Us Album Charts...

[KUEFC09U2]

how do these work? when are they published, and have U2 got any chance of going in at number1?

 

[xovonob now!]

go to "peeling off those dollar bills"

you can look at billboard.com to see the numbers. Or a building chart at hitsdailydouble.com.

 

[BigMacPhisto]

To quickly answer your questions....

1) The albums are ranked by their overall sales through Soundscan.....Soundscan is able to get all or nearly all of the sales in the US tracked, so the charts are quite accurate.

2) The latest charts are published on Thursday, although it can be later, as it is right now, thanks to the holidays. If an album is released on Tuesday, it will appear in the charts nine days later, so the first week of sales is nine rather than seven.

3) All signs point to U2 being number one here in the United States.

 

[doctorwho]

To quickly answer your questions....

1) The albums are ranked by their overall sales through Soundscan.....Soundscan is able to get all or nearly all of the sales in the US tracked, so the charts are quite accurate.

2) The latest charts are published on Thursday, although it can be later, as it is right now, thanks to the holidays. If an album is released on Tuesday, it will appear in the charts nine days later, so the first week of sales is nine rather than seven.

3) All signs point to U2 being number one here in the United States.

Point #2 is incorrect.

SoundScan tracks from Monday through Sunday. It tabulates and Billboard then posts the data on Thursday.

So for a new release, it's only 6 days of sales, not 9, as new releases are on Tuesday. The exception is when an album is released early or "off schedule", like Eminem's last two releases. His latest was issued on a Friday, meaning it charted at #1 with over 700,000 copies sold even though it had just 3 days worth of sales. It's next full week, it had nearly 900,000 copies sold. U2's HTDAAB sold 250,000 copies in just one day! So it is on pace to perhaps equal that mark. If so, it will be U2's best SoundScan era debut, surpassing the 428,000 copies ATYCLB sold.

 

[womanfish]

Hey doc, I heard a report on the radio saying that HTDAAB sold almost 400k on the first day. Not sure where this info is from or it's accuracy, but could very well be true since the 260k number we have is taken from the first day totals of only about 5 large chains. So many others out there, Borders, Barnes and Noble, WalMart, Sam Goody, Kmart, Target, etc.. and all the smaller chains as well.

 

[doctorwho]

Hey doc, I heard a report on the radio saying that HTDAAB sold almost 400k on the first day. Not sure where this info is from or it's accuracy, but could very well be true since the 260k number we have is taken from the first day totals of only about 5 large chains. So many others out there, Borders, Barnes and Noble, WalMart, Sam Goody, Kmart, Target, etc.. and all the smaller chains as well.

You're right! Here's the original report:

Itwas an impressive opening day of sales for U2's new CD, "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb." One day reports from retailers showed the CD could be trending towards 900,000 sold for the week. Here is the number of units sold as reported by various retailers: Best Buy - 100,000; Target - 61,000; Circuit City - 32,000; Andersons - 20,000; Tower Records - 13,000.

Those sales alone add up to 226,000 - and that's just in one day! Missing from these numbers are on-line sales and WalMart - two other huge retailers. Throw in Borders and all the stores you mentioned (except for Target which was already included) and the numbers should easily be 250,000+ copies in one day!

Here is the comment regarding sales of 400,000 the first day:

Was just listening to K-Rock here in NY this morning and, as they played the intro to 'All Because of You', he mentioned that HTDAAB sold 400k in its first day (and I would assume he meant US only). INCREDIBLE!

It should be noted that this was a post from a new person (his/her first post on these forums). So there is some question to accuracy. That said, it's not unreasonable to believe 400,000 copies were indeed sold the first day - making it possible for HTDAAB to hit 800,000+ copies in the U.S. for the week.

What I hope for now is continued blockbuster sales through Jan. 1st. If the album can reach 2-3x Platinum by then, it'll really be a huge boost once the tour comes - as radio DJ's will be announcing U2 touring to support their Triple Platinum selling album. It adds more hype.

I was worried that U2 might not match the sales of ATYCLB as that sold an impressive 4.2M copies in the U.S. But with these first week sales alone, it's clear that U2 will do fine with this new album.

 

[BigMacPhisto]

Heh, that's rather bizzare that Soundscan tracks that way considering that new releases come about on Tuesdays, but I guess it's easier for them to start on Mondays like everyone else.