Billboard 200: 11/13/10: Taylor Swift #1 1.04 Mil

I'm sure we'll get there, since we still have 9 weeks left (including 6 big weeks).

Nicely done Taylor!

^Thank you!

Is America "Gleed" out?

7 GLEE CAST ROCKY HORROR GLEE 31,026 -35% 47,561 78,610

It sold more than the combined total of albums #2 all the way to #62. :'(

But also, it has to do with the fact that the only other notable new release this week was that Michael Buble EP, there would've likely been many more new releases had there not been the fear of competition of T-Swift

Congratulations to Taylor!

Country sales:

LW TW Artist Album Sales TW Sales Total

NEW 1 Taylor Swift Speak Now 1,046,718 1,046,740
1 2 Sugarland The Incredible Machine 88,575 297,408
10 9 Darius Rucker Charleston, SC 1966 27,192 164,803
15 11 The Band Perry The Band Perry 23,370 101,099
13 12 Kenny Chesney Hemingway's Whiskey 23,309 338,090
14 13 Zac Brown Band You Get What You Give 22,097 348,499
21 22 Toby Keith Bullets in the Gun 17,683 138,510
28 25 Lady Antebellum Need You Now 16,983 2,716,217
47 33 Miranda Lambert Revolution 10,236 907,723
33 36 Jamey Johnson The Guitar Song 9,846 165,595
63 37 Taylor Swift Fearless 9,638 6,049,843
40 38 Billy Currington Enjoy Yourself 9,603 115,384
34 41 Lady Antebellum Merry Little Christmas 9,205 38,395
49 46 Zac Brown Band The Foundation 8,857 2,327,885
66 51 Carrie Underwood Play On 8,216 1,775,731
NEW 66 Various Country Strong 6,234 6,245
92 68 Various Now Country V3 6,080 58,768
85 74 Eric Church Carolina 5,346 297,566
83 76 Trace Adkins The Definitive Hits 5,197 16,862
90 85 Trace Adkins Cowboy's Back In Town 4,798 143,179
87 91 Jerrod Niemann Judge Jerrod/Hung Jury 4,549 152,874
126 109 Easton Corbin Easton Corbin 3,812 262,810
168 145 Dierks Bentley Up On The Ridge 2,936 164,118
191 180 Chris Young Man I Want To Be 2,415 370,555
180 181 George Strait Twang 2,388 621,456

www.roughstock.com/blog/taylor-swift-owned-41-of-us-sales-market-last-week

Week Ending Oct. 31, 2010: A Cool Million For Swift
Posted Wed Nov 3, 2010 9:58am PDT by Paul Grein in Chart Watch
Shareretweet

Taylor Swift's Speak Now sold 1,047,000 copies in its first week. That's the biggest one-week sales tally in more than 5-1/2 years, since 50 Cent's The Massacre sold 1,141,000 copies in its first week in March 2005.

Speak Now registered the second biggest one-week tally in the Nielsen/SoundScan era for an album by a female solo artist. It trails Britney Spears' Oops!...I Did It Again, which sold 1,319,000 copies in its first week in May 2000. Speak Now also posted the second biggest one-week tally for a country album. It trails Garth Brooks' Double Live, which sold 1,085,000 copies in its first week in November 1998.

Speak Now set a new record for the biggest one-week sales tally for an album by a female country artist. The old record was held by Shania Twain's Up!, which sold 874,000 copies in its first week in November 2002.

This is by far Swift's biggest sales week to date. Fearless opened with sales of 592,000 copies in November 2008. Taylor Swift started with sales of 39,000 in October 2006. Fearless took three weeks to top the 1 million mark in sales. Taylor Swift took 38 weeks.

After just one week of sales, Speak Now is already the eighth best-selling album so far this year. It sold more copies in one week than Ke$ha's Animal (993K) and Lil Wayne's Rebirth (683K) have sold all year.

Since Nielsen/SoundScan began tracking sales for Billboard in 1991, only 13 albums have sold more copies in any one week. Swift's strong showing is all the more impressive because the environment for album sales is much worse than it was a decade ago, when many of these other albums were released.

What do this week's chart results tell us about the vitality of the music industry? There are two ways to look at it. On the plus side, all the pundits who have pronouncing the album dead for the past few years will be forced to admit that phenomenal sales are still possible. On the down side, Swift's album sold more copies than the next 61 albums on this week's Billboard 200 combined. (That may be the most depressing sentence I have ever written.)
The sales total for Speak Now includes 278,000 digital copies. Only one album has ever sold more digital copies in one week. Coldplay's Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends sold 288,000 digital copies upon its release in June 2008. This of course means that Speak Now sets a new one-week digital sales record for an album by a female artist and for an album by a country artist. Who held these records previously? Swift, with Fearless, which sold 129,000 digital copies in its first week.

It goes without saying that Speak Now enters The Billboard 200 at #1. Country music has accounted for five of the last six #1 albums on that chart. Swift was preceded at #1 by Zac Brown Band, Kenny Chesney, Toby Keith and Sugarland. (If Darius Rucker had sold 25,000 more albums two weeks ago, he would have overtaken Lil Wayne and ranked #1. If he had, country would have accounted for the last six consecutive #1 albums.)

Speak Now also enters Top Country Albums at #1. Fearless topped that chart for 35 weeks. Taylor Swift topped it for 24 weeks.

Swift's 2007 holiday EP, Sounds Of The Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection, re-enters The Billboard 200 at #29. It's the week's #1 holiday album and the week's #1 catalog album.
Eminem's Recovery had held the one-week sales record for 2010, with first-week sales of 741,000 in June. Recovery remains the overall sales leader for 2010, with sales of 2,899,000. Will Speak Now be able to overtake Recovery before the end of the year? Place your bets. Swift and Eminem are both vying to become the first artist in Nielsen/SoundScan history to have the year's top-selling album twice. Eminem previously led the field in 2002 with The Eminem Show. Swift was on top last year with Fearless.

This week’s surge brings Swift’s career album sales to 13,036,000. This puts her ahead of such longer-established acts as John Mayer, Michael Buble and Carrie Underwood.
Shameless Plug: Today, I'm also posting a Chart Watch Extra in which I list the 20 albums that have sold the most copies in one week in the Nielsen/SoundScan era. Backstreet Boys, Garth Brooks, Eminem and *NSYNC all have more than one album on the list. Which is the only act with three of the top 20 one-week sales tallies? Guess and then check out the Chart Watch Extra (here's a link).

Ke$ha's "We R Who We R" enters Hot Digital Songs at #1. It sold 280K copies in its first week. Ke$ha's breakthrough smash, "TiK ToK," topped the chart for six weeks in December and January. But it took 13 weeks to reach #1.

Willow enters Hot Digital Songs at #4 with "Whip My Hair." The 10-year old is the daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith. Willow will be the second offspring of the Smiths to land a top 40 hit on the Hot 100. Her older brother Jaden Smith was featured on Justin Bieber's "Never Say Never," which peaked at #33 in June. Jaden was 11 at the time. He is now 12. Will Smith first cracked the top 40 in June 1988 with D.J. Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince's witty "Parents Just Don't Understand." Smith was 19 at the time. (Compared to his kids, he was kind of a slacker.)


Glee: The Rocky Horror Glee Show dips from #6 to #7 on The Billboard 200, in the wake of the airing of the episode. Unless the EP turns around, it will become the first Glee album or EP to fail to reach the top five. There may be some Glee oversaturation (six albums or EPs in one year is a lot). It's also possible that Rocky Horror simply isn't as mainstream as Madonna and Journey, the focal points of the two previous Glee EPs.


That said, the soundtrack to the 1978 movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show re-enters The Billboard 200 at #55. This nearly equals the highest position (#49) it has reached to date. It's the week's highest-ranking soundtrack to a theatrically-released movie. (The Rocky Horror Glee Show is the week's #1 TV soundtrack. This is the first time that one property has been out front in both film and TV soundtracks in the same week since the summer of 2009, when Hannah Montana: The Movie and Hannah Montana 3 led the way for six weeks.)
Michael Buble's hollywood the deluxe ep debuts at #10. The eight songs on the EP are also included in the Hollywood Edition of his former #1 album Crazy Love, which vaults from #115 to #27 on The Billboard 200. Crazy Love has sold 1,844,000 copies to date. It is likely to become Buble's fourth consecutive fourth studio album to top the 2 million mark.
Crazy Love could bring Buble his second Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. He won the award last year for his live album Michael Buble Meets Madison Square Garden. But Buble has strong competition in the form of Barbra Streisand's #1 album Love Is The Answer. Streisand has won eight Grammys, but she has yet to win in the Traditional Pop category, a genre she dominated in the '60s with her recordings of such vintage songs as "Happy Days Are Here Again" and "My Man." Who will prevail in this epic, intergenerational Grammy showdown? Stay tuned.

"California Gurls" by Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dogg tops the 4 million mark in paid downloads this week. It took 25 weeks to reach this plateau. Only two songs in digital history have gotten there faster. The Black Eyed Peas' "Boom Boom Pow" took 23 weeks to top 4 million in paid downloads. Ke$ha's "TiK ToK" took 24 weeks. This is Perry's second song to cross this threshold. "Hot N Cold" is up to 4,597,000.

Eminem's "Not Afraid" tops the 3 million mark in paid downloads. It's Eminem's fourth hit to reach this plateau, following "Love The Way You Lie" (with Rihanna, 3,763,000), "Lose Yourself" (3,055,000) and Akon's "Smack That" (3,015,000). All four of these songs have topped the 3 million mark in the past two months. (When it rains, it pours.)
Bruno Mars' "Just The Way You Are" tops the 2 million mark this week. It's Mars' third song to
reach this plateau, following B.o.B's "Nothin' On You" (2,572,000) and Travie
McCoy's "Billionaire" (2,558,000). "Just The Way You Are" reached the 2 million mark in 15 weeks, faster than either of these two other hits. "Nothin' On You" took 18 weeks. "Billionaire" took 19.

Nicki Minaj is featured on two of the top 10 songs on Hot Digital Songs, as calculated by Nielsen/SoundScan. Here they are. Ke$ha's "We R Who We R" debuts at #1 (280K). Far*East Movement featuring Cataracs & Dev's "Like A G6" dips from #1 to #2 (178K). Rihanna's "Only Girl (In The World)" holds at #3 for the second week (142K). Willow's "Whip My Hair" debuts at #4 (137K). Nelly's "Just A Dream" dips from #4 to #5 (133K). Trey Songz featuring Nicki Minaj's "Bottoms Up" holds at #6 for the second week (122K). Bruno Mars' "Just The Way You Are" drops from #5 to #7 (118K). Taylor Swift's "Sparks Fly" debuts at #8 (113K). P!nk's "Raise Your Glass" drops from #7 to #9 (104K). Kanye West featuring Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Bon Iver & Nicki Minaj's "Monster" vaults from #69 to #10 (97K).
Here's the low-down on this week's top 10 albums.

1. Taylor Swift, Speak Now, 1,047,000. This new entry is Swift's second studio album in a row to reach #1. It's her fourth top 10 album. Ten songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "Sparks Fly," which debuts at #8.

2. Sugarland, The Incredible Machine, 89,000. The former #1 album dips from #1 to #2 in its second week. "Stuck Like Glue" drops from #28 to #37 on Hot Digital Songs.

3. Kings Of Leon, Come Around Sundown, 67,000. The album dips from #2 to #3 in its second week. It holds at #1 in the U.K. for the second week. "The End" drops from #43 to #147 on Hot Digital Songs.

4. Lil Wayne, I Am Not A Human Being, 43,000. The former #1 album inches up from #5 to #4 in its fifth week. Four songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "Right Above It" (featuring Drake), which drops from #26 to #32.

5. Eminem, Recovery, 38,000. The former #1 album jumps from #8 to #5 in its 19th week. Three songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "Love The Way You Lie" (featuring Rihanna), which drops from #15 to #23.

6. Elton John/Leon Russell, The Union, 37,000. The album drops from #3 to #6 in its second week. No songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs.

7. Various Artists, Glee: The Rocky Horror Glee Show, 31,000. The EP dips from #6 to #7 in its second week. It's the top soundtrack for the second week. Five of the EP's seven songs are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "Time Warp," which vaults from #121 to #56.

8. Rod Stewart, Fly Me To The Moon...The Great American Songbook Volume V, 30,000. The album drops from #4 to #8 in its second week. No songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs.

9. Darius Rucker, Charleston, S.C. 1966, 27,000. The album rebounds from #10 to #9 in its third week. "Come Back Song" drops from #76 to #108 on Hot Digital Songs.

10. Michael Buble, hollywood the deluxe ep, 26,000. This new entry is Buble's fourth top 10 album. Two songs from the EP are listed on Hot Digital Songs. "Hollywood" debuts at #92. "Best Of Me" debuts at #166.
Two albums drop out of the top 10 this week. Shakira's Sale El Sol drops from #7 to #16. Third Day's Move drops from #9 to #23.

Blues legend Buddy Guy lands the highest-charting album of his long career as Living Proof enters The Billboard 200 at #46. Guy's previous highest-charting album was 2008's Skin Deep, which hit #68. Guy, 74, first charted in 1991 with Damn Right, I've Got The Blues.
The Country Strong soundtrack debuts at #73. Gwyneth Paltrow, who stars in the movie as a fallen country star, performs four songs on the soundtrack. Paltrow is already a chart veteran. She and Huey Lewis topped the adult contemporary chart in 2000 with a remake of Smokey Robinson's 1980 hit "Cruisin." The song was from the movie Duets, in which they costarred.
For the first time since in at least seven years, Michael Jackson's "Thriller" was not the Halloween song with the most paid downloads. It fell behind "Monster Mash" by Bobby "Boris" Pickett & the Crypt-Kickers. Both songs sold 45K downloads during the week that ended Oct. 31. But "Monster Mash" was ahead by a (black cat's) whisker. These two hits were followed by the usual Halloween suspects, as well as Donovan's 1966 song "Season Of The Witch," which sold 9K downloads.

Song Scorecard: Coldplay's 2003 hit "Clocks" tops the 2 million mark in paid downloads this week. The hit won a Grammy as Record of the Year. Is this the first time that a group's hit has topped the 2 million mark the very same week that the front-man's movie-star wife has charted with the soundtrack to her latest movie? You know, I think it is.

Saw 3D was #1 at the box-office over the weekend. It's the seventh installment in the horror movie series. Don't you people ever get enough? The soundtrack, which features such rock acts as Saving Abel, Hinder and Krokus, sold fewer than 1,000 copies, too few to make The Billboard 200.

Coming Attractions: Look for Swift to hold on to #1 next week. Jason Aldean's My Kinda Party will probably open at #2, with sales in the range of 175,000. Also headed for top 10 debuts: Mariah Carey's Merry Christmas II You and Neil Diamond's Dreams, and possibly Matt & Kim's Sidewalks and Brad Paisley's Hits Alive. Other albums that will chart: N.E.R.D.'s Nothing, Good Charlotte's Cardiology, Elvis Costello's National Ransom, Paul McCartney's Band On The Run deluxe reissue, and Escape The Fate's Escape The Fate

"Ten songs from the album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "Sparks Fly," which debuts at #8."
1. Why can't all of them be listed?
2. That's odd. Only 10 are listed. Hopefully they mean 10 new ones are listed...

ALSO, for those bitching about how Amazon's $4 requires her to have an asterisk, from www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i5094e406e415c280a12d8a06b875f74f

"Target, 350,000 units; iTunes, 220,000 units; Walmart at about 190,000 units; Amazon and Costo, each at about 40,000 units; Best Buy at about 35,000 units; and Starbucks at about 28,000 units." Even if you take away every Amazon sale, she'd STILL be at over a million.

Digital Songs has only 75 positions.

Maybe some of the album tracks just didn't sell enough...

As previously reported, Taylor Swift celebrates a milestone achievement this week as her third album, "Speak Now," crashes in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 1 ,047,000 million sold in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It's the largest sales week for an album since 50 Cent's "The Massacre" bowed at No. 1 with 1,141,000 in March of 2005, and Swift's second album to top the Billboard 200 following her sophomore "Fearless" release, which flew in with 592,000 in November of 2008.



Taylor Swift Sells Over 1 Million in Record Billboard 200 Debut




Here's more about Swift's stunning bow:



"Speak Now" accounted for 18% of all albums sold last week (5.80 million) -- or, one out of every sixth set purchased. The album sold more than the Nos. 2-62 albums combined on this week's Billboard 200 chart.



Taylor Swift: The Billboard Cover Story



It also has the second-largest sales week for a digital album, with 278,000 downloads sold. Only Coldplay's "Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends" posted a larger haul, with 288,000 when it bowed in the summer of 2008.



After one week of sales, "Speak Now" is the eighth best-selling album of 2010. Eminem's "Recovery" still leads the pack, with 2.9 million. Could "Speak" shift enough by year's end to take over the lead?



Photos: Taylor's Fashion Evolution



Last week's Billboard 200 No. 1, Sugarland's "The Incredible Machine," falls to No. 2 with 89,000 (down 56%). With a wide divide of 958,000 between "Speak Now" and "The Incredible Machine," it's the largest gap between the top two since the chart dated June 15, 2002. That's when Eminem's "The Eminem Show" moved 1,322,000 in its second week at No. 1, while the Diddy-driven compilation "We Invented the Remix" was No. 2 with 117,000 -- a margin of 1.2 million.



It would seem that everyone steered clear of the Swift freight train last week, as not much was released aside from "Speak Now." The second-highest debut on the Billboard 200 comes from Michael Bublé's "Hollywood" EP, which takes a bow at No. 10 with 26,000. The EP was also available as part of his deluxe reissue of "Crazy Love," which spikes up 88 slots to No. 27 with 16,000 (up 302%).



The rest of the Billboard 200 top 10 is populated with holdovers from last week. Kings of Leon's "Come Around Sundown" slips one spot to No. 3 (67,000; down 63%), Lil Wayne's "I Am Not a Human Being" climbs one to No. 4 (43,000; down 33%) and Eminem's "Recovery" is up three to No. 5 (38,000; down 12%). Elton John and Leon Russell's "The Union" drops three positions to No. 6 (37,000; down 54%) while the "Glee: Rocky Horror Glee Show" soundtrack drops one rung with 31,000 (down 35%). Rod Stewart's "Fly Me to the Moon" descends four places to No. 8 (30,000; down 62%) and Darius Rucker's "Charleston, SC 1966" is up one to No. 9 (27,000; down 26%).



On the Digital Songs chart this week, Ke$ha's "We R Who We R" debuts at No. 1 with 280,000 sold -- the biggest week for a download since Taylor Swift's "Mine" bowed atop the list with 297,000 in August. It's Ke$ha's second No. 1 on the Digital Songs tally, following her premiere effort, "Tik Tok," which reigned for six weeks in January.



Last week's Digital Songs No. 1, Far*East Movement's "Like a G6," falls to No. 2 with 178,000 (down 13%) while three cuts arrive in the top 10. Willow's "Whip My Hair" starts at No. 4 with 137,000, becoming the 10-year old's first hit on the list. Swift's "Sparks Fly" flies in at No. 8 with 113,000 in its first week out, while Kanye West's "Monster" jumps from No. 69 to No. 10 in its second week with 97,000 (up 81%).



Overall album sales in this past chart week (ending Oct. 31) totaled 5.80 million units, up 12% compared to the sum last week (5.17 million) and down 8% compared to the comparable sales week of 2009 (6.32 million). Year to date album sales stand at 241.94 million, down 13% compared to the same total at this point last year (279.10 million).



Digital track sales this past week totaled 18.77 million downloads, up 1% compared to last week (18.58 million) and down 2% stacked next to the comparable week of 2009 (19.10 million). Year to date track sales are at 937.02 million, down 1% compared to the same total at this point last year (942.55 million).

They may mean the Bodyguard soundtrack, which is technically a multi-artist album