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

[musicrocks]

It's official. SoundScan couldn't wait to get this out there haha.

www.billboard.com/news/taylor-swift-sells-over-1-million-in-record-1004125158.story?tag=hpflash1#/news/taylor-swift-sells-over-1-million-in-record-1004125158.story?tag=hpflash1

Taylor Swift Sells Over 1 Million in Record Billboard 200 Debut

Taylor Swift's "Speak Now" album spoke loud and clear last week, as it will debut at No. 1 on this week's Billboard 200 chart with a whopping 1,047,000 copies sold, 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.

Since SoundScan began tracking music sales in 1991, there have only been 16 instances where an album sold at least a million copies in a week. The last time we had a million-plus frame was when Lil Wayne's "Tha Carter III" launched at No. 1 with 1,006,000 in June of 2008. The SoundScan-era record week is still held by NSYNC's "No Strings Attached," when it debuted at No. 1 with 2,416,000 in 2000.

Nielsen SoundScan, which fuels Billboard's music sales charts, tracks point-of-purchase sales of recorded music product, aggregating data from more than 20,000 retailers in the U.S. (including digital download services like iTunes and Amazon MP3), which represents more than 95% of retail music product sales in the U.S.

A day after its Oct. 25 release, industry pundits were projecting that "Speak Now" would sell between 800,000 and 900,000 by the end of SoundScan's tracking week on Sunday, Oct. 31. Those predictions got even sunnier over the weekend, and by yesterday (1), it seemed a sure bet that the 1 million mark would be met.


"Speak Now" marks Swift's second Billboard 200 No. 1 after her last set, "Fearless" started with 592,000 in November of 2008. It spent 11 non-consecutive weeks at the summit.

A few more Swift milestones to note: "Speak Now" has the second-largest sales week of any country album since 1991. Only Garth Brooks' 1998 effort "Double Live" moved more, when it started with 1,085,000. Thus, Swift also achieves the biggest sales week of any female country act since 1991. Previously, the high-water mark was set by fellow crossover diva Shania Twain when her "Up!" started with 874,000 at No. 1 in 2002.

And, "Speak" owns the biggest week for any album by a woman -- regardless of genre -- since 2000, when Britney Spears' "Oops! I Did It Again" danced into the No. 1 spot with 1,319,000. In total, just four albums by women have notched million-plus weeks. Aside from Swift and Spears, Whitney Houston's "The Bodyguard" soundtrack moved 1,061,000 over the busy Christmas week of 1992 and Norah Jones' "Feels Like Home" debuted at No. 1 with 1,022,000 in 2004.

Come back Wednesday morning when we'll have our traditional run down of the week's top 10 albums and highlights from the Digital Songs chart.

[Cerbius]

Everything is official now.

[Deleted]

Congrats! That's amazing :)

[Deleted]

Soundscan top 16 - one week sales

1 4/8/2000 No Strings Attached 'N Sync 2,415,859
2 8/11/2001 Celebrity 'N Sync 1,879,955
3 6/10/2000 The Marshall Mathers LP Eminem 1,760,049
4 12/9/2000 Black & Blue Backstreet Boys 1,591,191
5 6/15/2002 The Eminem Show Eminem 1,321,799
6 6/3/2000 Oops...I Did It Again Britney Spears 1,319,193
7 1/6/2001 1 The Beatles 1,258,667
8 3/19/2005 The Massacre 50 Cent 1,140,638
9 6/5/1999 Millennium Backstreet Boys 1,133,505
10 4/10/2004 Confessions Usher 1,096,213
11 12/5/1998 Double Live Garth Brooks 1,085,373
12 1/2/1993 The Bodyguard Soundtrack 1,061,000
13 11/4/2000 Chocolate Starfish Limp Bizkit 1,054,511
14 11/13/2010 Speak Now Taylor Swift 1,047,000
15 2/28/2004 Feels Like Home Norah Jones 1,022,149
16 6/28/2008 Tha Carter III Lil' Wayne 1,005,545

[applechic]

So she has the 2nd highest one week sales for a female artist...of all time? Niiice!

[Deleted]

Nov 2, 2010 23:58:06 GMT -5 applechic said:

So she has the 2nd highest one week sales for a female artist...of all time? Niiice!

I'm proud to say that I own both of those cds :'(.

[Push The Button]

Nov 2, 2010 23:58:06 GMT -5 applechic said:

So she has the 2nd highest one week sales for a female artist...of all time? Niiice!

Third. Unless you mean debut week?

[Deleted]

Congrats to Taylor! That's an incredible number of albums to sell in one week, especially in this day and age of ever dwindling album sales overall.

[slicknickshady]

Congrats Taylor!

[Deleted]

Nov 3, 2010 0:21:38 GMT -5 slicknickshady said:

Congrats Taylor!

Congratulations on a post that didn't pay tribute to Eminem ;)

[slicknickshady]

Nov 3, 2010 0:31:38 GMT -5 @2m said:

Nov 3, 2010 0:21:38 GMT -5 slicknickshady said:

Congrats Taylor!

Congratulations on a post that didn't pay tribute to Eminem ;)

Haha. That's because we have not had somebody yet say "if speak now was released in 2000 it would have sold 2,000,000 first week". Trust me, when that argument comes out of someones mouth, you know who will be brought up. ;)

[abc]

Nov 3, 2010 0:31:38 GMT -5 @2m said:

Nov 3, 2010 0:21:38 GMT -5 slicknickshady said:

Congrats Taylor!

Congratulations on a post that didn't pay tribute to Eminem ;)

[forg]

Congratulations Taylor Swift! At first I thought she would 'only' sell ~500k since "Mine" was not that big of a hit plus dwindling sales across the board but she proved me wrong. "Fearless" was really a successful era for her, she did not alienate her country fan base and earned new fans on both mainstream pop and adult contemporary genres. She's really charismatic I must say. As a chart geek, it's just great to see an album selling 1 million in a week again.

Although I guess over all sales will still be down compared to last year because #2 will just sell ~86k but Speak Now's sales will offset a bigger drop from last year, the drop will be likely ~5%.

I hope she sells 500k or more next week :)

[slicknickshady]

She will be #1 next week. That's not exactly going out on a limb. She could drop 85% and retain the #1 spot. I'm guessing she will do between 475-500K next week.

[jumpupandburst]

congrats taylor!!! fanbase helped a lot...but hope that word of mouth can add to it because it's a great album.

what's the record for most sales on their 2nd weeks? =)

[Joe1240]

Yes! Congrats to Taylor!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

[passionformusic]

What if she had a smash first single? Congrats,Taylor! :)

[Enigma.]

Top 3, platinum and over 100 million audio impressions is not a smash for a COUNTRY based single?

[carrieidol1]

That's a HUGE accomplishment! Congrats Taylor!

[chopped89]

Congrats Taylor.
It seems weird to see a 2010 album in the soundscan top 16 one week sales!
P.S this year could have an increase from 2009, Kanye, Susan, Nicki and lots of other artists that could push decent amount of units.
I just hope Lloyd Banks could do around 100k!

[leoapp]

The fact that her first single, Mine was not that big compared to Love Story or You Belong With Me, and she can sell 1 million, it's very impressive, maybe she could've easily surpassed Britney's record if the first single was huge

[kingofpain]

It's hard to believe that at one time, Limp Bizkit sold over one million albums in a week...

[HolidayGuy]

applechic, by "all time," if you mean the last 19 1/2 years of recorded information, then yes. :)

SoundScan's market coverage now stands at 95%, per the article- so just 5% of sales are estimated these days.

[Adonis the DemiGod!]

Congrats Taylor!

[when the pawn...]

Nov 3, 2010 1:27:51 GMT -5 jumpupandburst said:

congrats taylor!!! fanbase helped a lot...but hope that word of mouth can add to it because it's a great album.

what's the record for most sales on their 2nd weeks? =)

I know NSYNC moved about 800k on their second week with No Strings Attached. I think 50 Cent's Get Rich Or Die Tryin' was also above 800k. Was The Eminem Show's 1.3m week his second official week? Didn't he release on a Friday so his first official week was like 700k? Or am I remembering this wrong?

[Rodze]

www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i5094e406e415c280ce0f5588547553db

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.

[...]

One final key factor in the album's success: in setting an $18.98 list price for the album, Big Machine went against today's conventional wisdom that albums need to be priced at $10. But it apparently wasn't shy in cutting deals to get the pricing it needed for the physical CD.

However, it was digital that lead the way on pricing this time out, and in that channel low pricing usually means that the retailers eat margin. So when 7digital priced the "Speak Now" album download at $4, Amazon beat it with the download at $3.99.

But apparently in order to avoid a wide pricing disparity between the download and the CD, that meant Amazon priced the physical format at $8 for the first three days of availability. And that move prompted Wal-Mart.com to match and beat Amazon, so in its first few days the CD album was priced at $7.78. Even J&R Music World got into the act, pricing the CD in-store and on its online store at $6.99.

www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i5094e406e415c280359d749d7e83d7a7

Swift's million-selling week was propelled by three huge promotion campaigns that reached millions of consumers. There was a JetBlue promotion with that airline's passengers who traveled through terminal No. 5 at JFK airport treated to a live performance; there was a Scholastic 90th Anniversary Literacy Event, "Read With Taylor Swift," which included a a performance and a Q&A with the artist that was broadcast into 25,000 classrooms, reaching an estimated 1 million school kids; and Target launched a $7 million television campaign in exchange for getting an exclusive version of the album.

Albums That Sold 1 Million Copies in One Week: www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i5094e406e415c28035fd927dbcf40d16

[HolidayGuy]

Billboard actually posted (estimated) sales from iTunes? Don't recall it doing that before.

That leaves 147,000 units from other outlets. Wonder how much was from amazon's mp3 store (not including the physical sales). Am sure someone will report that in time.

[Deleted]

Nov 3, 2010 8:28:06 GMT -5 when the pawn... said:

Nov 3, 2010 1:27:51 GMT -5 jumpupandburst said:

congrats taylor!!! fanbase helped a lot...but hope that word of mouth can add to it because it's a great album.

what's the record for most sales on their 2nd weeks? =)

I know NSYNC moved about 800k on their second week with No Strings Attached. I think 50 Cent's Get Rich Or Die Tryin' was also above 800k. Was The Eminem Show's 1.3m week his second official week? Didn't he release on a Friday so his first official week was like 700k? Or am I remembering this wrong?

Some of the million sellers were not debut weeks

[HolidayGuy]

Billboard Biz:
www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/charts/chart_alert/e3i5094e406e415c280a9d4d4a15e587a63

Taylor Swift's 'Speak' Sizzles In Million-Plus Debut
November 03, 2010

Editor: Keith Caulfield; Editorial Director: Silvio Pietroluongo

Taylor Swift's "Speak Now" arrives at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with a predicted million sold in its first week—to be more precise: 1,047,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan . . . And we've got oodles of fun facts about Swift's big debut to share. "Speak Now" was pretty much the only major release that came out last week, as only one other set arrives in the top 10: Michael Buble's "Hollywood" EP . . . On the Digital Songs chart, Ke$ha blasts in at No. 1 with "We R Who We R," starting with 280,000.


FLASH POINTS

• Taylor Swift celebrates a milestone achievement this week as her third studio release, "Speak Now," crashes in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 1,047,000 sold in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It's the biggest week for an album since 50 Cent's "The Massacre" topped the list in 2005 with 1.1 million and only the 16th set to sell a million in a week since SoundScan began tracking data in 1991.

• (Read more about Swift's stunning bow.)

• It's Swift's second album to top the Billboard 200, following her sophomore "Fearless" release, which flew in with 592,000 in November of 2008.

• More, more, more! Some extra Swift highlights:

• "Speak Now" accounted for 18% of all albums sold last week (5.8 million)—or, one out of every sixth set purchased.

• 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. The success of "Speak" raises the question of whether it will shift enough by year's end to emerge as the best-selling album of 2010.

• "Speak" sold more than the Nos. 2-62 albums combined on this week's Billboard 200. 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 (288,000) when it bowed in the summer of 2008.

• Last week's No. 1, Sugarland's "The Incredible Machine," falls to No. 2 with 89,000 (down 56%). Thus, with a wide divide of 958,000 between the top two, it's the largest gap between those two positions since the June 15, 2002, chart. That's when Eminem's "The Eminem Show" moved 1.3 million 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 is Michael Buble'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's 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$ha's "We R Who We R" debuts at No. 1 with 280,000 sold. That's the biggest week for a download since Taylor Swift's "Mine" bowed atop the list with 297,000 in August. It's Ke$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 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 5.8 million units, up 12% compared with the sum last week (5.2 million) and down 8% compared with the comparable sales week of 2009 (6.3 million). Year-to-date album sales stand at 241.9 million, down 13% compared with the same total at this point last year (279.1 million).

• Digital track sales this past week totaled 18.8 million downloads, up 1% compared to last week (18.6 million) and down 2% stacked next to the comparable week of 2009 (19.1 million). Year-to-date track sales are at 937 million, down 1% compared with the same total at this point last year (942.6 million).


MARKET WATCH

• Album units, current chart week: 5.8 million units
• Up 12% from last week's charts: 5.2 million units
• Down 8% from the comparable week in 2009: 6.3 million units
• This week: Only the No. 1 album sells more than 100,000 copies.
• This week last year on the Billboard 200: Michael Jackson's "This Is It" soundtrack bowed at No. 1 with 373,000 while a reunited Creed arrived at No. 2 with its "Full Circle" album shifting 110,000. The previous week's No. 1, the "Twilight: New Moon" soundtrack, fell to No. 8 with 69,000 (down 55%).


A LOOK AHEAD

• Among the albums released this week, due on next week's charts: Mariah Carey's "Merry Christmas II You," Jason Aldean's "My Kinda Party," Neil Diamond's "Dreams," Brad Paisley's "Hits Alive," Paul McCartney and Wings' reissue of "Band on the Run," the Priests' "Noel," Keith Richards' "Vintage Vinos," Good Charlotte's "Cardiology," N*E*R*D's "Nothing," Escape the Fate's "Escape the Fate," the "Punk Goes Pop 3" compilation, Huey Lewis & the News' "Soulsville" and Elvis Costello's "National Ransom."

• Next week's Billboard 200 competes with the same week in 2009 when: Carrie Underwood's "Play On" opened at No. 1 with 318,000 sold, bumping Michael Jackson's "This Is It" soundtrack down to No. 2 with 196,000 (down 48%). The top five albums each sold more than 100,000, including the debuting "My Christmas" from Andrea Bocelli at No. 3.

[Cerbius]

Still down 8 percent - I guess that's because all the other major acts avoided releasing the same week as Taylor.