Jennifer Hudson and Kellie Pickler both dropped brand-new albums this week. Music industry magazine, Hits Daily Double predicts their first week sales.
Jennifer Hudson’s debut release is set to move 215-225k this week. HDD predicts the number could trend even higher after her non-singing appearance on Oprah Winfrey today to promote her upcoming movie The Secret Life of Bees.
Some solid numbers there for J-Hud. Jennifer’s single “Spotlight” sits at #36 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #3 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Airplay charts.
The prediction for Kellie Pickler’s latest is 40K, which if accurate, would be a nearly 50% drop off from from her debut Small Town Girl which opened at 79K two years ago. I’m sure the sad state of the music industry and the economy is playing a role here, but still–ouch. Her single from the album “Don’t You Know You’re Beautiful” sits at #26 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. It’s been charting for 26 weeks and has yet to crack the Top 20.
Kellie’s doing better, at least, than another country Idol blond, Kristy Lee Cook, who has only sold 14,000 of her debut album “Why Wait”–4,000 this week and 10,000 her opening week.
That’s a double ouch.
Kellie Picker = My first laugh of the day.
Please, don’t change it. Thanks, MJ!
So, if JHud is expected to move over 200K this week, where the heck does that leave T.I.? HUGE!
awwww, lets send some mail to Arista to promove KLC, poor girl, that has to hurt….
Please, donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t change it. Thanks, MJ!
No, I have to! LOL.
Awwww, man!
That pretty much sucks. I feel really badly for her. I do have to wonder what she thinks about the whole thing….
However, I also have to remember that this is the same girl who had to sing “Amazing Grace” twice to get through the initial rounds. That’s sad. This doesn’t do her any favors.
Maybe with some actual promotion, she’ll get off the ground.
Jen is doing an interview with the biggest UAC station in NYC WRKS fm as we speak. She’s getting alot of love….some of the more recent reviews are meh, but she’s pretty much review proof at this point. Go Jen!
KLC is not making a splash because she isn’t very good, sad, but true.
Pickler will do a slow burn. I expect her numbers in the long run will be about the same as her first, when all is said and done. She’s a personality, and she’s got some good stuff on the cd. It will sell. Slowly, but surely.
Was Red High Heels Kellie’s first single from her previous CD? I’m just curious if the big drop in debut week sales has to do with their choice of such a crappy first single?
I’m curious about Kristy too. Maybe the label’s strategy was just to put in a tiny bit of money, be okay with tiny sales for a while, and give her time to plug along in Nashville for a while to see if she makes it, rather than promote her a bunch and drop her quickly if she doesn’t sell big?
I with all girls’ best luck. However, if I have to choose one of them, I’ll pick JH.
Go JHud! I’m a little surprised since the single seemed to be doing only ok, but it’s a pleasant surprise. Yay for her!
I’m not worried about Kellie either. She will work her way up. The problem is, this time she doesn’t have the curious-idol viewer purchases to help prop her 1st week sales. But she’s solid, so she should do well in the long run.
i feel so sorry for klc. what a flop her cd has been. i still have no idea why they signed her over people like brooke and jason.
^^IMHO Jason is popular, but have a bad image in the industry, “stonner and rebeld, and I don ´t care about this…or I was thinking Bob Marley….”, maybe this isn ´t real mirrow of his persona… but anyway he had being meeting with people maybe something will pop out…
Brooke I like her,so IÂ ´ll simple wish her the best…
i simply think that a lot of people didn’t even know Jennifer had a single out…
…but the truth is, on mainstream R&B and Urban Adult radio stations… spotlight has certainly been a success.
it is currently #1 on the major format of UAC. it’s also #6 on mainstream urban. the #3 billboard r&b song and #3 in r&b airplay.
this past week it was #16 in total airplay and made it’s debut in billboard’s top 40 at #36… and if itunes top 100 (currently #39)is any indication… along with it continuing to gain airplay…should make a big jump in billboard’s top40.
nearly 5 years removed, for jenn, spotlight has been a long and slow climb… gaining credibility, radio airplay, and fans along the way.
Jenn is more than just the songs she sings (which of course she does incredibly well). She IS the whole story. She IS the ultimate wildcard. She IS the ultimate “owning the second chance given.” I’ve watched her Spotlight video ~20 times since I downloaded with the album on Tuesday, and I still cry every single time. I am soo happy for her.
I think the difference between how JHud’s single is doing as compared to the projected album sales is that people are going to buy the whole album who don’t necessarily listen to Urban or UAC radio stations. Radio isn’t to credit or blame in regards to her sales… I think it’s just her popularity and name recognition in general. People know who she is and are obviously interested in the album, so they’re buying it, despite seemingly “low” single sales. And the fact that she’s also promoting a movie at this point in time doesn’t hurt either…
I also think that the thing to remember in single sales is that songs that are hits on Pop/Top 40 radio are usually the HUGE sellers. I mean, look at these numbers, for instance. JHud has the #1 song on UAC radio, with 2068 spins. The #1 song on Pop/Top 40 radio is Rihanna’s “Disburbia” with 9667 spins (per USA Today’s airplay charts). I’m not sure exactly what their sales figures are, but I’d think there’s as big a disconnect there as there is in the numbers of spins.
But as long as she’s moving units, I’m sure the suits are happy.
^^ Maybe I ´m not understanding you, but that will mean that Jordin ´s One Step, should be selling more considering how well it ´s doing in Top40…
I don’t think that Kellie’s current song is very good and hence it is not generating much buzz for her new CD. Too bad. I hope that there are better songs on the CD and that they release a better one soon. I heard Kellie sing her new song live a few times on TV lately and I just did not like it.
Props and congrats to JHud.
Kristy, what can I say? Well, good luck to her. Considering that her CD was recorded in four days, there could not have been much overhead which would need to be recovered. I wonder how many singles Kristy has sold.
With one exception (Kelly Clarkson), all Idol albums suffer from diminishing returns. The second album sells half of what the first one did, etc. I was hoping that the S5 idols would buck this trend but Kellie’s first week sales are underwhelming. Kellie gets terrific TV promo and seems to be doing great in country and yet this album’s first week sales will be considerably less then the first one. I just think the fading “Idol” glow combined with declining sales overall in the industry can’t be overcome.
Her first album sold almost 800K and that seems impossible to repeat in the current market. I know squat about country though so maybe I am missing the boat. After Phil and Kristy Lee Cook, I think the bloom is off the Idol country rose for now anyway.
Jennifer Hudson’s sales are a great surprise though.
Maybe she can bring r&b back.
I guess Daughtry will be the test of this one, though one could argue it’s too early to call it over on Carrie’s latest. I can’t see that one doing but so much more though, so maybe you’re right!.
It’s almost a matter of arithmetic. I think sales are declining in the music industry overall at about 20% a year and albums come out every two years so this becomes a real problem for all artists..
Who in the world is buying J Hud’s album that she’s selling on this kind of scale? She can’t have much of an Idol-specific fanbase left. Is it the fans she picked up through Dream Girls? Or just R&B music fans in general?
Almost every review of her album that I’ve seen has said that it’s not that good. But, if I’m not mistaken, those sales projections are in line with what Daughtry sold their first week.
Daughtry sold something like 350K their first week.
Jennifer Hudson has a very strong following in the black community, and I’m sure she picked up many fans as an actress. The girl did win an Oscar.
I think Jen still has a lot of fans from Idol who’ve been waiting a long time for this album, so they’re probably anxious to get their hands on it. I’m sure she has also made new fans since Dreamgirls, and maybe the radio success of Spotlight is helping as well. This album has been hyped for at least a year-maybe there are just a lot of folks that were itching to buy it this week.
i am glad to see Jennifer selling the most of the 2 .usually the Country Idols have tended to sell more than the R&B ones but this time the R&B one is winning . as an R&B fan and not a Country fan i hope the trend continues.
Daughtry sold about 303,000 their first week.
We’re reading different reviews. While there have been some negative reviews to be sure, the reviews I’ve read have been mostly positive–even those reviewers who don’t like the songs say her vocal delivery makes up for it.
Jennifer’s debut in “Dreamgirls” exposed her to a new audience. I don’t think her popularity at this point has much to do with American Idol.