Year end music sales report

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STING2

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Rap, Country Dominate Year of Slumping Music Sales
Thu Jan 2, 7:47 PM ET Add Entertainment - Reuters to My Yahoo!


By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Slumping music sales left the recording industry with a whopping New Year's hangover, but rap star Eminem (news - web sites) has plenty to celebrate.


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The Year in Movies
View the top 25 most popular movies of 2002

Yahoo! Year in Review 2002




In a year that saw CD sales overall plunge by nearly 9 percent, the Detroit-based rapper-turned-actor sold 7.6 million copies of his latest album, "The Eminem Show," making it the biggest commercial hit of 2002, according to year-end retail figures issued Thursday by Nielsen SoundScan.


At the same time, the soundtrack to Eminem's movie debut, "8 Mile," ranked No. 5 for the year with nearly 3.5 million units sold.


Featuring songs from Eminem and other recording artists, "8 Mile" also returned Thursday to the top of SoundScan's latest weekly sales chart (ended Dec. 29), dislodging country pop diva Shania Twain (news) from the No. 1 spot for the first time since the debut of her new album "Up!" in late November.


The movie "8 Mile," loosely based on Eminem's life, opened at No. 1 at the U.S. box office in November to generally warm reviews and went on to gross more than $114 million, making the Grammy-winning rapper one of the few recording stars in recent years to successfully cross over to the big screen.


Eminem's double triumph came in a year of music dominated by hip-hop and country music acts, which according to a recent tally by the New York Times jointly accounted for three-fifths of the year's No. 1 rankings on the pop album charts.


Indeed, most of the top 10 albums of 2002 fell into one of those two classes as rap and country encroached further into the pop mainstream. But country music was the only genre to post an increase in sales last year, rising 12 percent over 2001 levels, according to SoundScan.


Industrywide, total album sales fell 8.7 percent from 2001 to nearly 650 million units, the second year-to-year decline in a row. A slump of nearly 3 percent the previous year marked the first sales drop in at least a decade. The major labels have blamed the sluggish economy and online music piracy for weak sales.


Eminem was the only artist in 2002 to surpass the 5 million mark. Fellow rap artist Nelly's "Nellyville" release was No. 2 for the year, with sales of 4.9 million copies, followed by the debut album of Canadian teen pop ingenue Avril Lavigne (news), "Let Go," at No. 3 with sales of 4.1 million units. Country pop trio the Dixie Chicks finished the year in fourth place, selling nearly 3.7 million copies of their latest album, "Home."


Rounding out the top 10 were "Missundaztood" from pop-rocker Pink at No. 6, followed by hip-hop songstress Ashanti's self-titled album, country star Alan Jackson (news)'s "Drive," Shania Twain's "Up!" and the bluegrass-heavy soundtrack to the film "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"


In terms of market share, Universal Music Group, a unit of Vivendi Universal, continued to lead the pack, accounting for nearly 29 percent of total album sales in 2002. Warner Music, owned by Time Warner Inc., was No. 2 with 15.9 percent market share, followed by Sony Corp (news - web sites)'s Sony Music Entertainment (15.7 percent), Bertelsmann AG (news - web sites)'s BMG (14.8 percent) and EMI Group Plc (news - web sites)'s EMI (8.4 percent). Independent labels accounted for the balance.
 
U2's ATYCLB finished at #68 on Billboards year end album chart. The difference with Soundscans chart is that Billboard goes from December 1, 2001 to November 30, 2002. Soundscans year end chart runs from January 1, 2002 to December 31, 2002. Due to this, ATYCLB will probably rank a little lower on the Soundscan chart than on the Billboard chart.

On a different topic, an article in Billboard just mentioned that AC/DC's total album sales worldwide now stand at 140 million! Their album, Back In Black, has sold 41 million copies worldwide. It said Back In Black is now the 6th largest selling album World Wide! Over 63 million of the 140 million total albums sold were sold in the USA. 19 million of the 41 million Back In Black has sold were sold in the USA. AC/DC has released a total of 15 Studio albums of original material. They have released several live albums as well.

I'd put U2s total album sales at over 120 million. The Joshua Tree has sold over 25 million copies.
 
Hello,

I just got the list of the 100 top sellers of last year, according to SoundScan. U2 occupied the 88th position, with 771,000 copies sold (rounded to the nearest thousand). It was one of only three albums that charted on this list that was released in 2000 (the other 2 were Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory and Enya's A Day Without Rain, both charted higher).

I also have a weekly SoundScan chart from last year (20 December) that showed U2's total sales until then: 3,230,673. Add to this the 771,000 and we have a result of at least 4,001,673 copies sold until 29 December 2002 as there is no record of the sales between 17 December and 31 December 2001).
This puts again some accuracy in the numbers reported by Doctorwho and Sting2. Good job, guys! You were not that far off. How do you do it every time?

C ya!

Marty
 
And here is the full list:

7.607.925 01 EMINEM - Eminem Show
4.916.073 01 NELLY - Nellyville
4.121.396 02 AVRIL LAVIGNE - Let Go
3.690.413 01 DIXIE CHICKS - Home
3.498.497 01 SOUNDTRACK - 8 Mile
3.144.947 05*PINK - M!ssundaztood
3.099.216 01 ASHANTI - Ashanti
3.054.736 01 ALAN JACKSON - Drive
2.909.499 01 SHANIA TWAIN - Up
2.736.049 01*SOUNDTRACK - O Brother, Where Art Thou?
2.661.000 01 NORAH JONES - Come Away With Me
2.645.000 01 CELINE DION - A New Day Has Come
2.569.000 05 JOSH GROBAN - Josh Groban
2.451.000 01 VARIOUS - Now Vol.9
2.445.000 01 ELVIS PRESLEY - 30 #1 Hits
2.338.000 01*CREED - Weathered
2.139.000 02**LINKIN PARK - Hybrid Theory
2.089.000 01 FAITH HILL - Cry
2.071.000 08*PUDDLE OF MUDD - Come Clean
2.019.000 01 TOBY KEITH - Unleashed
2.001.000 01 KENNY CHESNEY - No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem
1.977.000 03*LUDACRIS - Word Of Mouf
1.951.000 03*SHAKIRA - Laundry Service
1.921.000 02*NICKELBACK - Silver Side Up
1.856.000 14 JOHN MAYER - Room For Squares
1.764.000 01 BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - The Rising
1.714.000 02 JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE - Justified
1.714.000 06*NO DOUBT - Rock Steady
1.694.000 02 VARIOUS - Now 11
1.673.000 02 CHRISTINA AGUILERA - Stripped
1.668.000 02 SHERYL CROW - C'mon, C'mon
1.653.000 02 TIM MCGRAW - Tim Mcgraw & The Dancehall Doctors
1.636.000 01 DAVE MATTHEWS BAND - Busted Stuff
1.527.000 02 ROLLING STONES - Forty Licks
1.509.000 01*SYSTEM OF A DOWN - Toxicity
1.506.000 02 VARIOUS - Now Vol.10
1.500.000 01 SANTANA - Shaman
1.488.000 10*ENRIQUE IGLESIAS - Escape
1.423.000 03*USHER - 8701
1.411.000 01*JA RULE - Pain Is Love
1.374.000 01*ALICIA KEYS - Songs In A Minor
1.364.000 07*P.O.D. - Satellite
1.331.000 01 JAY-Z - Blueprint Vol.2 :the Gift...
1.307.000 01 JENNIFER LOPEZ - J To Tha L-o!:the Remixes
1.305.000 01 P.DIDDY - We Invented The Remix
1.288.000 06*KID ROCK - Cocky
1.284.000 02 RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS - By The Way
1.284.000 05 JENNIFER LOPEZ - This Is Me Then
1.252.000 02 KORN - Untouchables
1.231.000 26*MICHELLE BRANCH - Spirit Room
1.169.000 06*NAS - Stillmatic
1.154.000 02**ENYA - A Day Without Rain
1.126.000 01*BRITNEY SPEARS - Britney
1.110.000 02 LINKIN PARK - Reanimation
1.104.000 03 BARRY MANILOW - Ultimate Manilow
1.104.000 01 BIG TYMERS - Hood Rich
1.095.000 23 NAPPY ROOTS - Watermelon, Chicken & Gritz
1.094.000 05 VANESSA CARLTON - Be Not Nobody
1.038.000 01 MUSIQ - Juslisen
1.028.000 03 MISSY ELLIOTT - Under Construction
1.025.000 02 CAM'RON - Come Home With Me
1.020.000 04 ROD STEWART - Great American Songbook
1.001.000 02*MARY J. BLIGE - No More Drama
1.000.000 02 BRANDY - Full Moon
1.000.000 04 2PAC - Better Dayz
968.000 04 SOUNDTRACK - Spider-man
966.000 01 DISTURBED - Believe
944.000 01 ALANIS MORISSETTE - Under Rug Swept
938.000 23 JACK JOHNSON - Brushfire Fairytales
915.000 03 KYLIE MINOGUE - Fever
906.000 03 NIRVANA - Nirvana
904.000 02 VARIOUS - Totally Hits 2002
897.000 26 JIMMY EAT WORLD - Jimmy Eat World
888.000 02*INCUBUS - Morning View
859.000 04 JA RULE - Last Temptation
858.000 04 JAMES TAYLOR - October Road
851.000 25 HOOBASTANK - Hoobastank
847.000 07*MARTINA MCBRIDE - Greatest Hits
818.000 02 B2K - B2k
815.000 06 GOOD CHARLOTTE - Young & The Hopeless
811.000 02*VARIOUS - Now Vol.8
808.000 04 TWEET - Southern Hummingbird
802.000 10*INDIA.ARIE - Acoustic Soul
800.000 15 SOUNDTRACK - I Am Sam
798.000 02 JAY-Z & R.KELLY - Best Of Both Worlds
788.000 04 RASCAL FLATTS - Melt
777.000 43 RASCAL FLATTS - Rascal Flatts
771.000 03**U2 - All That You Can't Leave Behin
761.000 05 COLDPLAY - Rush Of Blood To The Head
758.000 09*TOBY KEITH - Pull My Chain
756.000 29*SOUNDTRACK - Shrek
741.000 18 VARIOUS - Now That's What I Call Xmas
740.000 20*OUTKAST - Big Boi & Dr. Dre Present...
731.000 03 MARIAH CAREY - Charmbracelet
723.000 09*CRAIG DAVID - Born To Do It
717.000 07 PAUL MCCARTNEY - Back In The U.s. Live 2002
716.000 04 AEROSMITH - O, Yeah! Ultimate Aerosmith
711.000 22*FAT JOE - Jealous Ones Still Envy
711.000 41 DEFAULT - Fallout

First column indicates scanned US sales for the period Dec 31, 2001 to Dec 29, 2002 rounded to the nearest hundred thousand (except the first 10).
Second column indicates highest chart position.
An asterisk (*) indicates that the listed album first charted in 2001, two asteriks: 2000.

C ya!

Marty
 
Great Info! Of course Dr. Who often gets the soundscan reports but it looks like this helps to confirm total sales up to December 29, 2002. Is that correct?
 
Popmartijn said:


I also have a weekly SoundScan chart from last year (20 December) that showed U2's total sales until then: 3,230,673. Add to this the 771,000 and we have a result of at least 4,001,673 copies sold until 29 December 2002 as there is no record of the sales between 17 December and 31 December 2001).

Thanks PopMartijn!!

If 4,001,673 copies were sold through Dec. 29th, this then includes the Xmas 2002 sales week.

The SoundScan report released on Dec. 30th stated that 6,960 copies were sold. The SoundScan report released on Jan. 7th said 3,021 copies were sold. The SoundScan report released on Jan 14th reported 2,138 copies sold.

So, if I'm doing my counting and math correctly, it means that through Week 115, ATYCLB has officially sold 4,013,792 copies. Unless I'm a week off somewhere, this seems correct (although it is a bit lower than my estimate or 4.032M, which I felt was rather conservative).

Does anyone want to verify my math based on the information we have?
 
doctorwho said:
If 4,001,673 copies were sold through Dec. 29th, this then includes the Xmas 2002 sales week.

Yep, but it excludes the Xmas 2001 sales week. In the week of 11-17 December 2001 ATYCLB sold 72,000 copies.

The SoundScan report released on Dec. 30th stated that 6,960 copies were sold. The SoundScan report released on Jan. 7th said 3,021 copies were sold. The SoundScan report released on Jan 14th reported 2,138 copies sold.

I assume you're talking about 2003 sales figures, not?

So, if I'm doing my counting and math correctly, it means that through Week 115, ATYCLB has officially sold 4,013,792 copies. Unless I'm a week off somewhere, this seems correct (although it is a bit lower than my estimate or 4.032M, which I felt was rather conservative).

Don't forget the 2 missing weeks in 2001. Granted they were Christmas weeks, but still. I just reported that ATYCLB sold almost 72,000 copies the pre-Christmas week. It only needed to sell 20,000 in 2 weeks (including one which was almost entirely before Christmas) to get to your estimate. I think the album sold at least that many, so your estimate seems correct, although a bit on the conservative side. :D

C ya!

Marty
 
I don't recall the Christmas weeks in 2001 being missing. But if they are missing from those totals then I guess you add 72,000 to the total which gives you 4,085,792? Is that correct?
 
STING2 said:
I don't recall the Christmas weeks in 2001 being missing. But if they are missing from those totals then I guess you add 72,000 to the total which gives you 4,085,792? Is that correct?

Sorry Sting, that's incorrect if you're talking about actual SoundScan sales. As I said, I have a SoundScan chart dated 20 December 2001 (which would have the sales figures of the week prior, 11-17 December 2001) which lists the total ATYCLB sold up to that point. Then there is the list published above, with the 2002 sales. This list is from 31 December 2001 - 29 December 2002. That means we have
- 17 December 2001: 3.23 million
17 December - 30 December 2001: ?
31 December 2001 - 29 December 2002: 771,000

The 72,000 I reported were from the week 11 - 17 December 2001 and were already included in the 3.23 million. But there are 2 weeks of sales data missing of which one week was still largely before Christmas (and the other one in the Christmas week). Hopefully someone can give a good estimate of the sales in that period (I certainly cannot).

C ya!

Marty
 
I understand now, I think Dr. Who might have statistics for those missings weeks or at least an estimate based on chart positions and known sales of other albums during those weeks. Looks like ATYCLB is around 4.1 million in sales in the USA now. Those two missing weeks probably represent sales of at least 50,000 to 100,000 copies combined given that its the high point of the Christmas season.
 
In what appears to be Weeks 61 and 62 of ATYCLB's chart run, the sales from those 2 missing weeks are as follows (according to Doc Who's data from earlier posts):

Week 61: Chart pos (74), Sales (42,000)

Week 62: Chart pos (58), Sales (28,000)

Therefore this means that some 70,000 units have been sold in those two weeks, resulting in a "overall" sales in the USA of 4,083,792 copies.

Please note: I unfortunately could not find accurate numbers due to the fact that Melissa was not sending the Doc the Soundscan lists, and there was much debate over the actual sales of ATYCLB in those two weeks (the fact that although ATYCLB rose over 15 positions, it still sold less; and other things relating to past trends). The only advice I can give is that you check out the posts for those two weeks in the "Where the album has no name" forum. Still I reckon the estimates there were fairly accurate and give us a figure around 45,000 more copies than Doc Who's "conservative" figure.
Well done! When you think about it, some 115 weeks after ATYCLB is sold, you were only out by a small margin. Not bad if you ask me!

God will Bless, cause he's the best!
WHYWHY.
 
I agree, Good Work! 4,083,792! Its about time this album got certified for 4 times platinum in the USA!
 
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