One Day Sales: LeToya 175-185k, Pharrell 165-175k

[anafan]

ONE-DAY SALES: GO LeTOYA!
GO PHARRELL! BEAT NOW!

Capitol Diva Has the Early Lead, but Both Artists Have a Shot at Unseating the Hits Collection

July 26, 2006

If you were wondering if any individual act would ever sell in six figures again, join the club. So it’s reassuring to see an artist finally appear with the clout to knock Now 22 off its perch (although it’s too early to tell for sure).

That would be LeToya, from rapidly heating up Capitol, whose first solo album is rolling toward 175k-185k. This projection gives the former Destiny’s Child member a slight edge for next week’s top chart position over Star Trak/Interscope’s Pharrell, but he’s trending just a whisker behind her at 165k-175k. Adding additional complexity to the situation is the fact that Pharrell has a much bigger presence on iTunes, with both the clean and explicit versions of his album in the store’s Top 10. Combine all that with the durable Now wow factor, and this one’s just too close to call.

Hall of Famer Tom Petty is looking relatively strong at 75k-85k with his third solo album, his first release on Rick Rubin’s American label, through Warner Bros. It was produced not by Rubin (who appears to be a shoo-in for the Producer of the Year Grammy for his projects with the Dixie Chicks, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Johnny Cash) but by former Traveling Wilbury Jeff Lynne, who helmed the TP classic Full Moon Fever (1989) and the subsequent Heartbreakers LP Into the Great Wide Open.

The only other debut worth noting is Interscope’s Jurassic 5, hip-hopping artfully toward 30k, give or take.

As for the big picture, the record biz experienced another down week for the seven days ending last Sunday, putting business year-to-date around 5% behind last year’s less than sizzling pace.

hitsdailydouble.com/news/newsPage.cgi?news06264

[JaydaKyssed]

OOOOOOOOOOH I would be delighted if LeToya finished out at number 1 next week.

[vinyl]

Is Pharrell's or Letoya's album worth checking out?
Congrats to both! I expected less sales from both of them.

[winner2000]

IMO if you had to buy one of the two albums, I'd stick with Letoya.

[skaterboyccs]

Good for LeToya ... Suck it Beyonce

[Bunifa Latifah Jackson]

Yay for LeToya \o/

[mceurope]

Wow!

Go Letoya!!

[Filthy Pop]

Damn I'm surprised at both of them.

[rydeordie]

wow thats awesome for Letoya, I'm happy for her

[SHOOTER]

LeToya better debut #1!! Pharrell's crap doesn't even deserve to be in the top-10!

[britneyrules]

LeToyas album is going to be #1. Its one of the strongest r&b collections I've heard in a long time

[currentoptions]

Go Letoya. Pharrell sucks.

[paulmb]

Wow! Excellent numbers for Toya- i thought 100k would be good. I would really like her to be no.1 this week- she seems so down to earth and gratefull.

[deodorant]

Wow. I'm shocked LeToya is going to sell that much. I expected like 60k. Go LeToya.

[diamond]

good job for Pharrell. I hope he takes it!

[deodorant]

I'm going to buy LeToyas album later today.

[Lowe]

WOW LETOYA!

[hidizzyguy]

after hearing both... i'd recommend pharrell's.

[Pulse]

I'm happy for LeToya. But Im suprised they're prediciting that Pharrell wont be #1. But then again, he should be grateful that he even has numbers like that with a flop single.

[eric]

Makes me want to go buy Pharrell's now (almost did yesterday).

[Jeff]

Yay! I got Latoya's album as a 'thank you for being so cool' present from my friend, it's an amazing album.

[cherry]

I'm suprised at pharrell's numbers after having so many singles no do well.

Happy for Letoya

[Jeff]

On Phareels CD is the weird song with Gwen on there? If so, why is the album just coming out? Or was that his last CD? Is this his 1st CD?

[Jeff]

^haha I'm the quiz master!

[XXIX]

LOL, the song with Gwen is on this album, LOL.

I like LeToya will surprise and sell about 190,000 with Pharrell 20K-30K lower.

[Minimalism]

I hate that Pharrell song.

[anafan]

FEARLESS FRIDAY FORECAST: Here’s how next week’s Top 10 is shaping up from our myopic, highly suspect perspective. The new #1 will be Capitol breakout diva LeToya, whose debut should finish at 180k-190k. Not far behind is another debut, from Star Trak/Interscope’s Pharrell, at 165k-175k. Tom Petty (American/WB) will be the third Top 5 bow, as he parks at 80k-90k, good for #4. The still-sizzling Now 22 will land at #3, with 160k-170k, with Gnarls Barkley #5 on 55k-60k. Numbers six through 11 could go any which way, with six albums trending toward 45k-50k; those would be High School Musical, Nelly Furtado, Rihanna, Pussycat Dolls, Young Joc and Rascal Flatts. As always, any and all of the above are subject to change without prior notice. Thank you for understanding.

[britneyrules]

I've been to 3 malls in the past 2 days and every record store is sold out of LeToya's. Wish I could say the same for Pharell.

[XXIX]

anafan said:

FEARLESS FRIDAY FORECAST: Here’s how next week’s Top 10 is shaping up from our myopic, highly suspect perspective. The new #1 will be Capitol breakout diva LeToya, whose debut should finish at 180k-190k. Not far behind is another debut, from Star Trak/Interscope’s Pharrell, at 165k-175k. Tom Petty (American/WB) will be the third Top 5 bow, as he parks at 80k-90k, good for #4. The still-sizzling Now 22 will land at #3, with 160k-170k, with Gnarls Barkley #5 on 55k-60k. Numbers six through 11 could go any which way, with six albums trending toward 45k-50k; those would be High School Musical, Nelly Furtado, Rihanna, Pussycat Dolls, Young Joc and Rascal Flatts. As always, any and all of the above are subject to change without prior notice. Thank you for understanding.

I predicted her at 190,000... Let's shoot for 200,000 over the weekend, LOL.

By the way, what's been the biggest first week sales this year?

[Jeff]

^ Like 20K...lol I dunno.