Billboard 200 12/13: Taylor Swift #1: 339.000

[Juanca]

Interesting... The bodyguard spent 20 weeks at #1 so that means 26 weeks for WH for the purist

[Me. I Am l!nk!nfan815...]

Dec 4, 2014 12:13:12 GMT -5 Juanca said:

Dec 3, 2014 14:27:34 GMT -5 areyoureadytojump said:

Women with most weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart:

Whitney Houston 46
Mariah Carey 30
Taylor Swift 28
Barbra Streisand 26

Whitney's totals seem quite high for her limited number of albums :o
Do they include sales of The Bodyguard? That could explain the high number, but would also be not fully accurate...

The inclusion of The Bodyguard is the reason why its so high, the soundtrack was at the summit 20 non consecutive weeks. She has 3 other #1 albums with a cumulative 26 weeks.

EDIT: oops just noticed the info was posted.


I guess I'll add that her debut Whitney Houston spent 14 weeks at #1, Whitney had 11 weeks, and I Look To You had 1 week.

[Hefty Hanna]

Dec 4, 2014 12:13:12 GMT -5 Juanca said:

Dec 3, 2014 14:27:34 GMT -5 areyoureadytojump said:

Women with most weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart:

Whitney Houston 46
Mariah Carey 30
Taylor Swift 28
Barbra Streisand 26

Whitney's totals seem quite high for her limited number of albums :o
Do they include sales of The Bodyguard? That could explain the high number, but would also be not fully accurate...

There is no way that The Bodyguard OST was not included in that number.

nvm was explained lol

[HolidayGuy]

With 50% of the tracks on The Bodyguard, why shouldn't it count as a Whitney Houston album? Both the RIAA and Billboard (not on the initial charts, but that's not matter) regard it as such.

[Juanca]

I don't think it's clearcut. 50% of the album (a bit more if we consider the international version of the album) was sung NOT by Whitney. And one of WH's song was a duet...
It's true Whitney's songs were the most successful but there were other songs that charted and contributed to the success.
I'll be supportive if this were a comprehensive list, where for example
Destiny's Child's weeks counted for Beyonce.
In the end it's a personal caveat of course

[tae04]

The album is credited to Whitney Houston, lets move on folks.

[areyoureadytojump]

No RTD numbers here anymore.

www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.31622/title.hip-hop-album-sales-eminem-rick-ross-beyonce

Top 10 Billboard Top 200 Rap & R&B Albums For The Week Ending 11/30/2014

Note: The figures below represent this week’s “total activity,” an intersection of album sales, single sales, and streams. A pure album sales figure is available in parenthesis and information about each album's streaming count is available in brackets.

#3. Eminem - Shady XV - 148,297 (137,560) [2,804,463]

#6. Rick Ross - Hood Billionaire - 79,264 (74,444) [2,132,906]

#8. Beyonce - Beyonce [Platinum Edition] - 71,008 (42,959) [5,146,703]

#18. Pitbull - Globalization - 48,692 (38,177) [2,219,875]

#27. Iggy Azalea - Reclassified - 33,638 (13,813) [5,719,358]

#39. Beyonce - Beyonce - 24,922 (21,904) [2,058,952]

#44. T.I. - Paperwork - 21,795 (17,050) [2,930,935]

#48. Chris Brown - X - 20,469 (13,5883) [4,525,609]

#67. Pharrell Williams - G I R L - 14,807 (11,328) [1,179,857]

#70. Iggy Azalea - New Classic - 14,155 (13,637) [399,530]

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

God, Reclassified really did perform pathetically when you take out the streams and single sales. I assume streams/sales of Fancy & Black Widow went to Reclassified since they are on there instead of to The New Classic.

[Juanca]

Dec 4, 2014 15:01:12 GMT -5 YourFaveIsAFlop said:

God, Reclassified really did perform pathetically when you take out the streams and single sales. I assume streams/sales of Fancy & Black Widow went to Reclassified since they are on there instead of to The New Classic.

That's a good question.
I would've thought that Beg for it was the song to contribute points to the album, whereas BW and F would keep contributing to TNC

[areyoureadytojump]

nielsenent.tumblr.com/post/104417607731/december-5-2014-thanks-to-black-friday

Thanks to Black Friday activity, overall album sales are up 33% over last week, but down 15% over the same week last year.

Year-to-date album sales are down 12% over the same period in 2013.

Physical CD sales are up 50% over last week, down 19% over the same week last year and down 17% year-to-date over 2013.

Digital album sales are up 5% over last week, down 12% over the same week last year and down 10% year-to-date over 2013.

Taylor Swift’s “1989” returns to the number one position for the fourth non-consecutive week on the Top Albums chart, with 281,000 units sold, up 32% over last week. Pentatonix’s “That’s Christmas To Me” moves 3-2 with 217,000 units sold, up 119% over last week.

The various artists’ release “ShadyXV” is the top new entry at No. 3 with 138,000 units sold. The album spotlights the 15 year history of Shady Records, featuring greatest hits and new music, including material from the label’s founder, Eminem.

The other new entry in the top ten is “Hood Billionaire” from Rick Ross at No. 6 with 74,000 units sold. It is his seventh top ten album.

Other new entries in the top 40 include Beyonce No. 17, Pitbull No. 18 and David Guetta No. 31.

There were many big movers this week with Black Friday activity. Among the biggest belong to Sam Smith 11-5 (+197%), “Frozen” 13-7 (+152%), Maroon 5 32-11 (+297%), Ariana Grande 39-16 (+347%), Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga 38-21 (+195%), Darius Rucker 30-23 (+126%) and 5 Seconds Of Summer 54-24 (+281%).

[HolidayGuy]

Juan, what Whitney Houston song on The Bodyguard was a duet? You may be confusing it with Waiting to Exhale, which only had three WH songs, including one duet, and is not regarded as a WH album.

In any event, yes, The Bodyguard is regarded as a WH album, especially in the USA, where the only non-WH single that charted was "It's Gonna Be a Lovely Day," and that wasn't that big a hit- likely not a major contributor to its sales success.

On a related note- the Bee Gees only sing on six of the 17 tracks on Saturday Night Fever, but the trio is credited for the soundtrack. But, they also composed two other tracks on the album. Even though the album had other hits, there's no denying the Bee gees tracks were the overall driving force of its success.

Not sure what to make of the revamped BB 200 just yet.

[Gary]

One of the more fun debates about these sort of stats.

In the end it is acceptable to call The Bodyguard a Whitney Houston album and Saturday Night Fever a Bee Gees album because they were the drivers of each soundtrack.

I think it is also acceptable to call each one a multi-artist soundtrack because more than one artist appears on each.


Depends on what you are looking for and what you want.

[Rhythm Nation]

So next week, if Taylor is no1 on the BB200 but Pentatonix are no1 on the Album Sales Chart, what happens to this list?

Whitney Houston 46
Mariah Carey 30
Taylor Swift 28
Barbra Streisand 26

[areyoureadytojump]

^BB200 always wins. That's the official album chart.

[areyoureadytojump]

www.billboard.com/files/pdfs/Bulletin/december-5-2014-billboard-bulletin.pdf

7,283,000 albums were sold last week in the USA.

2,302,000 were digital albums.

4,981,000 were cd/vinyl/cassette albums.

[HolidayGuy]

"Other" configurations up 53.9%. And vinyl seeing a big increase yet again- 7.6 million YTD for that format is pretty impressive.

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

Dec 6, 2014 10:36:31 GMT -5 HolidayGuy said:

"Other" configurations up 53.9%. And vinyl seeing a big increase yet again- 7.6 million YTD for that format is pretty impressive.

I love vinyl, but it's going to hit a brick wall soon unless the labels start pricing them competitively with other formats. A lot of new release vinyls from mainstream arists are selling for 2 or 3 times the price of a CD. Meanwhile, I regularly find vinyls from indie artists that are in the $14 to 16 range. The cost of production of Hozier's album is no more than a Beach House album, so why is one $25 and the other $14? Vinyl is a still a viable format (why cassettes still exist, I'll never understand, but they do) unless the labels price themselves out of it.

[areyoureadytojump]

Cassettes are produced for prisoners and for special promotions (Record Store Day/Guardians of the Galaxy Sdtk.)

Cds can be made into a weapon in prison so cassettes are still being made.

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

Dec 6, 2014 14:17:56 GMT -5 areyoureadytojump said:

Cassettes are produced for prisoners and for special promotions (Record Store Day/Guardians of the Galaxy Sdtk.)

Cds can be made into a weapon in prison so cassettes are still being made.

Beach House sold a cassette with both of their last 2 albums on it at their shows. More of a kitschy collectors item than something to be listened to.

[areyoureadytojump]

^Yes, a lot of indie bands sell them.

I still have cassettes and will listen to them from time to time.

[areyoureadytojump]

Has some good info:
www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/6385927/billboard-200-chart-moves-guardians-on-cassette-cashes-in

Billboard 200 Chart Moves: 'Guardians' on Cassette Cashes In
By Keith Caulfield | December 06, 2014 8:08 PM EST

On the latest Billboard 200 albums chart, Taylor Swift's 1989 returned to No. 1 (for a fourth non-consecutive week), while Pentatonix hit a new chart high, as the a cappella group's That's Christmas To Me stepped 3-2. The new chart was also the first compiled using a new multi-metric consumption methodology, adding together pure album sales with track equivalent album sales (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA).

Of course, there was lots of action elsewhere on the chart outside the top two positions. Let's take a closer look:

-- Soundtrack, Guardians of the Galaxy (No. 17) - A cassette version of the album was released to Record Store Day-affiliated retailers for Black Friday (Nov. 28), and the retro configuration sold a little more than 1,000 copies in the week ending Nov. 30. That translated to 3 percent of the album's sales for the week. (1,000 copies of something may not sound like a lot, but that's a very significant number for an essentially dormant format of music.)

-- Iggy Azalea, Reclassified (No. 27) - Azalea's second album is a quasi-repackaging of her debut, The New Classic. However, as the new set (which starts with 34,000 equivalent units) only retains five songs from the original album and has a new title, it charts separately from the original (which ranks at No. 70).

-- Beyonce, Beyonce (No. 39) - An expanded reissue of the album was combined for charting purposes with the original release, thus prompting its overall 825 percent total equivalent unit gain (and up 713 percent in album sales).

-- Echosmith, Talking Dreams (No. 109) - Half of this album's equivalent units are owed to TEA and SEA, thanks in large part to its hit single "Cool Kids."

-- Susan Boyle, Hope (No. 128) - The album (8,000 equivalent units) was effectively ignored on streaming services during the tracking week, and sold very few tracks. So, the album charts almost entirely (99.7 percent) from pure album sales. On the Top Album Sales chart — which ranks the top selling albums of the week — it sits at No. 99.

-- Garth Brooks, The Ultimate Hits (No. 158) - As Brooks' catalog of albums is absent from all streaming services, and all digital retailers for a la carte song purchases, The Ultimate Hits is charting from only album sales (7,000 for the week).

-- Soundtrack, Elf (No. 175) - Big-selling theatrical film soundtracks that double as holiday albums are rare. Elf, with 695,000 copies sold, is the second-biggest of the genre since SoundScan started tracking sales in 1991, behind only The Polar Express (724,000).

-- Various Artists, Nashville Christmas (No. 195) - Compilation albums only earn units from TEA and SEA if the set's songs are unavailable elsewhere. This title, which consists of all previously-released material, therefore doesn't receive any TEA or SEA units.