom (56,000)^*
8. David Banner, Greatest Story Ever Told (52,000)^*
9. Taylor Swift, Beautiful Eyes (45,000)^*
10. Rihanna, Good Girl Gone Bad (41,000)
11. Now 28 (40,000)
12. Taylor Swift (35,000)
13. O.A.R, All Sides (33,000)^*
14. Randy Travis, Around The Bend (31,000)^*
15. Katy Perry, One Of The Boys (31,000)
16. Beck, Modern Guilt (29,000)
17. Disturbed, Indestructible (29,000)
18. Journey, Revelation (28,000)
19. Usher, Here I Stand (26,000)
20. The Dark Knight soundtrack (25,000)^*

The top 10 digital albums, sales totals in parentheses (an asterisk indicates a debut):
1. Nas (28,000)^*
2. Coldplay, Viva La Vida (23,000)
3. O.A.R., All Sides (17,000)
4. Mamma Mia! soundtrack (17,000)
5. The Dark Knight soundtrack (12,000)^*
6. Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Magic Tour Highlights (12,000)^*
7. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III (8,500)
8. John Mellencamp, Life Death Love & Freedom (6,900)^*
9. Beck, Modern Guilt (6,700)
10. Camp Rock soundtrack (6,400)

The Album Charts Are Starting To Feel A Little Comfortable

Maura — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 08:30:00 +0000

For another week, Lil Wayne and Coldplay make up the album charts’ 1-2 punch, with Tha Carter III taking the top spot (125,000 copies sold) and Coldplay serving as Wayne’s best men (113,000 sold). According to Hits, Nas’ untitled album is set to break this log jam next week, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

Biggest Debuts: Beck’s Modern Guilt became the latest entry on this year’s list of albums with first-week scans that were nearly equivalent to the number of words spilled about them before their release, selling 84,000 copies and debuting at No. 4. Meanwhile, the Abba-saluting soundtrack to Mamma Mia! sold 48,000 and entered the chart at No. 8, while the Willie Nelson/Wynton Marsalis collaboration Two Men With The Blues sold 22,000 copies and entered at No. 20, Willie’s highest Soundscan chart mark yet.

Notable Jumps: In a week where most of the sales tallies went from “off from last week” to “yikes,” Kid Rock’s Rock N’ Roll Jesus, no doubt aided by the no-single strategy for his Zevon-biting hit “All Summer Long,” provided an actual bright spot near the top of the charts; it was up 35% week-to-week, selling 61,000 copies and bumping up to No. 5.

Dropping Off: The latest album from 50 Cent and his remaining G-Unit disciples, Terminate On Sight, was down 66% week-to-week, dropping from No. 4 to No. 9 on sales of 36,000 copies. Ahh, nothing like some 50 Cent sales schadenfreude to brighten up an otherwise crummy week, eh?

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: Thanks to my being forced to sit through two 3 Doors Down songs pre-Home Run Derby on Tuesday night (as well as a personal desire to stay in a state of semi-denial about the staying power of Katy Bleaty Perry), I’m nominating them for this category. Their latest self-titled album sold 22,000 copies and bumped up its chart position from No. 21 to No. 19, despite taking a 6% week-to-week sales hit, and despite the at-least-memorable “Kryptonite” not being on the new album. I know that mainstream rock and my tastes have at least a little bit of a gulf between them, but man oh man.

The top 20 albums, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III (125,000)
2. Coldplay, Viva La Vida (113,000)
3. Camp Rock soundtrack (88,000)
4. Beck, Modern Guilt (84,000)
5. Kid Rock, Rock N’ Roll Jesus (61,000)
6. Now 28 (48,000)
7. Mamma Mia! soundtrack (48,000)
8. Rihanna, Good Girl Gone Bad (47,000)
9. G-Unit, Terminate On Sight (36,000)
10. John Mayer, Where The Light Is (34,000)
11. Usher, Here I Stand (33,000)
12. Katy Perry, One Of The Boys (32,000)
13. Disturbed, Indestructible (30,000)
14. Taylor Swift (29,000)
15. Leona Lewis, Spirit (27,000)
16. Three 6 Mafia, Last 2 Walk (24,000)
17. Plies, Definition Of Real (24,000)
18. Journey, Revelation (24,000)
19. 3 Doors Down (22,000)
20. Nelson/Marsalis, Two Men With The Blues(22,000)

The top 10 digital albums, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Beck, Modern Guilt (31,000)
2. Coldplay, Viva La Vida (29,000)
3. John Mayer, Where The Light Is (12,000)
4. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III (10,000)
5. Camp Rock soundtrack (7,300)
6. Katy Perry, One Of The Boys (6,200)
7. Maroon 5, Live From Le Cabaret (5,900)
8. Nelson/Marsalis, Two Men With The Blues (5,100)
9. Maine, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop (4,800)
10. Mamma Mia! soundtrack (4,600)

Coldplay Is Living The High Life

Maura — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 05:00:00 +0000

Coldplay’s Viva La Vida, Or Death And All His Friends sold 721,000 copies in its first week on store shelves, a tally that easily propelled them to No. 1 on this week’s album charts. And the band’s iTunes-forward sales strategy paid off online as well, with a whopping 288,000 virtual copies of the album being downloaded via legal means. (The band’s 2005 album X & Y also leapt into the digital-albums top 10, moving 6,200 copies; surely Amazon marking it down to $1.99 helped.) Viva La Vida‘s one-week virtual total more than doubles the previous record for one-week digital sales, which was held by Jack Johnson’s Sleep Through The Static; that album shifted 139,000 e-copies in its first week.

Biggest Debuts: Entering the charts at No. 3 was the soundtrack to the soon-to-be-sequeled Jonas Brothers vehicle Camp Rock, which sold 188,000 copies. Katy Perry came in at No. 9 with 47,000 copies of One Of The Boys, a sales total that might hint to her future home in the 99-cent bin. (Compare those numbers to those posted by her current hit, “I Kissed A Girl,” which is No. 1 on the digital tracks chart; it sold about 228,000 copies this week and is (sigh) near the million mark overall. Talk about the pop hits a cultural moment deserves.)

The Offspring sold 46,000 copies of their latest comeback album, Rise And Fall, Rage And Grace, and came in at No. 10, while Judas Priest’s double album about Nostradamus came in at a semi-predictable No. 11, selling 42,000 copies.

Notable Jumps: The cash-in reissue of Rihanna’s Good Girl Gone Bad sold 63,000 copies–a 930% jump that was good enough for a leap from No. 124 to No. 7. The album has sold 1.3 million copies to date, which seems like a small total given the omnipresence of “Umbrella” and “Don’t Stop The Music.” Good thing she’s got all those endorsements to back her up.

Dropping Off: Last week’s No. 1, Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III, took a 69% hit, but it only fell to No. 2 on the overall chart since a one-week sales total of 309,000 is still pretty good in this more-anemic-than-ever market. (Billboard noted that while the year-to-year decline was only 6.7%, the week-to-week decline was 10.6%, or about a million units.)

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: Kid Rock continues his Warren Zevon-assisted run back up the album chart, with Rock N Roll Jesus selling 28,000 copies and inching up to No. 16.

This week’s top 20, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Coldplay, Viva La Vida (721,000)
2. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III (309,000)
3. Camp Rock soundtrack (188,000)
4. Now 28 (81,000)
5. Plies, Definition Of Real (68,000)
6. Usher, Here I Stand (65,000)
7. Rihanna, Good Girl Gone Bad (63,000)
8. Disturbed, Indestructible (59,000)
9. Katy Perry, One Of The Boys (47,000)
10. The Offspring, Rise And Fall, Rage And Grace (46,000)
11. Judas Priest, Nostradamus (42,000)
12. Journey, Revelation (38,000)
13. Weezer (30,000)
14. 3 Doors Down (29,000)
15. Alanis Morrissette, Flavors Of Entanglement (29,000)
16. Kid Rock, Rock N’ Roll Jesus (29,000)
17. Leona Lewis, Spirit (28,000)
18. Duffy, Rockferry (28,000)
19. Taylor Swift (27,000)
20. N.E.R.D., Seeing Sounds (24,000)

The top 10 digital albums, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Coldplay, Viva La Vida (288,000)
2. Camp Rock soundtrack (38,000)
3. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III (27,000)
4. Katy Perry, One Of The Boys (16,000)
5. The Offspring, Rise And Fall, Rage And Grace (11,000)
6. Disturbed, Indestructible (7,200)
7. Alanis Morrissette, Flavors Of Entanglement (6,700)
8. Coldplay, X & Y (6,200)
9. Sex And The City soundtrack (6,200)
10. Weezer (5,900)

Lil Wayne Can Dry His Tattooed-On Tears

Maura — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 06:00:00 +0000

As previously noted, Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III blew into the No. 1 spot on this week’s album charts thanks to a sales total that just broke the million mark–a feat that isn’t all surprising given last week’s early-bird chart debut, but is still probably causing some chilling-since-2005 Champagne corks to get popped in the offices of Universal Music Group.

Biggest Debuts: It wasn’t right behind Carter, but Plies’ Definition Of Real did tally some impressive numbers, selling 215,000 copies and entering the chart at No. 2. Perhaps most notable about this feat was that Plies accomplished it by wearing himself around his neck:

Is it as bad as his smoking book from last year? I honestly can’t decide.

In other debut news, N*E*R*D sold 80,000 copies of its new album Seeing Sounds and debuted at No. 7; Alanis Morrissette’s Flavors Of Entanglement sold 70,000 copies and came in at No. 8; and 49,000 people decided that My Morning Jacket’s recorded output was as worthy of their money as the band’s live show, as Evil Urges entered at No. 9.

Notable Jumps: He may be holding his albums back from iTunes, but Kid Rock’s Rock And Roll Jesus is still selling, with a 25% jump this week (No. 19, 28,000) that puts it just on the edge of reaching the million-sold mark.

Dropping Off: Weezer’s latest play for the geeks was down 64% (No. 10, 46,000 sold), and the album that beat it out for No. 1 last week, Disturbed’s Indestructible, took a 60% hit (No. 4, 102,000 sold).

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: Speaking of albums that entered the charts a week ago, Journey’s Revelation took a mere 15% week-to-week hit, selling 89,000 copies and dipping from No. 5 to No. 6. Given that the Wal-Mart strategy worked even better for the Eagles and our Arnel Pineda/Steve Perry comparison posts have attracted more long tail traffic than pretty much anything else on the site (or I should say, anything that isn’t related to that Meg White impersonator who made her way around the Internet last fall), I shouldn’t be as surprised by this relatively small drop, but I guess “news that isn’t as bad as it should have been” is an anomaly for the music business these days.

Postscript: Alanis’ new album came in at No. 2 on the digital chart, selling just under 25,000 copies–or more than 35% of her overall sales total. The idea that Morrissette’s fans may be in the demographic sweet spot for ditching the physical and going for the digital copies of new releases was further borne out by another ’90s alt-rock star whose album hit physical and virtual shelves last week: Jakob Dylan, who came in at No. 24 on the big chart with 24,000 sales and entered the digital-albums chart at No. 9 with 8,500 copies sold. (By comparison, Tha Carter III topped the digital-albums chart with just about 100,000 sales (10% of its overall total), and Plies’ digital-album sales comprised just 2.8% of his overall sales total (6,100, No. 9).)

This week’s top 20 albums, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III (1,000,000)
2. Plies, Definition Of Real (215,000)
3. Now 28 (132,000)
4. Disturbed, Indestructible (102,000)
5. Usher, Here I Stand (101,000)
6. Journey, Revelation (89,000)
7. N*E*R*D, Seeing Sounds (80,000)
8. Alanis Morrissette, Flavors Of Entanglement (70,000)
9. My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges (49,000)
10. Weezer (46,000)
11. 3 Doors Down (38,000)
12. Sex And The City soundtrack (35,000)
13. Ashanti, Declaration (34,000)
14. Leona Lewis, Spirit (33,000)
15. Duffy, Rockferry (30,000)
16. Taylor Swift (30,000)
17. Frank Sinatra, Nothing But The Best (29,000)
18. Toby Keith, 35 Biggest Hits (29,000)
19. Kid Rock, Rock N Roll Jesus (28,000)
20. Mongomery Gentry, Back When I Knew It All (27,000)

This week’s top 10 digital albums, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III (100,000)
2. Alanis Morrissette, Flavors Of Entanglement (25,000)
3. N*E*R*D, Seeing Sounds (16,000)
4. My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges (15,000)
5. Disturbed, Indestructible (12,000)
6. Sex And The City soundtrack (10,000)
7. Weezer (8,900)
8. Jakob Dylan, Seeing Things (8,500)
9. Plies, Definition Of Real (6,100)
10. Usher, Here I Stand (5,300)

Disturbed Triumphs In The Fiery World Of “Now” Compilations And Dorky Weezer Fans

Maura — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 05:00:00 +0000

Disturbed’s Indestructible took this week’s top spot on the album charts, selling 253,000 copes in its first week and coming out atop a heap of debuts that included the latest Now cash-in comp, Weezer’s latest attempt to get money from the nerds who read Digg, and Jewel’s play for the country crowd. I just hope that there’s at least one person out there who bought Indestructible based on its cover alone, because really, that is something to behold.

Biggest Debuts: Now 28, which this time actually features songs that are still selling briskly on the Hot Digital Tracks chart (“Bleeding Love,” “Lollipop,” that dreary Natasha Bedingfield track) came in second on the big board, selling 185,000 copies. At No. 4 was the red self-titled album by Weezer, which sold 126,000 copies; No. 5 was Journey’s Arnel Pineda’d out Revelation, which was taken home by 105,000 Wal-Mart shoppers; No. 6 was Ashanti’s The Declaration, which sold 86,000 units; and No. 8 was Jewel’s country album Perfectly Clear, which moved 48,000 copies.

Also, debuting at No. 20 was something called Now Classic Rock, which features these hits that will never be erased from the modern consciousness:

1. Queen – We Will Rock You
2. Heart – Barracuda
3. George Thorogood & The Destroyers – Bad to the Bone
4. Rush – Spirit of the Radio
5. The Who – My Generation
6. Jimi Hendrix Experience – Fire
7. Boston – More Than a Feeling
8. Kansas – Carry on My Wayward Son
9. Styx – Renegade
10. Foreigner – Cold as Ice
11. Deep Purple – Smoke on the Water
12. Grand Funk Railroad – We’re an American Band
13. Mountain – Mississippi Queen
14. Creedence Clearwater Revival – Bad Moon Rising
15. Lynyrd Skynyrd – Sweet Home Alabama
16. Steve Miller Band – The Joker
17. David Bowie – Rebel Rebel
18. Cheap Trick – Surrender
19. Peter Frampton – Show Me the Way (live)
20. Kiss – Rock and Roll All Nite (live)

I’m not sure if its high chart placement is a sign of a weak market or a sign that these songs are just going to be the Rock Standards until long after I’m six feet underground.

Notable Jumps: Thanks to its sales-goosing reissue, Chris Brown’s Exclusive leapt from No. 56 to No. 10 on a 261% sales gain–that’s 36,000 albums sold.

Dropping Off: Last week’s No. 1, Usher’s Here I Stand, took a 67% hit–but only dropped from the top spot to No. 3.

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: The Sex And The City soundtrack took a not-bad 9% hit in its second week on shelves, despite a tracklisting that includes Fergie and freaking Morningwood. Well, if it means that some Black Eyed Peas fan will be turned on to Al Green, I guess it’s worth it. Even if he had to duet with Joss Stone to get a spot on the playlist.

The top 20 sellers, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Disturbed, Indestructible (253,000)
2. Now 28 (185,000)
3. Usher, Here I Stand (145,000)
4. Weezer (126,000)
5. Journey, Revelation (105,000)
6. Ashanti, The Declaration (86,000)
7. Sex And The City soundtrack (60,000)
8. Jewel, Perfectly Clear (48,000)
9. 3 Doors Down (45,000)
10. Chris Brown, Exclusive (36,000)
11. Leona Lewis, Spirit (33,000)
12. Duffy, Rockferry (31,000)
13. Mariah Carey, E=MC² (30,000)
14. Madonna, Hard Candy (27,000)
15. Taylor Swift (27,000)
16. Frank Sinatra, Nothing But The Best (27,000)
17. Death Cab For Cutie, Narrow Stairs (25,000)
18. Toby Keith, 35 Biggest Hits (24,000)
19. Bun B, II Trill (24,000)
20. Now Classic Rock (23,000)

The top 10 digital albums, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Weezer (41,000)
2. Disturbed, Indestructible (41,000)
3. Sex And The City soundtrack (19,000)
4. Usher, Here I Stand (9,900)
5. Death Cab For Cutie, Narrow Stairs (6,400)
6. Jewel, Perfectly Clear (6,300)
7. Radiohead, Best Of Radiohead (5,900)
8. Jason Mraz, We Sing We Dance We Steal Things (5,800)
9. Ashanti, The Declaration (5,800)
10. 3 Doors Down (5,600)

Usher Stands Tall, But Mariah Teeters Over Him

Maura — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 05:00:00 +0000

Usher’s Here I Stand was widely expected to take the top spot on this week’s albums chart, and it did. But its seemingly endless promotional blitz, which stretched from Dancing With The Stars to the morning shows and back to crazytown, resulted in 443,000 sales–a respectable total when you think about the fact that this week’s No. 10 album (Death Cab For Cutie’s Narrow Stairs didn’t even sell 10% of that figure, but just shy of the 463,000 first-week total for Mariah Carey’s E=MC². (I knew he should have brought the ice-cream truck to TRL!)

Biggest Debuts: At No. 2, yet way, way behind the Usher album, was the soundtrack to Sex And The City, which sold 66,000 copies to people who just had to acquire that crummy Fergie song legally. Al Green’s Lay It Down entered at No. 9, selling 34,000 copies, and further down the chart, Cyndi Lauper’s actually-quite-good foray into AutoTuned electro, Bring Ya To The Brink, sold 12,000 copies and debuted at No. 41.

Notable Jumps: Speaking of that Fergie song, did you know that The Dutchess just got reissued, because apparently 3.6 million record sales weren’t enough for the people at Universal? The reissue resulted in 15,000 new sales–good enough for a leap to No. 28 and a 131% overall jump in its 89th week on the chart, but it can’t help but seem kinda paltry when you think about it in the context of the album’s sales before it got its shiny new cover and Nelly collaboration. And when you think about the fact that the EP consisting of just the bonus tracks sold 11,000 copies of its own.

Dropping Off: Last week’s No. 1, the new self-titled album by 3 Doors Down, dipped 59%, selling 63,000 copies, and fell to No. 3.

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: Oh, come on. Like this would go to anyone but Fergie this week, given that “Labels Or Love” somehow manages to be 80x more annoying than the characters it’s attached at the expensively sheathed hip to. (Sure, Taylor Swift’s self-titled album has now been on the chart for 84 weeks, but how can you think of her success as “inexplicable”? She’s so cute!)

The top 20 albums, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Usher, Here I Stand (443,000)
2. Sex And The City soundtrack (66,000)
3. 3 Doors Down (63,000)
4. Bun B, II Trill (40,000)
5. Leona Lewis, Spirit (39,000)
6. Frank Sinatra, Nothing But The Best (37,000)
7. Duffy, Rockferry (36,000)
8. Mariah Carey, E=MC² (36,000)
9. Al Green, Lay It Down (34,000)
10. Death Cab For Cutie, Narrow Stairs (33,000)
11. Madonna, Hard Candy (32,000)
12. Taylor Swift (29,000)
13. Jason Mraz, We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things (27,000)
14. Toby Keith, 35 Biggest Hits (26,000)
15. Neil Diamond, Home Before Dark (25,000)
16. Julianne Hough (24,000)
17. Now 27 (20,000)
18. Flobots, Fight With Tools (19,000)
19. Carrie Underwood, Carnival Ride (19,000)
20. Kid Rock, Rock N Roll Jesus (18,000)

The top 10 digital albums, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Usher, Here I Stand (44,000)
2. Sex And The City soundtrack (27,000)
3. Fergie, Dutchess EP (11,000)
4. 3 Doors Down (10,000)
5. Death Cab For Cutie, Narrow Stairs (9,600)
6. Jason Mraz, We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things (7,500)
7. Duffy, Rockferry (6,600)
8. Al Green, Lay It Down (5,800)
9. Cyndi Lauper, Bring Ya To The Brink (4,800)
10. Juno sountrack (4,700)

Death Cab For Cutie’s No. 1 Album Inspires Lots Of Stair-Related Metaphors

Maura — Wed, 21 May 2008 07:00:00 +0000

Last week, Death Cab For Cutie’s Narrow Stairs was the only album to break the six-figures-sold mark, moving 144,000 copies and topping the SoundScan charts for the week. Some 55,000 of those sales came through digital outlets, enough for Stairs to top this week’s digital-albums chart and make it the 16th-highest-selling digital album of the year.

Biggest Debuts: Warner Music Group’s recent 360-deal signee Frank Sinatra scored a No. 2 debut with his latest greatest-hits collection, Nothing But The Best (99,000 copies sold). Meanwhile, the money Jason Mraz saved on his album cover can go straight back into his pocket, maybe, as his new album We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things entered the charts at No. 3 with 73,000 copies sold. (Actually, maybe that budget-cutting technique was a smart thing.) And Lulu-in-training Duffy’s debut album, Rockferry, came in at No. 4, selling 71,000 copies.

Notable Jumps: A weak week meant not a lot of upward mobility on the chart, and the 7% jump in sales for Kid Rock’s Rock & Roll Jesus resulted in the album jumping 16 spots on the chart (No. 31, 15,000 sold). Oh, and confusing Simon Cowell on last week’s American Idol sort of paid off for Fantasia–her self-titled album saw a 27% bump, but that only meant that its sales were in the mid-three-digit range instead of the lower-three.

Dropping Off: Who didn’t drop off this week? The No. 20 album, Jack Johnson’s Sleep Through The Static, didn’t even scrape the 20,000-sold mark. Last week’s No. 1, Neil Diamond’s Home Before Dark, had a 63% dip (No. 7, 53,000); Gavin DeGraw’s self-titled album plunged 67% (No. 15, 21,000).

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: Well, hm. Ol’ Blue Eyes seems to be holding up pretty well, doesn’t he? Honestly, the numbers this week are so bleak–we’re treading pretty close the point where the total number of albums sold in a week won’t even break the double-platinum mark, people–I can’t even make an Alvin & The Chipmunks joke (No. 22, 18,000 sold, down 16% week to week).

The top 20 albums, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Death Cab For Cutie, Narrow Stairs (144,000)
2. Frank Sinatra, Nothing But The Best (99,000)
3. Jason Mraz, We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things (73,000)
4. Duffy, Rockferry (71,000)
5. Leona Lewis, Spirit (62,000)
6. Mariah Carey, E=MC² (59,000)
7. Neil Diamond, Home Before Dark (53,000)
8. Madonna, Hard Candy (53,000)
9. Toby Keith, 35 Biggest Hits (41,000)
10. Keith Sweat, Just Me(37,000)
11. Taylor Swift (30,000)
12. 10 Years, Division (28,000)
13. Now 28 (23,000)
14. Dierks Bentley, Greatest Hits: Every Mile A Memory (22,000)
15. Gavin DeGraw (21,000)
16. Josh Groban, Awake Live (21,000)
17. Lyfe Jennings, Lyfe Change (21,000)
18. Clay Aiken, On My Way Here (21,000)
19. Juno soundtrack (20,000)
20. Jack Johnson, Sleep Through The Static (20,000)

The top 10 digital albums, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Death Cab For Cutie, Narrow Stairs (55,000)
2. Jason Mraz, We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things (24,000)
3. Duffy, Rockferry (17,000)
4. Frank Sinatra, Nothing But The Best (10,000)
5. Chronicles Of Narnia soundtrack (8,300)
6. Madonna, Hard Cady (7,200)
7. Gavin DeGraw (5,900)
8. Juno soundtrack (5,800)
9. Leona Lewis, Spirit (4,600)
10. P.S. I Love You soundtrack (4,400)

Neil Diamond Finds Temporary Shelter Atop The Album Charts

Maura — Wed, 14 May 2008 05:30:00 +0000

The Rick Rubin-produced Neil Diamond album Home Before Dark took the top spot on this week’s album chart, selling 146,000 copies and easily outpacing its competition. Home is somehow the first No. 1 album of Diamond’s career, which is probably more a testament to the wacky way the album charts were calibrated back in the day than it is to the fact that he’s been reaching out to the MySpace generation.

Biggest Debuts: In addition to Diamond’s top-selling bow, the top 10 had six debuts: Toby Keith’s 35 Biggest Hits (No. 2, 103,000 sold), Clay Aiken’s On My Way Here (No. 4, 94,000), Gavin DeGraw (No. 7, 66,000); a Josh Groban live album (No. 8, 58,000); Dierks Bentley’s greatest-hits collection (No. 9, 43,000); and Luis Miguel’s Complices (No. 10, 32,000).

Notable Jumps: Thanks to their appearance on last week’s American Idol results show, Maroon 5′s It Won’t Be Soon Before This Album Recoups The Ridiculous Amount Of Money Universal Poured Into It (We Hope) enjoyed a 62% bounce, selling 13,000 copies and jumping to No. 58. Likewise, Rascal Flatts, who appeared in the audience on Idol and “treated” the Dancing With The Stars audience to their godawful tunes, shot up 82%, selling 17,000 copies and leaping to No. 37.

Dropping Off: Last week’s No. 1, Madonna’s Hard Candy, failed to break the six-figure mark in its second week on the chart; its sales were down 66% for a total of 94,000, and they were only ahead of On My Way Here‘s numbers by about 70 units or so. Pandering: It doesn’t always work out of the gate!

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: They haven’t proven their long-term durability yet, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t note that Scream by the inexplicably popular Tokio Hotel sold 16,000 copies in its first week on shelves and entered the chart at No. 39. While that sales total may not seem impressive even in these low-selling times, given that they’re pretty much an Internet sensation at this point, you can’t deny that 16,000 sales is a much larger total than that notched by your average blog band. (And I include both Mika and Robyn in that list.)

The top 20, with last week’s sales totals in parentheses:
1. Neil Diamond, Home Before Dark (146,000)
2. Toby Keith, 35 Biggest Hits (103,000)
3. Madonna, Hard Candy (94,000)
4. Clay Aiken, On My Way Here (94,000)
5. Mariah Carey, E=MC² (87,000)
6. Leona Lewis, Spirit (76,000)
7. Gavin DeGraw (66,000)
8. Josh Groban, Awake Live (58,000)
9. Dierks Bentley, Greatest Hits: Every Mile A Memory (43,000)
10. Luis Miguel, Complices (32,000)
11. Taylor Swift (32,000)
12. Lyfe Jennings, Lyfe Change (32,000)
13. Now 27 (29,000)
14. George Strait, Troubadour (29,000)
15. Jack Johnson, Sleep Through The Static (26,000)
16. Tye Tribbett, Stand Out (26,000)
17. Juno soundtrack (24,000)
18. Jordin Sparks (24,000)
19. Colbie Caillat, Coco (24,000)
20. Tim McGraw, Greatest Hits 1 & 2 (23,000)

The top 10 digital albums, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Gavin DeGraw (23,000)
2. Madonna, Hard Candy (13,000)
3. Clay Aiken, On My Way Here (6,700)
4. Leona Lewis, Spirit (6,200)
5. Neil Diamond, Home Before Dark (6,100)
6. Juno soundtrack (5,900)
7. Dierks Bentley, Greatest Hits: Every Mile A Memory (5,100)
8. The Roots, Rising Down (4,700)
9. P.S. I Love You soundtrack (4,300)
10. Mariah Carey, E=MC² (4,200)