Billboard update Week 13

[beLIEve]

U2 rises from 34 to 20 on the Album chart for Billboard this week based on Soundscan sales of 57000, a 42% boost in sales from last week. Hits is surprisingly close to Billboard/Soundcan across the board this week.

http://www.billboard.com/bb/daily/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000815534

In retrospect, I'm happy for U2 with another Grammy sweep, but it was all for Vertigo, and not in any "major" categories. I am glad they played "Sometimes", and they need to get their act together and release the video and single in N.A. ASAP. It should appeal to a different audience than Vertigo and ABOY, which is necessary IMO for them to see a consistent sales rise in the U.S. With downloads counting, they need Mercy or a good B-side to give Sometimes it's due!

 

[KUEFC09U2]

although not the increase which hits projected, still a very good increase both in sales and chart position, nice to see them back in the top 20

 

[Yahweh]

Problem will be staying there but there is some big events coming up to help that cause.

 

[beLIEve]

From Billboard on this week's chart:

"Overall U.S. album sales were down 2.3% from the previous week at 12.7 million units, a slope of 26% from the same week last year. Sales for 2005 are down 10.5% from last year at 7.7 million units."

That is hard to believe...the overall industry decline in sales is alarming, and while music exec's will blame downloading and pirating, I think it's also a direct reflection of the quality of music being so poor. I mean, HTDAAB is bucking the trend, and U2's opening week sales of 840K have not been topped since. Green Day's album is also bucking the trend, more so than even U2.

It's just crap music, IMO, and while crap music may rule the charts, perhaps the tide is turning in terms of how many people continue to actually buy crap. Bono seems prophetic at times, but I hope his great line at the end of Kite actually woke up the industry (The last of the rock stars...when hip-hop drove the big cars...). Rock n' Roll and Alternative music seems to be making a comeback, one that might have me listening to the radio again someday.

 

[doctorwho]

At this point, I'm not sure legal downloads are being fully counted just yet. So maybe CD sales are indeed down, but I'm sure legal downloads are way up. And thanks to services like iTunes, the "single" has a new life. This, of course, may actually hurt album sales a bit more as people will just download the songs they like or have heard. As a result, Billboard may need a new way of monitoring all sales.

 

[blueyedpoet]

so what's the official total for US sales?

 

[beLIEve]

The rest of Billboard for this week (March 5 issue-no sales data):

HTDAAB rises from 8 to 6 on Electronic Album Sales Chart
Best of 1980-1990 rise from 32 to 30 on Pop Catalog Chart

Mainstream Rock Tracks
ABOY drops from 20 to 22
Vertigo drops from 26 to 27

Modern Rock Tracks
ABOY free fall from 12 to 27!
Vertigo falls from 37 to 38

Adult Top 40
Vertigo falls from 17 to 22
Sometimes comes out of nowhere to enter at #32!!!!

Hot 100 Singles recurrent
Vertigo drops from 7 to 9

Hot 100 recurrent airplay
Vertigo drops from 17 to 25

Hot 100 bubbling under
ABOY drops from 12 to 18

Hot Digital Tracks
Vertigo rises from 28 to 25 w/sales increase

That's all I could find. The door has been opened for Sometimes...it has to be officially release now that it's charting?!!

 

[beLIEve]

Video news

ABOY video gets a late push as it rises to #9 this week on VH-1's
Top 20 Countdown, and even more surprising, it rises to #14 on MTV's Top 20! (Updated charts)

On Much Music's Top 30, ABOY rises to #14 and Vertigo falls to #24, with an updated chart due soon.

 

[Popmartijn]

Adult Top 40
Vertigo falls from 17 to 22
Sometimes comes out of nowhere to enter at #32!!!!

Could it be that my US singles strategy theory is correct!?

 

[beLIEve]

Yeah, it appears so. Sometimes is on NO OTHER U.S. Chart except for Triple A, similar to Adult Top 40. The Adult Top 40 chart is usually VERY slow and songs stay there a while. To debut at 32, and not even be on the "bubbling under" chart, means it's in heavy rotation on that format primarily. Meanwhile, Vertigo is still everywhere, and ABOY lingers on Modern & Mainstream Rock charts. I'd still like to see the Sometimes video & official release.

 

[Soldatti]

Soundscan
Issue Date: March 5, 2005

Total TW LW LW Pos. TW Pos. Title Artist
2465571 56692 39648 34 20 HOW TO DISMANTLE AN ATOMIC BOMB U2

 

[Zoovation]

Thanks Soldatti.

 

[MacPhisto066]

So the Bomb should hit 2.5 million copies by next week !

Cool

 

[fitz]

How many albums sold ATYCLB at this time?

 

[Axver]

Must say that I'm a bit annoyed ABOY didn't crack the top 100 after coming within a single position! Now it looks like any chance of a comeback and entering the 100 is well and truly over ...

SYCMIOYO has definitely been released to North American radio, though. Check out U2Wanderer.org's promo section. They recently (about a week or two before the Grammy's, I think) added a US promo to the section listing the SYCMIOYO promo release. Link: http://www.u2wanderer.org/disco/pr055.html

 

[Popmartijn]

How many albums sold ATYCLB at this time?

After 13 weeks, ATYCLB had sold about 1,811,000 records. Or, if you take the exact date as the measuring point, ATYCLB had sold about 2,030 after the Grammy's.

C ya!

Marty

 

[fitz]

Thanks a lot! Go, bomb go!