Here’s this week’s Idol Billboard Update for y’all right HERE.
The bit news this week is the post-Christmas digital download buying spree that went on this week. All those peeps with iTunes gift cards had a field-day purchasing downloads. The result was huge increases across the board for Idol downloads.
According to Billboard, 47.7 million digital tracks were sold in the U.S. between Dec. 22 – Dec. 28. It’s a 126% spike from the week prior. As an FYI, total digital tracs this year were 1,070,000,000 – up 27% from 2007, based on full year-end data.
Some Highlights:
- David Cook, David Cook, the album, moves back into the Top 10 on the Billboard 200 this week, and sells another 101K for a total of 812K. It’s the album’s 5th week in the top 10 and the fifth time in 6 weeks that the album’s weekly sales have exceeded 100,000 copies. (yahoo)
- The Cook single, “Light On” also benefited from the download bonanza, moving 82K units, for a 206% increase from 27K last week, for a total of 429K. Chart positions vs. last week: Hot 100 40-40, Hot 100 Airplay 58-52, Pop 100 slipping 29-31, Pop 100 Airplay 30-30, Mainstream Top 40 23-22, Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks 11-11, Hot Digital Tracks 43-41, Hot Digital Songs 46-42, Hot Canadian Digital Singles 70-59, Canadian Hot 100 slipping 31-36. “Time of My Life” regains the #1 spot on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart.
- David Archuleta, David Archuleta, the album, slips 22-33 on the Billboard 200, selling 56K for a total of 566K. He officially reached gold status last week, but we didn’t have the official numbers to prove it. Now we do. Congrats, David.
- Archie’s “Crush” had a massive increase in sales this week. A whopping 315% to be exact. It sold 128K vs. 31K last week, for a total of 1,305M. So Jive, when are you going to officially certify “Crush” platinum? *waiting*. “Crush” had a good week on the charts: Hot 100 45-27, Pop 100 37-28, Pop 100 Airplay slipping 40-41, Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks 12-9, Mainstream Top 40 slipping 35-36, Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks 17-17, Hot Digital Tracks 33-21, Hot Digital Songs 39-22, Hot Canadian Digital Singles 64-42, Canadian Hot 100 38-37.
- David Archuleta’s new single, “A Little Too Not Over You” makes its first chart appearance at #93 on the Pop 100 and #73 on the Pop 100 Airplay. May the chart ascension begin!
- Carrie Underwood’s single, “Just a Dream” had a 327% sales increase, selling 82K this week, vs. 27K last week. The total of 516K puts the song in gold territory. Congrats Carrie! It’s currently #80 on Digital sales chart. A fun fact: Carrie currently has 5 Christmas songs on the Hot Country Songs chart: “O Holy Night” debuts at #39. “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” at #41, “The First Noel” debuts at #50, “What Child is This” at #51 and her duet with a very dead Elvis Presley, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” at #55. “Hark” is also #23 on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart.
- Kristy Lee Cook’s album Why Wait re-enters the Top Country Albums chart at #75.
More amazing digital download numbers via Kirsten:
85 Jordin Sparks “No Air†46,614 (248%; lw 13,406) Total: 2,677,114 (104)
97 Jordin Saprks “One Step at a Time†41,198 (293%; lw 10,472) Total: 1,085,180 (141)
120 Carrie Underwood “All-American Girl†33,310 (447%; lw 6,089) Total: 844,302 (OFF)
178 Carrie Underwood “Before He Cheats†23,987 (379%; lw 5,005) Total: 2,572,168 (OFF)
179 David Cook “Time of My Life†23,976 (231%; lw 7,241) Total: 1,044,940 (OFF)
Thanks MJ. I can hardly believe that David Cook’s record sold so many units in 6 weeks, with stabilized sales each week. Love that.
Also great the LO was part of the massive wave of digital downloads. That was a nice and unexpected surprise. Magic Rainbow no longer amazes. I just stand back and nod, because seriously I never thought it would regain #1 again. Heh.
Congrats to the Davids and to Carrie - love that song.
Am curious, how much has KLC’s record sold since it’s release? I wonder if her single benefitted from the massive digital download purchases?
MJ, you have Light On as selling 27K. Didn’t it sell around 80K (can’t remember the exact number)? Was 27K for the week before?
Thanks MJ!! I never thought to check the Pop 100 and Pop 100 Airplay charts this week so I didn’t even know ALTNOY made an appearance! I’m so pleased!
And congrats to the Idols all around–it was a very good week for everybody.
Light On actually sold 82,489. The 27,00 was from last week. From this week’s Sales News post:
42 David Cook “Light On†82,489 (206%; lw 26,918) Total: 428,912 (46)
http://mjsbigblog.com/idol-sales-news-week-ending-122808.htm
^^^ Yes, I got it. It was a typo.
Kristy Lee’s numbers from Idol Chatter:
Kristy Lee: 1,500 to 2,100 to 2,400; total 31,000.
^^Uh, well, at least KLC’s sales seem to be increasing and somewhat stabilized, too. I don’t even know how to spin that, because you really can’t blame the economy given how well the other have done. Yikes, David Cook hasn’t even sold less than 62K (double that) in a week. The Davids sell more albums in a day than she does in a week. Yikes.
Thanks MJ for bringing her sales number so quickly.
Thanks, MJ. Still can’t get over those great download numbers, for these Idols, but also for the chart overall. I will never again underestimate the willingness to spend of a large pack of people with new ipods and itunes giftcards.
Wah? But…..
Great across the board numbers for all the Idols… but as an Archuleta fan, I speak for many when I say Crush is a BEAST, and one heck of a tough little song… it has legs galore, and love it or not, it has served as the best catapult for David in the mainstream pop universe. We fans will love it always, but we’re ready to see ALTNOY take off, and equal or best Crush…. and congrats on the consistency in album sales… GOLD YAY!! Keep on keeping on David - with you all the way, Crown Prince
^Go Strong Little Soldier Crush….Thanks for the data MJ…
I think JIVE is waiting to see is Crush can get to multiple platinum…maybe, they expect that once ALTNOY starts selling it will keep Crush sellings steady enough to reach the 2000000…
I really wish that ALTNOY become a great second single for Archie, and maybe another monster for him, I like it more that what I like Crush, so I´m keeping my fingers cross…
Does Kirsten, Soundscene or any of the other Guru Numbers have data about how the album sales was in january last year, I know this next week number are bound to go down but I want to know how much the fall can be… Thankyouverymuchbye…
LadyM posted the below in the Idol Sales News:
So, yes, big decreases seem pretty likely.
Yikes at those huge decrease percentages. January is going to be painful.
^^Thanks for the info Folkfan, I guess I better be ready for a slow month…
As pained as I was to see the numbers, I was glad to get them for that same reason, cruzceleste. I’d rather have reasonable expectations….
Amazing numbers. Thanks for the info, MJ.
I wonder how many people are using music downloads to mute their depression at the state of the economy? Could digital music be one of the cheap salves that people are turning to in these tough economic times (as movies were during the Great Depression)? I know I personally purchased a lot of music last week on Amazon to take advantage of their “50 albums for $5 each” sale.
Is there any way to factor in the deep discounting of digital music that seems to be taking place? The good thing is that, at last it seems, the laws of supply and demand are determining the price of music. I’ve always felt that a lot of people would willingly pay for music when it reached the right price point.
ITA Folkfan….
Another countdown update: AT10’s Top 30 of 2008 for AC:
30. Jordin Sparks featuring Chris Brown - No Air
18. Carrie Underwood - Before He Cheats
15. Daughtry - Feels Like Tonight
14. Elliott Yamin - Wait For You
13. David Cook - The Time of My Life
12. Jordin Sparks - Tattoo
6. Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love
There should be one more update once AT20 completes its Top 60 for 2008.
So if we take the biggest fall % (-62%) from last year and the numbers for last week and we apply that, we can hope for a 21k for the DATA and 38k for DCTR…
That sounds about right. Based on the numbers that LadyM had posted, I did a calculation a couple weeks ago based on an assumed 100K final holiday week for DC (which turned out to be close to his number). That analysis came up with DC selling right around 89,000 through the beginning of February.
Archie’s “Crush†had a massive increase in sales this week. A whopping 315% to be exact.
OMG!
David A. is such a winner. His Crush wow it is just so full of luv. At the concert everyone there sang along and David was so happy. A true sign of a much luv song that will be listened to and remembered.
ALTNOY
Look for this song to also follow along Crushes lead. Crush has softened peoples hearts for David and now ALTNOY will cement the luv.
and congrats on the consistency in album sales… GOLD YAY!!
Like to add my congrats’s to yours. Yay for GOLD. Never watched the sales of albums much but from what a lot of you guys say this is not an easy thing to do.
So is it safe to assume we’re not getting HDD predictions for the week ahead this Friday? :(
Now that Ken Barnes isn’t doing his Idol Chart Watch anymore, DC staying in the Top 10 is much more meaningful… We might not even get numbers for anyone who isn’t in the top 10.
:(
Now I’m depressed.
Why wouldn’t we get numbers for people not in the Top 10? We only saw that problem the last two weeks because of the holidays. Is something changing beyond Ken leaving? Are the usual leakers not going to post stats even after the holidays? I figure the only time we won’t know numbers is when he falls out of the BB 200.
Where did we get actual numbers from, other than Ken and off-again-on-again leakes?
I’m not talking about HDD estimates, we’ll get those, but official numbers?
PS - I wasn’t talking about the leakers, since I don’t know if they are a reliably constant source that will deliver the info every week.
I’m curious about ALTNOY. Itunes had it up at #69 in pop, then it disappeared, then showed again at #69, and now has again disappeared. Would love to know it’s sales. Any way to find out (besides Ken)?
Another thing, it’s such a big American and there are so many in the music business….hard to believe Ken Barnes is our only source or the only person with a subscription to be able to give the numbers. I finding that I am SO much more into the numbers than I thought, now that I know they won’t be so easily available, lol.
About the fall in sales in January - are there numbers for Idol’s albums only? I very much think that the fall will not be as severe as the others in January because of the start of the American Idol season. There might even be a boost in sales when American Idol gets underway, I noticed that for both Daughtry and Taylor Hicks but haven’t looked at the numbers for the others.
Hazehel, I was actually thinking that as well. Since I never watched Idol before last season, the first time I heard of Jordin was when AI 7 began (Might also have something to do with living abroad).
I wonder if AI will pimp last season/the Davids/Cook as the winner at all, but I imagine that even if it won’t, just the fact that Idol watchers will get back into the show might be enough to make some of them more interested in previous contestants.
Whether that will have a visible impact on sales or not remains to be seen.
Music boards (can we say the names here..?). Before the holidays as far back as I can remember I’ve gone to certain music boards and have seen SS numbers for the entire BB 200. I know this because I don’t just follow Idol numbers.
There is some chance that the BB 200 leak numbers have dried up on the music board from which we typically get them. They haven’t shown up the last two weeks. People are getting snarly. If we don’t get soundscan numbers through those kinds of leaks or someone like Ken, then we’re limited to numbers for the top 10 and whomever else the chart folks at Billboard, MTV, Rolling Stone, and Yahoo decide to highlight. Ken was our only source for off-chart album sales numbers.
We should be able to get HDD numbers for the top 50 starting again on Monday. It’s not clear if we’ll get a rumor mill for the top ten today or not.
The leak source for digital download sales has continued to come through for us. This week was unusual in that he included the entire top 200 digital downloads. Normally, he just leaks the top 50 and then some other songs that he finds interesting in terms of debut, moves, or just personal taste. (I would think that once DA’s new song is up to the top 200, he’d note it.) Typically, around 130 songs or so of the top 200 don’t get leaked, which again means that for Idol songs living in the lower echelon of the top 200 digital downloads, Ken was the only source. Ken was also the only source for off-chart digital downloads, for which he would get information upon request, as he did for Magic Rainbow a couple of weeks ago.
Studies during past economic downturns have shown that people do turn to cheap entertainment to amuse themselves. So it’s possible. One does need to have a computer and a player if one is truly to enjoy downloads though, and I’m not sure those qualify as cheap.
That said, this quarter is generally the best quarter for digital music sales. Last year (2008), 281.4 million downloads were sold during the first quarter (2nd quarter and 3rd quarter saw 261.3 million and 253.1 million respectively). Based on the 1.07 billion total for the year, 274.2 million downloads sold in the 4th quarter. So, downloads should continue to do well into the new year (though not as well as this week).
Ken Barnes does not actually have a subscription for SoundScan. He gets them from a friend who is. USA Today could not justify the cost of getting a subscription to SoundScan, which gives you an idea of how expensive the subscriptions can be. SoundScan numbers are also copyrighted (or some such legal thing), so they aren’t meant to be leaked (that’s why Ken has to round the numbers and SoundScan stopped him from reporting sales lower than 100). SoundScan has also been known to send out cease and desist orders to sites that leak them (so we generally do not credit number sources other than published sources).
I haven’t been watching the Idol numbers anywhere near as long as Kirsten and others, so I don’t have a really good answer as to whether Idol contestants in general experience the same January malaise as do other acts. The only ones for which I’ve seen any data were Jordin, whose numbers were fairly low already coming out of the holiday season last year and, therefore, doesn’tt seem like a good comparator for either David, and Daughtry, who did experience big drops in sales (although still staying highly ranked) in January 2007.
Hopefully AI will use some songs from Cook for certain montages, or exit songs (like they did with Daughtry’s Home). Cookie seems to have some great montage songs as displayed by the Olympics, and the NFL. That would really help with sales. Will we start hearing some leaks about what songs AI has chosen? Seems like we did last year before the show started.
WOW ..congrats to both Davids. I hope they won’t be forgotten and continues to be success when season 8 starts. The Davids are the best top 2 AI finalists of all 7 seasons, IMO.
BootStar, good point. This reminds me a bit of one of Faith Popcorn’s trends…I think it is called “Small Indulgences”. Also similar to the point that lipstick sales tend to do quite well in tough times. People can always afford a little treat for themselves (like a nice lipstick) even if they can’t afford a trip to the spa right now. Same goes for a .99 digital single. May not be able to afford a $13 album, but a dollar for a catchy song? Sure.
I was just thinking about the sales and it dawned on me that both Davids are probably millionaires by now or close to it. And then there will be the tour money they will make. Pretty darn impressive!
Didn’t know where to put this…. A nice ALTNOY add is up on Mediabase…. those comments scrolling underneath by the various program directors are just awesome….. ALTNOY FTW!
http://mediabase.com/WebLogon/WebLogon.asp
Those are some great comments for ALTNOY. It will be interesting to see what happens with the song. I am always curious how it is determined how PDs pick songs for airplay. I have never understood the “Hot Picks” on AllAccess. Songs would show up as hot picks from station’s PDs, but yet they never got played on the station. So there must be more to it than just a PD liking an artist or a particular song. But that ad seems like a good/positive sign for ALTNOY. Hope it does well.
Unfortunately, Idol sales don’t buck the trend in January. Last year, Elliott’s holiday album was really the only one that didn’t experience steep declines.
As a reminder, here are the average weekly declines for albums in the top-10 heading into January 2008:
Week 1 = -62%
Week 2 = -54%
Week 3 = -31%
Week 4 = -10%
Week 5 = 2%
Here are the Idol numbers:
Week Ending 12/30/07
Carrie (Carnival Ride)= -67%
Daughtry = -59%
Carrie (Some Hearts) = -59%
Blake = -64%
Elliott = 22%
Week Ending 1/6/08
Carrie (Carnival Ride)= -58%
Daughtry = -43%
Carrie (Some Hearts) = -54%
Blake = -54%
Elliott = 112%
Jordin = -52%
Week Ending 1/13/08
Carrie (Carnival Ride)= -28%
Daughtry = -10%
Carrie (Some Hearts) = -27%
Blake = -36%
Jordin = -30%
Week Ending 1/20/08
Carrie (Carnival Ride)= -11%
Daughtry = -14%
Carrie (Some Hearts) = 15%
Blake = -7%
Jordin = -1%
Thanks ladymadonna! It IS good to see how those songs recovered weekly. Hopefully, that weekly recovery will be experienced this January also! Your post lets us have realistic expectations. Thanks again!
(Do you have those same artist’s numbers for Feb. 08?
Nice bracing hit of reality there, LadyM. I guess that when we revel about Idols having “real-world” sales patterns in December, we can’t be too shocked when they turn out to have “real-world” sales patterns in January.
Hey, LadyM, you like sports. Have you gotten a chance to see the ESPN Heroes college football montage? It’s posted on the headlines thread, and DCO is basically exploding with links to it. (Only a slight exaggeration.) Nicely, nicely done. I love ESPN.
ETA: As I understand it, those are weekly decreases from week to week. So, from 12/23 to 12/30, Carnival Ride fell 67%. Then, from 12/30 to 1/6, Carnival Ride fell 58%. Etc., etc.
I thought I remember Daughtry’s number went up quite substantially. Went to number 1 after season 6 started? Perhaps that’s week five or six in your count?
I believe Daughtry hit #1 on the BB 200 the sales week ending 1/23/08, but he only sold 65K to do it. I’m at work and don’t have the increase/decline percentages for that week (or February) at my fingertips, but I’ll see if I can dig around a bit and will post them unless Kirsten (or somebody else) beats me to it.
ETA: Yes, as FF clarified, the percentages are week-to-week drops, so in Week 1 post-holiday, Carrie’s CR (for example) dropped -67%, and then an additional -58% from that total the following week, etc.
And yep, I just now saw the Heroes montage. It absolutely knocked me and my NCAA Football loving socks off.
I checked and even though the actual numbers went down, sales of 55K were enough to put Daughtry at #2 on the album chart, two weeks after Christmas. The album hit #1 two weeks after that. I’m sure the show helped him go double platinum in the first five months of 2007.
Both Archie and Cook will get a boost from the show but I’d be surprised if they used a Cook song the same way they used Home. But I could be completely wrong since it would speed the sales quite a bit.
Sorry all - I just realized I have my dates screwed up, and I can’t edit my post above. Daughtry actually was #1 the sales week ending 1/21/07 (I messed-up my subtraction from the BB issue date, and also mistyped 2008 instead of ‘07). Yes, I’m a mess today.
Anyway, He sold 65K the first week he was #1, and increased 23% to 80K the following week but fell to #3 on the BB 200.
I’m pretty sure they didn’t use Home on Idol for the auditions so Daughtry went to #1 in January on his own without any help from the show. INO was actually the big hit that spurred the album sales. Anyway, I’m sure AI will be giving Cook lots of props since the promo indicates they want to make winning the show a big deal again. They didn’t exactly do that by using Home as the boot song.
INO stats week of 1/21/07
To Date:
219,366,000 tot. audience impression
39,815 tot. spins
Adult Contemporary = 197 spins
Hot Adult Contemporary = 8,948 spins
Pop = 21,165 spins
Active Rock = 3,252 spins
Alternative = 2,471 spins
Rock = 1,173 spins
Rhythmic = 12 spins
MTV = 1 spin
VH1 = 23 spins
Sorry to be a post-ho, but it turns out I do have Daughtry’s stats for the post-holiday season in the spreadsheet I keep on this computer. So these are sales numbers and associated increases/declines for ‘Daughtry’ (the album) from Christmas through the end of January 2007:
12/24/2006…..249,537 (38%)
12/31/2006…..76,262 (-69%)
01/07/2007…..55,916 (-27%)
01/14/2007…..50,383 (-10%)
01/21/2007…..65,398 (29%)
01/28/2007…..80,147 (23%)
And I will shut-up now about Daughtry, ’cause I’m no expert. I had just happened to pull these numbers a few weeks ago for comparison purposes.
Ken Barnes won’t be posting the Idol Charts Watch anymore???? Why not? What happened?
I looked forward every week for his charts.