CD Sales Tracking - Charting the Waters II

[ACcountryFan]

I should've been more specific...Strait's single had been climbing the Top-40 country chart for several weeks but it stalled at #11 two weeks ago...last week it was still #11...but this week the single moved up to #9. This is the single's 11th week on the Top-40 chart...and it reaching #9 on it's 11th chart week is pretty good.

Doing the math, that means that on Strait's 9th chart week, the single hit #11...then during it's 10th week on the chart, it stayed at #11 for a second week, then on it's 11th week on the Top-40, it's at #9. Is all of this confusing?

The bottom line is, the #9 ranking makes this the 76th single to reach the Top-10 for George Strait

[geraldine]

Jerry it's not confusing now.  As a matter of fact I think it helped me to understand how the Top-10 lists on the charts work now.

Wow, that is a lot of singles he has had during his career!
Thanks for explaining it.

[ACcountryFan]

Underwood Leads Three Country Debuts Onto Chart

October 31, 2007, 11:15 AM ET

Katie Hasty, N.Y.

In a Billboard 200 first, three country debuts occupy the Nos. 1-3 slots on the chart, led by Carrie Underwood's "Carnival Ride." The 19 Recordings/Arista Nashville set sold 527,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, earning the artist her first No. 1.

The total is a much better sum than the 315,000 that greeted her No. 2 2005 debut "Some Hearts." It's also the best sales week for a female solo country artist since Shania Twain's "Greatest Hits" started with 530,000 in November 2004.

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss' "Raising Sand" (Rounder) opens at No. 2, selling 112,000. It's the highest charting album for both as solo artists and Krauss' first time in the top 10.

Country singer Gary Allan's MCA Nashville set "Living Hard" enters at No. 3 with 69,000. It's not his first trip into the top five this year, however: his "Greatest Hits" debuted at No. 5 in March. "Tough All Over," his album from 2005, also achieved a No. 3 entry.

BILLBOARD

Underwood's CD has hit GOLD status it's first week in stores Already over 500,000 copies. I am not surprised by this because her lead-off single, "So Small", has been played and played and played on country radio.

George Strait's single is up to #6...it was at #9 last week.

AMAZON RANKING: 11-1-07
1. ATDW: #7,333

[geraldine]

Jerry ~ Thanks for the update on the Billboard Chart.  I tend to forget about that.

Clay will bring up those numbers I'm sure when he begins his Christmas tour.

[ACcountryFan]

AMAZON RANKINGS: 11-6-07
1. ATDW: #3,282

[geraldine]

Jerry ~ Good to see those numbers jump so much

[lolita]

I haven't been here in a long while...

Thanks for the numbers AC.

[ACcountryFan]

Interesting news about the Billboard music chart's new policy regarding album sales...

Revised Chart Policy Lands Eagles At No. 1

November 06, 2007, 8:30 PM ET

Mitchell Peters, L.A.

The Eagles' first new studio album in 28 years, "Long Road Out of Eden," takes a short route to No. 1 on The Billboard 200 after Billboard revised a significant chart policy today (Nov. 7).

In consultation with Nielsen SoundScan, Billboard will now allow exclusive album titles that are only available through one retailer to appear on The Billboard 200 and other charts, effective with this week's charts. Prior to this, proprietary titles were not eligible to appear on most Billboard charts.

Early SoundScan numbers have the Eagles taking the top perch on The Billboard 200 with 711,000 copies sold, with most sales moved by Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores. For now, the only other U.S. outlets carrying "Eden" are walmart.com, where both physical copies and downloads are sold, and the Eagles' own Web site.

"Eden" became available at the mass-market chain Oct. 30. Aside from two compilations, this is the Eagles' first album since the mostly live "Hell Freezes Over," which led The Billboard 200 for two weeks in 1994.

Britney Spears' new Jive album, "Blackout," which would have been No. 1 had the Eagles' data not been reported, will open at No. 2 with first-week sales of 290,000 copies.

"We know that some retailers will be uncomfortable with this policy, but it was inevitable that Billboard's charts would ultimately widen the parameters to reflect changes that are unfolding in music distribution," says Geoff Mayfield, Billboard's director of charts. "We would have preferred to make this decision earlier, but only became aware within the last 24 hours that Wal-Mart would be willing to share the data for this title with Nielsen SoundScan."

The revised policy initially impacts The Billboard 200 and Top Country Albums, where "Eden" will also bow at No. 1. Criteria for the remainder of Billboard's albums charts will be formulated later this week. A handful of other titles will debut this week on The Billboard 200 as a consequence of the policy revision.

Previously, titles that were not generally available at retail were not eligible to appear on The Billboard 200, but were entitled to chart on Billboard's Top Comprehensive Albums, which includes catalog titles and proprietary albums from retailers willing to report those sales.

The comprehensive chart will continue to appear on Billboard.biz, to show how catalog titles compete with the overall market. However, once parameters for the remainder of the album charts are determined, Top Comprehensive Music Videos will be discontinued, as exclusive titles will then be eligible for the Nielsen SoundScan-fed Top Music Videos.

BILLBOARD

[ACcountryFan]

George Strait's "It Just Comes Natural," which was co-produced by Tony Brown and Strait, was named the CMA Album of The Year. It was Strait's sixth win in the category and 18th CMA Award overall. "It's unbelievable to still be here," he said backstage. "When I walk on stage I still love it much as I ever did. The whole process of putting together a record is still fun for us."

Songwriters Bill Anderson, Buddy Cannon and Jamey Johnson won Song of the Year honors for Strait's "Give It Away, a song about divorce that spent two weeks at No. 1 in the fall of 2006

George took home the Album of the Year award at last night's CMA's. IT JUST COMES NATURAL contains four Top-10 hits for George: "Give It Away", "It Just Comes Natural", "Wrapped", and "How 'Bout Them Cowgirls". His hit from late last year, "Give It Away", won Song of the Year last night. That award goes to the songwriters...Bill Anderson being one of the songwriter's. Bill is also a singer and because of that his reputation and role in the writing of the song gets more emphasis over the other two, who are just writers and not singers themselves.

Hank Thompson, who i posted about on the OCD a couple of days ago, died yesterday. He was 82. He had a string of hit songs that ran virtually uninterrupted from 1948 through 1980.

[ACcountryFan]

AMAZON RANKING: 11-9-07
1. ATDW: #5,180

[ACcountryFan]

11-15-07
1. ATDW: #1,440

[geraldine]

What a jump in the numbers
Thanks Jerry

[Sasha]

Jerry good jump in the numbers.   I was in Target the other day didnt see one of CLays cd.  they didnt have any Christmas cds which I thought was odd.  I did check hits daily double, i noticed ALica Keys sold 723,125........



Sasha

[ACcountryFan]

When i was in Wal*Mart this morning they had a rack full of his holiday CD...which is what i'm going to start tracking now...

AMAZON RANKING: 11-23-07
1. MCWL: #1,038

[ACcountryFan]

AMAZON SALES RANK: 12-2-07
1. MCWL: #456 overall; #17 in the category Teen Pop

[lolita]

Great numbers AC, thanks...

[fhmmany2]

  For MCWL!

[geraldine]

Those numbers are great.  GO CLAY!
Thanks Jerry for posting such good news.

[ACcountryFan]

AMAZON SALES RANK: 12-7-07
1. MCWL: #624; #20- Teen Pop

George Strait: "How 'Bout Them Cowgirls", #5, down from #4 on the Country Singles chart. It will no doubt start to fall back down the charts since it inched up to #4 last week. A good chart ride for the single given how critics felt that it wasn't "radio friendly" back when the single was released several months ago...plus it being a ballad, well over 4 minutes, caused the slow chart rise in hindsight.

[geraldine]

Jerry ~ The numbers are not bad for MCWL.
I was just wondering about that today since it is the Christmas Holidays.

George Straight has been such a favortie with the fans, especially on the charts.  I don't any of his cds have not done well.  Thanks for the update!