Melissa sent me the SoundScan data for this week, so I can report some U.S. chart news early.
In Week 50, ATYCLB rises slightly from #57 to #55 in the U.S.
Position #55 in mid-October is a great position for this album. "Stuck..." continues to rise on the charts (as of last week) and with the tour now on-going, this should keep the album relatively stagnant on the charts for the next month or so. That may be just enough time for holiday sales to pick up, which may give the album another boost.
The first 50 weeks for ATYCLB on the U.S. Billboard charts are:
3-5-12-22-23-24-20-18-22-16
19-19-25-33-37-35-11-15-25-31
38-40-42-45-45-48-50-48-50-58
60-53-50-66-74-82-81-89-88-99
105-106-108-104-78-66-53-50-57-55
"POP" was out of the Top 100 after 19 weeks and "Zooropa" was out of the Top 100 after 31 weeks. ATYCLB fell out of the Top 100 after 40 weeks, however, it has now returned for an additional 6 weeks. It has spent 46 out of 50 total weeks in the U.S. Top 100.
Approximate weekly sales for the first 50 weeks of ATYCLB are (rounded to nearest thousand):
428,000 + 176,000 + 119,000 + 125,000 + 100,000 + 113,000 + 154,000 + 259,000 + 108,000 + 66,000 + 59,000 + 57,000+ 47,000 + 44,000 + 41,000 + 49,000 + 85,000 + 74,000 + 54,000 + 48,000 + 43,000 + 39,000 + 37,000 + 39,000 + 30,000 + 29,000 + 26,000 + 29,000 + 25,000 + 24,000 + 27,000 + 30,000 + 31,000 + 24,000 + 22,000 + 18,000 + 19,000 + 17,000 + 17,000 + 15,000 + 14,000 + 14,000 + 13,000 + 13,000 + 16,000 + 19,000 + 21,000 + 23,000 + 22,000 + 22,000
Estimated total U.S. sales after 50 weeks are: 2,924,000.
In Week 45, when ATYCLB charted at #78, sales would typically be around 18-19,000 copies. However, Billboard claimed only a 19% increase in sales for ATYCLB. The SoundScan data from the week before (kindly sent to me by Melissa) showed sales of a little over 13,000 copies. This meant that with a 19% increase, sales could be no more than 16,000 copies for the week, which seems low (remember, this occurred before the tragedy). Nonetheless, I will use this sales estimate in my calculations.
In Week 46, at #66, sales would typically be around 22,000 copies. I took off 15% from that number due to the tragedy and estimated sales at 19,000 copies. Since ATYCLB was also listed as a "Pacesetter," I felt this estimate was solid.
In Week 47, the album jumped up to #53. Popmartijn saw an article that reported sales for the #50 album that week at 22,000 copies. Therefore, I estimated sales for this week to be 21,000 copies.
In Week 48, the album was at #50, so I estimated sales at 23,000 copies. This may seem high, but Week 49 chart data (see below) suggests that 22,000 copies may be too low.
In Week 49, the album dropped to #57, but I felt that this may not necessarily be due to a huge drop in sales. My guess here proved to be true. Melissa sent me SoundScan data that showed sales to be at exactly 21,578 copies (which rounds to 22,000 copies).
In week 50, the album gains slightly in sales, with 21,955 copies sold (again, rounds to 22,000 copies).
This puts sales at 2.924 million copies in the U.S. This may be off by a few thousand, but I feel it is fairly accurate. Please note that while many weeks were estimates of sales based on chart positions, many other weeks Melissa sent me actual SoundScan data, so we have the exact number of copies sold.
If one estimates that stores have approximately 5x weekly sales in stock, that would put the shipment figures at over 3 million copies. Therefore, while it's not official, ATYCLB, for all intents and purposes, has gone 3x Platinum in the U.S.
The "official" certification should come within the next month.
It seems that Hits Daily Double is rather generous with their numbers. I'm not sure where they collect data, but they routinely seem a bit high - especially in the lower part of their chart. For example, they had ATYCLB at #45 with over 26,000 copies sold. Based on SoundScan and Billboard, this is not correct.
The #1 album in the U.S. this week is by Ja Rule ("Pain Is Love") with slightly over 220,000 copies sold. Enya does indeed see a substantial increase in sales as her album goes to #2 with 162,000 copies sold (an increase from 129,000 copies sold last week). N'Sync's "Celebrity" rises to #16 on the charts (from #17) but decreases in sales. "Celebrity" sells 61,000 copies this week, down from 63,000 copies last week.
A few more artists you can add to your list Womanfish are Jay-Z and Madonna. While Jay-Z's current album is holding strong at #4 this week with sales of 128,000 copies (down from 148,000 copies last week), the album he released with U2's album a year ago is nowhere to be found in the Top 200. Madonna's "Music" is also out of the Top 200, despite be released just six weeks before U2's album.
Whitney Houston's version of the "Star Spangled Banner" is selling incredibly well. It zoomed up on the Billboard Hot 100 charts last week thanks to sales of almost 60,000 copies (easily making it the #1 selling CD in the U.S.). This week, the single sells nearly 78,000 copies, which keeps it at #1. The #2 CD single on the sales chart, "AM to PM," sold a bit under 25,000 copies. Lately, CD singles do not sell that well in the U.S. or Canada, which may be the reason for U2 not releasing CD's in the U.S. For example, the #10 CD single on the sales chart, "Don't Mess with the Radio," sold approximately 3,500 copies. The #100 CD single, "Separated" by Avant, sold a mere 611 copies.
That's all the information I have for now. More data (on "Stuck..." in particular) when the full charts are up on Thursday.
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A proud member of the "No BEALs Club."
[This message has been edited by doctorwho (edited 10-17-2001).]