Originally posted by womanfish:
What I also find interesting about this article is that in February, 31,000 copies sold was only enough to get steely dan into the number 54 position. Right now U2 sits at number 39 with 26,000 copies sold. but maybe the whole chart had higher numbers that week because of the grammy effect, we shall see what happens with our boys. They obviously aren't going into it at number 1 like Santana either.
Thanks,
Womanfish, for the sales and chart data. I was curious about the Grammy effect.
You are right, though, in your statement concerning sales - they are low.
I have some of last year's SoundScan numbers. For the week ending Jan. 14th last year (which is equivalent to this past week now - when U2 appeared at #39 on the charts), the #39 album sold 37,888 copies. For the week ending Jan. 28th, the #39 album sold 35,595 copies.
This time last year, with sales of 26,000 copies, an album would have ranked #58. A few weeks later (the week ending Jan. 28th) the album with the same level of sales would have ranked #53.
Those sales and chart positions are far more typical of what I've observed in the past. Therefore, with sales of only 26,000 copies, clearly ATYCLB is rather high on the charts. The low sales can be attributed to the economy and the lack of strong new material. U2 can't complain though - to have their album at #39 with weekly sales of 26,000 copies is outstanding, especially since the album has already been out for 63 weeks. But for more recent releases, these type of low sales figures may be disheartening.
One person who participates on the Interference chat-group stated he believes that ATYCLB will eventually rebound all the way to #1. If ATYCLB does win album of the year, I can easily see it doubling, tripling, even quadrupling in sales. However, this would only give it 80-100,000 copies sold in that particular week, which is usually NOT enough to achieve a #1 ranking. Unless ATYCLB gets an unexpected HUGE boost from the Super Bowl, which is then further magnified by some big Grammy wins, I don't think ATYCLB will even return to the Top 10 (it might appear in the Top 20 for a token week) let alone #1.