Billboard 200: 7/21/12: Chris Brown #1: 135k

Wow, Adele pulled out another week in the top ten after all. Without the .99 sales this week, she'll probably pass Alanis' top ten week total.

I guess the good news for Nicki is that she's just now moving on to her second single PTA, which more than likely will be huge. I'm sure the album will eventually reach one million if not more in the long run assuming they release all the smashes (VVV, Young Forever, and Whip) combined with the Urban singles.

Good catch. He was at 171k last week.

As long as an album has shipped 1 million, then it's deserving of a platinum cert. :) (I understand what ya mean, though)

Paul Grein's Chart Watch at Yahoo!:

Week Ending July 8, 2012. Albums: Chris Brown, 2; Rihanna, 0
By Paul Grein | Chart Watch – 2 hours 28 minutes ago

Chris Brown lands his second straight #1 album as Fortune debuts in the top spot. It follows F.A.M.E., which went on to win a Grammy as Best R&B Album of 2011. Since the February 2009 incident in which Brown assaulted his then-girlfriend Rihanna, Brown has landed two #1 albums. Rihanna has yet to reach the top spot. That doesn't seem right, but those are the facts.
But let me hasten to add that Rihanna's six studio albums have sold substantially more copies overall (8,392,000) than Brown's five studio albums have (5,598,000).

The best-selling album that either artist has had is Rihanna's 2007 smash Good Girls Gone Bad (2,750,000), followed by Brown's 2005 debut Chris Brown (2,199,000) and his 2007 sophomore album Exclusive (2,014,000). The worst-selling album that either artist has had is Brown's Graffiti, which has sold just 362K. That album was released just 10 months after the assault, when Brown supporters were hard to find.

Brown's album sold 135K in its first week. That's down sharply from his last album, which opened with sales of 270K. The first-week tally for Fortune isn't much higher than the first-week tally for aforementioned Graffiti, which opened with sales of 102K. Of course, Brown isn't the only artist whose album sales are down. Usher's recent Looking 4 Myself also opened far below the level of his past works. It sold 128K in its first week, compared to 329K for his immediately previous full-length studio album, Raymond V Raymond.

Fortune also debuts at #1 in the U.K. It's Brown's first #1 album in that territory. His previous best mark there was #3 for Exclusive. Fortune is the first R&B album (excluding hip hop) to reach #1 in both the U.S. and the U.K. since Beyonce's 4 in 2010.
Katy Perry's Teenage Dream rebounds from #21 to #2 in the wake of the release of her concert movie Katy Perry: Part Of Me. The movie ranked #8 for the weekend, which was considered a disappointment. Still, it helped shine a spotlight on the album. Teenage Dream also got a boost from a 99-cent promotion at Amazon MP3 on July 5. (That same promotion also brought Gotye's Making Mirrors, fun.'s Some Nights and the Black Keys' El Camino back into the top 10, and boosted numerous other albums as well.)

This is the 98th week on The Billboard 200 for Teenage Dream. That's the longest that an album ranking in the top five has spent on the chart since Adele's 19 peaked at #4 in February, in its 122nd week on the chart. Teenage Dream has never ranked below #94.

Teenage Dream has sold 2,354,000 copies. Just one other album in this week's top 50 has sold 2 million or more copies. That is, of course, Adele's 21 (9,533,000). Teenage Dream has sold half again as well as Perry's hit debut album One Of The Boys (1,473,000).

Some pundits argue that the tally for Teenage Dream should be even higher, given all the hits that Perry has had from the album. Teenage Dream is the only album in history to spawn three 5-million-selling digital hits: "Firework" (5,717,000), "California Gurls" (featuring Snoop Dogg, 5,315,000) and "E.T." (featuring Kanye West, 5,282,000).

I see the point they're making, but I think they're missing the big picture. The songs' success is in addition to the album's success. The album has been a big hit just by itself, and then when you factor in the songs' success, the whole story is even more impressive.

Teenage Dream sold 67K digital copies this week (out of 80K total). That put it at #1 on Top Digital Albums for the second week. It debuted at #1 on that chart in August 2010 with sales of 50K digital copies.

Adele's 21 drops from #7 to #9, which is its lowest ranking to date. This is, nonetheless, its 72nd week in the top 10. This puts it in a tie with Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill for the longest run in the top 10 by an album by a female artist since 1963, when Billboard combined its separate mono and stereo charts into one comprehensive list. Both women were very young when these albums were released. Adele was 22. Morissette was 21. Both albums won the Grammy for Album of the Year.

Shameless Plug: Luke Bryan's "Rain Is A Good Thing" this week becomes the 100th country song to top the 1 million mark in digital sales. This calls for a Chart Watch Extra. I'll soon post a piece in which I look at the 100 biggest country hits in digital history. Taylor Swift has a pack-leading 15 of them, but Carrie Underwood isn't far behind with 10. I have tons of country lore in this Extra. If you're a country fan, don't miss it.

Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" is #1 on Hot Digital Songs for the eighth straight week. It's the first song to be the nation's digital best-seller for eight weeks (consecutive or not) since the Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling" wound up a 10-week run at #1 in September 2009. Will it also hold at #1 on the Hot 100 for the fifth straight week? Probably, but you'll find out for sure later today when we post Chart Watch: Songs.

Here's the low-down on this week's top 10 albums.

The Top Five: Chris Brown's Fortune debuts at #1 (135K). It's his fifth top 10 album; his second #1… Katy Perry's Teenage Dream rebounds from #21 to #2 in its 98th week (80K). This is its 10th week in the top 10…Justin Bieber's Believe holds at #3 for the second week in its third week on the chart (70K). It has been in the top five the entire time… Maroon 5's Overexposed drops from #2 to #4 in its second week (68K)…Linkin Park's Living Things drops from #1 to #5 in its second week (64K).

The Second Five: Gotye's Making Mirrors rebounds from #31 to #6 in its 27th week (44K). This is its fifth week in the top 10…fun.'s Some Nights rebounds from #23 to #7 in 20th week (43K). This is its third week in the top 10…Kenny Chesney's Welcome To The Fishbowl drops from #6 to #8 in its third week on the chart (43K). It has been in the top 10 the entire time. It's #1 on Top Country Albums for the third week…Adele's 21 drops from #7 to #9 in its 72nd week on the chart (41K). It has been in the top 10 the entire time…The Black Keys' El Camino rebounds from #55 to #10 in its 31st week (37K). This is its eighth week in the top 10.

One Direction's Up All Night drops from #8 to #11, ending (for now at least) a 16-week run in the top 10. The album jumps to #2 on the year-to-date album chart, pushing Lionel Richie's Tuskegee down to third place. Adele's 21 is far out front. If Adele and One Direction hold their rankings, this will be the first year in Nielsen SoundScan history in which U.K. acts account for the year's top two albums. (One Direction consists of four Englishmen and one Irishman, Niall James Horan.)

Four other albums drop out of the top 10 this week. Maybach Music Group Presents: Self Made, Vol. 2 drops from #4 to #12. R. Kelly's Write Me Back drops from #5 to #19. Usher's Looking 4 Myself drops from #9 to #15. The Rock Of Ages soundtrack drops from #10 to #20. It's #1 on Top Soundtracks for the fifth week.

Flo Rida's Wild Ones debuts at #14. It puts Flo Rida back in the top 15 after his last album, Only One Flo (Part 1) peaked at a shocking low #107. The new album was originally going to be called Only One Rida (Part 2), but cooler heads prevailed. Since the last album flat-lined, why play off the title? And the single "Wild Ones" (featuring Sia) has sold 3,001,000 copies, so that's something worthy of playing up. While Wild Ones is doing better than Only One Flo, it fell a little short of the hip-hopper's first two albums, both of which made the top 10. Mail On Sunday reached #4 in 2008. R.O.O.T.S. (Route Of Overcoming The Struggle) hit #8 in 2009).

Phillip Phillips' American Idol, a Wal-Mart exclusive EP, debuts at #25.

The Black Keys' Brothers drops from #38 to #43 in its 111th week. It jumps to #1 on Top Catalog Albums. This is the album's first week at #1 on that chart. The album won two Grammys, including Best Alternative Music Album of 2010. It beat Arcade Fire's The Suburbs, which went on to win for Album of the Year. Which suggests that Brothers might have won Album of the Year if the panel that determines the final nominees in the "Big Four" categories had put it in the finals. (Unless Brothers and The Suburbs had split the "alternative vote," allowing, say, Eminem's Recovery to win.)

One Direction's Up All Night: The Live Tour, is #1 for the sixth week on Top Music Videos. It sold 17,000 copies this week, bringing its six-week total to 195K.

The Amazing Spider-Man was #1 at the box-office over the weekend. The soundtrack sold about 3K copies this week, too few to make The Billboard 200. The soundtracks to the first two movies in this franchise reached the top 10 (in 2002 and 2004, respectively). The soundtrack to the third peaked at #33 in 2007.

Coming Attractions: Zac Brown Band's Uncaged is expected to be next week's top new entry. Also due: Frank Ocean's Channel Orange. Ocean created a stir last week by saying his first love was a man.

Why did Paul Grein even find that necessary? How am I supposed to tell people in one thread "stop talking about that damn incident, it's not on topic anymore" and expect them to listen to me when his Chart Watch article not only drags it back up but makes it the leading paragraph? I'm so annoyed right now.

Grein has always irked me, anyway. He's messy.

The most interesting thing about the stats Grein listed is that 21 alone has outsold the cum total of both CB and Rihanna's entire catalogue. Granted 21 is a beast so it's not a fair comparison.

2nd? "Beez" and"Right By My Side" sis. Unless you mean pop.

A stream of hits should take it there though I think, assuming the pop hits will actually do something for her. I kinda expected this to sell like Rihanna or Katy (a slow but steady sail to 1M) since it's essentially a pop album to the masses but her sales this week seem a bit scary for where her total is at.

I'm not sure how to really gauge this campaign because I don't know if even bothering to push the urban songs will do anything for this particular era because "Beez" did or is doing pretty well (top 5/10 urban?) and I'm not sure how much that is really helping.

Do we now primarily consider Nicki a pop artist?

The Billboard 200

1 NEW 1 Fortune, Chris Brown
2 21 98 Teenage Dream, Katy Perry
3 3 3 Believe, Justin Bieber
4 2 2 Overexposed, Maroon 5
5 1 2 Living Things, Linkin Park
6 31 27 Making Mirrors, Gotye
7 23 20 Some Nights, fun.
8 6 3 Welcome To The Fishbowl, Kenny Chesney
9 7 72 21, Adele
10 55 31 El Camino, The Black Keys
11 8 17 Up All Night, One Direction
12 4 2 Maybach Music Group Presents: Self Made 2, Various Artists
13 45 12 Love Is A Four Letter Word, Jason Mraz
14 NEW 1 Wild Ones, Flo Rida
15 9 4 Looking 4 Myself, Usher
16 43 14 My Head Is An Animal, Of Monsters And Men
17 44 14 The Lumineers, The Lumineers
18 77 36 Ceremonials, Florence + The Machine
19 5 2 Write Me Back, R. Kelly
20 10 5 Rock Of Ages, Soundtrack
21 116 23 Lights, Ellie Goulding
22 36 15 Tuskegee, Lionel Richie
23 87 6 What We Saw From The Cheap Seats, Regina Spektor
24 13 48 Tailgates & Tanlines, Luke Bryan
25 NEW 1 American Idol: Season 11: Highlights (EP), Phillip Phillips

26 56 10 Strange Clouds, B.o.B
27 82 23 Born To Die, Lana Del Rey
28 46 5 That's Why God Made The Radio, The Beach Boys
29 18 10 NOW 42, Various Artists
30 117 11 The Wanted, The Wanted
31 11 3 The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than..., Fiona Apple
32 NEW 1 Live: Cornerstone, Hillsong
33 15 4 Let It Shine, Soundtrack
34 53 34 Take Care, Drake
35 24 10 Blown Away, Carrie Underwood
36 176 7 Vows, Kimbra
37 25 50 Chief, Eric Church
38 78 13 Slipstream, Bonnie Raitt
39 144 8 Bloom, Beach House
40 22 5 Thirty Miles West, Alan Jackson
41 49 14 Boys & Girls, Alabama Shakes
42 NEW 1 Lideres, Wisin & Yandel
43 38 111 Brothers, The Black Keys
44 NEW 1 Periphery II, Periphery
45 RE-ENTRY 23 God's Not Dead, newsboys
46 35 14 Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, Nicki Minaj
47 28 4 NOW That's What I Call Country: Volume 5, Various Artists
48 26 4 Clockwork Angels, Rush
49 30 7 Born And Raised, John Mayer
50 NEW 1 Life Cycles, The Word Alive

51 71 94 You Get What You Give, Zac Brown Band
52 33 10 Project X, Soundtrack
53 39 88 My Kinda Party, Jason Aldean
54 197 16 The Hunger Games: Songs From District 12 And Beyond, Soundtrack
55 29 120 Sigh No More, Mumford & Sons
56 32 4 Punching Bag, Josh Turner
57 58 37 Stronger, Kelly Clarkson
58 54 142 19, Adele
59 NEW 1 American Idol: Season 11: Highlights (EP), Joshua Ledet
60 27 2 Back In The Saddle, Chris Cagle
61 48 33 Talk That Talk, Rihanna
62 19 3 Oceania, The Smashing Pumpkins
63 40 4 +, Ed Sheeran
64 NEW 1 American Idol: Season 11: Highlights (EP), Skylar Laine
65 41 5 Americana, Neil Young With Crazy Horse
66 12 2 Days Go By, The Offspring
67 68 37 Mylo Xyloto, Coldplay
68 126 42 Nothing But The Beat, David Guetta
69 51 10 ...Little Broken Hearts, Norah Jones
70 106 5 Live From The Underground, Big K.R.I.T.
71 57 11 Hard 2 Love, Lee Brice
72 62 12 California 37, Train
73 83 189 The Foundation, Zac Brown Band
74 42 3 Brave, Soundtrack
75 63 47 Halfway To Heaven, Brantley Gilbert

76 175 230 Legend: The Best Of Bob Marley And The Wailers, Bob Marley And The Wailers (Diamond Certification) 10
77 NEW 1 American Idol: Season 11: Highlights (EP), Jessica Sanchez
78 37 90 Hands All Over, Maroon 5
79 60 11 Up All Night, Kip Moore
80 52 11 Blunderbuss, Jack White
81 69 28 Bangarang (EP), Skrillex
82 128 118 The Very Best Of The Beach Boys: Sounds Of Summer, The Beach Boys
83 76 5 Vans Warped Tour '12: 2012 Tour Compilation, Various Artists
84 66 43 Own The Night, Lady Antebellum
85 110 59 Torches, Foster The People
86 47 4 Triple F Life: Fans Friends & Family, Waka Flocka Flame
87 70 21 Hunter Hayes, Hunter Hayes
88 20 131 Mothership, Led Zeppelin
89 67 14 Changed, Rascal Flatts
90 125 148 Chronicle The 20 Greatest Hits, Creedence Clearwater Revival Featuring John Fogerty
91 65 33 Greatest Hits, Fleetwood Mac
92 114 27 Unbroken, Demi Lovato
93 96 57 Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites (EP), Skrillex
94 75 55 Sorry For Party Rocking, LMFAO
95 118 8 Rize Of The Fenix, Tenacious D
96 RE-ENTRY 17 Drive, Soundtrack
97 170 77 Greatest Hits II, Kenny Chesney
98 107 22 NOW 41, Various Artists
99 50 3 Rhythm And Repose, Glen Hansard
100 105 25 Kidz Bop 21, Kidz Bop Kids

101 81 15 Amaryllis, Shinedown
102 103 89 Speak Now, Taylor Swift
103 111 51 Whitney: The Greatest Hits, Whitney Houston
104 90 91 The Band Perry, The Band Perry
105 97 222 Journey's Greatest Hits, Journey (Diamond Certification) 15
106 61 110 Lungs, Florence + The Machine
107 108 4 The Best Of Donna Summer: 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection, Donna Summer
108 72 4 Synthetica, Metric
109 127 20 Careless World: Rise Of The Last King, Tyga
110 94 12 Pluto, Future
111 79 5 Analog Man, Joe Walsh
112 138 92 Doo-Wops & Hooligans, Bruno Mars
113 148 8 Continued Silence (EP), Imagine Dragons
114 121 37 Clancy's Tavern, Toby Keith
115 109 33 Here And Now, Nickelback
116 92 6 Here, Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeros
117 152 48 Watch The Throne, Jay Z Kanye West
118 160 42 Barefoot Blue Jean Night, Jake Owen
119 102 5 Victorious: Victorious 2.0: More Music From The Hit TV Show (EP), Soundtrack
120 RE-ENTRY 29 The Very Best Of Prince, Prince
121 162 40 Clear As Day, Scotty McCreery
122 100 7 The Hurt & The Healer, MercyMe
123 NEW 1 H.N.I.C. 3, Prodigy Of Mobb Deep
124 88 4 Edens Edge, Edens Edge
125 RE-ENTRY 27 The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part 1, Soundtrack

126 122 52 Red River Blue, Blake Shelton
127 NEW 1 American Idol: Season 11: Top 10 Highlights, Soundtrack
128 124 22 Home, Dierks Bentley
129 64 74 Barton Hollow, The Civil Wars
130 16 2 Challenger, Memphis May Fire
131 NEW 1 At The Gates Of Sethu, Nile
132 99 83 Licensed To Ill, Beastie Boys
133 14 2 PTX: Volume 1, Pentatonix
134 NEW 1 XXX, Asia
135 123 7 Apocalyptic Love, Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators
136 86 9 Go Get It (Soundtrack), Mary Mary
137 131 36 Four The Record, Miranda Lambert
138 17 2 If You Were A Movie, This Would Be Your Soundtrack (EP), Sleeping With Sirens
139 74 808 Dark Side Of The Moon, Pink Floyd (Diamond Certification) 15
140 112 5 Bear Creek, Brandi Carlile
141 136 39 American Capitalist, Five Finger Death Punch
142 NEW 1 Infamous, Abandon All Ships
143 120 2 Una Noche de Luna: Mas En Vivo Desde Buenos Aires, Marco Antonio Solis
144 84 3 Cabin By The Sea, The Dirty Heads
145 89 4 The Lion The Beast The Beat, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals
146 174 83 Doin' My Thing, Luke Bryan
147 143 55 Planet Pit, Pitbull
148 135 45 Tha Carter IV, Lil Wayne
149 104 107 Recovery, Eminem
150 98 110 [Hybrid Theory], Linkin Park (Diamond Certification) 10

151 181 148 The Wall, Pink Floyd (Diamond Certification) 23
152 RE-ENTRY 2 Never Trust A Happy Song, Grouplove
153 RE-ENTRY 13 The MF Life, Melanie Fiona
154 RE-ENTRY 94 Top Gun, Soundtrack
155 150 43 Neon, Chris Young
156 142 24 Emotional Traffic, Tim McGraw
157 163 23 Ronnie Dunn, Ronnie Dunn
158 169 68 Number One Hits, Tim McGraw
159 164 244 Greatest Hits, Guns N' Roses
160 RE-ENTRY 2 100 Must-Have Movie Classics, Various Artists
161 154 35 Life At Best, Eli Young Band
162 59 215 Greatest Hits, Queen
163 190 5 Our Version Of Events, Emeli Sande
164 157 40 Megalithic Symphony, AWOLNATION
165 137 8 Trespassing, Adam Lambert
166 147 11 The Ultimate Bee Gees, Bee Gees
167 193 2 Magic Mike, Soundtrack
168 129 13 Courageous, Soundtrack
169 159 12 Picture Show, Neon Trees
170 173 33 Ultimate Hits: Rock And Roll Never Forgets, Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band
171 RE-ENTRY 115 Jagged Little Pill, Alanis Morissette (Diamond Certification) 16
172 RE-ENTRY 53 White Blood Cells, The White Stripes
173 RE-ENTRY 16 The Greatest Hits Volume 1: 20 Good Vibrations, The Beach Boys
174 146 29 TM:103: Hustlerz Ambition, Young Jeezy
175 178 2 Super Hits, Bob Dylan

176 NEW 1 American Idol: Season 11: Highlights (EP), Hollie Cavanagh
177 RE-ENTRY 29 The Very Best Of Neil Diamond: The Studio Recordings, Neil Diamond
178 RE-ENTRY 115 Revolution, Miranda Lambert
179 113 151 Number Ones, Michael Jackson
180 145 114 Songs About Jane, Maroon 5
181 167 46 Hell On Heels, Pistol Annies
182 132 3 Walk The Moon, Walk The Moon
183 RE-ENTRY 29 Songs You Know By Heart: Jimmy Buffett's Greatest Hit(s), Jimmy Buffett
184 141 64 The Essential Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson
185 149 16 Shake It Up: Live 2 Dance: Music From The Disney Channel Series, Soundtrack
186 34 2 L'enfant Sauvage, Gojira
187 RE-ENTRY 86 One Of The Boys, Katy Perry
188 140 5 Jana Kramer, Jana Kramer
189 161 50 The Best Of Lionel Richie: 20th Century Masters The Millennium Collection, Lionel Richie
190 RE-ENTRY 5 Listen Up!, Haley Reinhart
191 RE-ENTRY 148 Rumours, Fleetwood Mac (Diamond Certification) 19
192 166 120 My World 2.0, Justin Bieber
193 184 77 The Very Best Of The Eagles, Eagles
194 RE-ENTRY 188 Fearless, Taylor Swift
195 NEW 1 God Bless The USA: A Salute To The American Spirit, Bill & Gloria Gaither And Their Homecoming Friends
196 RE-ENTRY 20 Elevate (Soundtrack), Big Time Rush
197 133 4 Blow Your Pants Off, Jimmy Fallon
198 200 37 Come To The Well, Casting Crowns
199 RE-ENTRY 64 Footloose, Soundtrack
200 RE-ENTRY 28 Thompson Square, Thompson Square

Amazon's 99-Cent Deals Sends 20 Titles Soaring Up the Charts, But at What Cost?
July 12, 2012 | By Ed Christman, New York
Amazon picked last week -- July 3, to be exact -- to remind everyone that it is the low-price music retailer on the Internet, when it offered 20 current albums at 99 cents apiece.

Those 20 titles, which included Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream," Fun.'s "Some Nights," Regina Spektor's "What We Saw From The Cheap Seats," and Big K.R.I.T's "Live From The Underground," scanned a total of 519,000 units, an increase of 270% from the 140,000 they collectively sold in the prior week. Meanwhile, the digital version of those titles jumped 608% to 454,000 units from the prior week's combined total of 64,000.

The big winner during the week was the Katy Perry title, which jumped from 16,000 units to 80,000 units, of which 66,000 were from digital sales; it soared 21-2 on the Billboard 200.

Since it got into music, Amazon has been featuring a selective loss-leader pricing strategy to highlight its every-day low prices. But unlike big-box merchants that used to price the Top 10 at $9.99 at a time when they wholesaled for about $12.05, Amazon has a variety of deals, like the Daily Deals which features albums at $2.99, that continually driving their pricing message.

Record label and distribution executives see last week's pricing as Amazon reminding Google, its customers and music fans just who initiated pricing as a competitive differential tactic on the Internet. Sometimes it's the steady Daily Deal, and sometimes Amazon shocks the industry, like when it offered Lady Gaga's "Born This Way," for 99 cents on two different days during the title's debut week in May 2011.

Amazon Puts Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way' Again on Sale for 99 Cents Again

Amazon is using featured discount pricing in an attempt to lure customers away from iTunes. That strategy has been effective at least in helping to grow Amazon's MP3 market share, which in 2011 was 3.2% in overall U.S. market share, up one percentage point from the prior year's 2.2%. (Amazon's overall market share, including both CD and MP3 sales, is 7.93%.). But as much as it grows market share, it doesn't seem to be laying a glove on iTunes, whose market share grew to 38.23% in 2011, up from nearly 33% in 2010.

With that type of market share and growth, Apple doesn't have to resort to loss leaders.

But Amazon now has to worry about Google. Since its music store launched last November, the company engine has been dogging Amazon's discount pricing strategy, regularly featuring loss-leader pricing to drive traffic to its store. For example, in the second week after its launch, Google offered 13 frontline titles at $1.99. And then in March, it offered its "25-cent Play of The Day" deal on such titles as Lady Antebellum's "Own the Night," and Coldplay's "Mylo Xyloto."

Moreover the two merchants may be engaging in price matching each other, as some label executives report that Google featured the same albums as Amazon, while other sources insisted that didn't happen. On the other hand, when Google does a promotion, Amazon definitely does price-matching, but customers have to dig for those specific titles, as they aren't part of an overall promotion.

Google continues to feature loss-leader pricing as part of its overall strategy. For example, today, right at the top of the music store's home page, Google is running an ad touting top debut albums "from $3.99." Clicking on it will bring you to two pages of debut albums, including those by the Clash, Patti Smith, Boston, and Massive Attack, most priced at $6.99 with five priced at the advertised price. But if you don't click on that ad, right underneath it is a "best album deals" feature with 12 albums priced at $3.99 and $12 more at $6.99. That promotion consists of mostly hit catalog titles and one recent title, Mayer Hawthorne's "How Do You Do."

So Amazon's foray back into 99-cent territory is seen by label executives as a reminder that it too not only knows how to strategically discount, but also that it isn't giving up that pricing turf to Google -- at least not just yet.

"I don't think they would be doing this type of 99-cent stuff if Google wasn't constantly touting low prices," says the head of sales at one major label.

In what some see as a departure for Amazon, it immediately followed up the 99-cent sale with a July 5 e-mail to customers, through its AmazonLocal deal initiative, touting a $3 voucher off MP3 purchases in its store through today July 12. While Amazon spends a lot of effort trying to get shoppers at Amazon to visit its MP3 store, it rarely publicizes the overall store, let alone the music store, in mainstream media -- at least not the way it did when the Amazon site launched back in the mid-1990s with its radio spots about seeing whether enormous locations like the Houston Astrodome were big enough (it wasn't) to house its book inventory.

The closest Amazon ever got to tapping into widespread consumer awareness was with the Lady Gaga 99-cent deal, which in the end came off as a great publicity move.

How Many Millions Is Amazon Losing On Its 99 Cent Lady Gaga Sales?

As I pointed out on June 11 in Billboard.biz, for $3.3 million -- that is, $8.40 wholesale minus 99 cents retail times 443,000 scans during the two-day sale -- Amazon put itself on the map as a digital music merchant, in a way that the same amount of money spent on traditional advertising could never have accomplished.

Since then, Amazon has highlighted price discounts like its daily deal, and other daily offers like the ones it is featuring today, $3 CDs for $25 or country CD albums below $7; or the 25 country hit MP3 albums for $2.99.

But it's looking like the 99-cent promotions last week have generated collectively almost as much in sales -- if not in publicity -- as the Lady Gaga album did, although its hard to tell exactly what Amazon sold of those albums last week because Nielsen SoundScan doesn't break out sales of individual accounts like iTunes, Google and Amazon.

Still, it's safe to say a majority of the 454,00 units were sold by Amazon, since in the prior week download merchants only sold 64,000 units of those albums.

But also important to note is that Amazon is eating a loss on the promotion, although sources say it did get some price relief from the three majors that participated. According to sources, Amazon has put together a program for these pricing events that sees the labels selling them $9.99 list-price titles -- which usually carry a $7.00 wholesale cost -- for about $4.25 to $4.90, which means that Amazon is eating at least $3.25 for every unit sold. Amazon also has a higher wholesale cost of $5.60 for titles that have a higher than $9.99 list price.

(By the way, there were no titles from Sony Music Entertainment in the Amazon promotion probably because it is the only major to use the agency model in providing digital merchants with music. That means, among other things, that it controls the retail price. Even Google's $3.99 promotion has plenty of Sony titles -- but all of them were priced at $6.99, not $3.99, and since they were all catalog titles, Sony's low catalog pricing probably meant they didn't further discount the albums to Google.)

Usually, competitors tend to get upset when one merchant uses an outrageous pricing strategy like Amazon or Google are now occasionally known for. But a retailer once told Billboard about such Amazon pricing promotions: "I love it when they have a successful loss leader pricing deal. I can't stop laughing every time I think about how much money they must be losing."

keelyskorner.com/category/soundscan/

SOUNDSCAN (WEEK ENDING 7/8/12)

1) Chris Brown – Fortune – 134,642
2) Katy Perry – Teenage Dream – 80,221 (After 98 weeks – 2,354,235)
3) Justin Bieber – Believe – 69,537 (After 3 weeks – 559,080)

Other Debuts
14) Flo Rida – Wild Ones – 30,677
25) Phillip Phillips – American Idol – 19,963
32) Hillsong Live – Cornerstone (Live) – 15,835
42) Wisin & Yandel – Lideres – 11,939

How comes that Billboard does not classify Of Monster And Men as Folk musik?
www.billboard.com/charts/folk-albums#/charts/folk-albums

Albums 500k+ in Top 100
2 Katy Perry - Teenage Dream 80.2k 2.3542 million
3 Justin Bieber - Believe 69.5k 559.1k
6 Gotye - Making Mirrors 44.4k 596.3k
9 Adele - 21 41.0k 9.5330 million
10 Black Keys - El Camino 37.0k 889.9k
11 One Direction - Up All Night 35.8k 934.6k
18 Florence + the Machine - Ceremonials 28.6k 683.4k
22 Lionel Richee - Tuskegee 22.4k 934.1k
24 Luke Bryan - Tailgates & Tanlines 20.4k 1.2463 million
34 Drake - Take Care 14.8k 1.8101 million
35 Carrie Underwood - Blown Away 14.6k 616.8k
37 Eric Church - Chief 14.4k 921.3k
43 Black Keys - Brothers 11.9k 1.1038 million
46 Nicki Minaj - Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded 11.1k 568.5k
51 Zac Brown Band - You Get What You Give 9.9k 1.5386 million
53 Jason Aldean - My Kinda Party 9.7k 2.6714 million
55 Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More 9.2k 2.3302 million
57 Kelly Clarkson - Stronger 8.8k 855.2k
58 Adele - 19 8.7k 2.2870 million
61 Rihanna - Talk That Talk 8.4k 946.0k
67 Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto 7.4k 1.4292 million
73 Zac Brown Band - The Foundation 6.5k 2.9435 million
75 Brantley Gilbert - Halfway to Heaven 6.4k 621.7k
76 Bob Marley & the Wailers - Legend 6.4k 11.0661 million
78 Maroon 5 - Hands All Over 6.3k 1.1386 million
82 The Beach Boys - Sounds of Summer: The Best of The Beach Boys 6.2k 3.0135 million
84 Lady Antebellum - Own the Night 6.1k 1.6750 million
85 Foster the People - Torches 6.1k 857.9k
88 Led Zeppelin - Mothership 5.8k 1.7063 million
90 Creedence Clearwater Revival - Chronicle, Vol. 1 5.8k 6.1776 million
91 Fleetwood Mac - Greatest Hits 5.6k 4.5683 million
94 LMFAO - Sorry for Party Rocking 5.1k 876.9k
97 Kenny Chesney - Greatest Hits II 4.9k 929.1k
98 Now That's What I Call Music!, Vol. 41 4.9k 718.7k