Weekly Music Sales Report – 24 August 2011
First, the bad news: this continues to be a rough summer, largely in part to the fact that there’s been precious few new releases for people to get excited about. Now, the good news: the Christmas shopping season starts Monday.
But let’s stick with the present for the moment.
There were only two entries in the Canadian Top 20 last week, one of which was the Now! 18 compilation, selling 7,000 units. That was good for the #3 spot behind Jay-Z and Kanye’s Watch the Throne (16,000 copies) closely followed by Adele’s 21 (15,500 copies).
Add it all up and sales are down 1% over last week, down 4% for the same week last year and flat when compared to 2010.
The digital story is better with downloads up 1% from last week, up 47% from the same week last year and pacing 38% ahead of 2010. The #1 download in the land is Maroon 5’s “Moves Like Jagger” for the third week in a row, selling 29,000 copies, up 8% from last week.
Stateside, Jay-Z and Kanye stick at #1 with 177,000 copies sold of Watch the Throne. The two-week today is 612,000–a little light but some expecations. Meanwhile, Adele sold her 3,000,000th copy of 21 to someone in the last week. She’s at #2, selling another 80,000 units.
On the digital end of things, there’s a little CanCon at the top wtih “She Will” from L’il Wayne feat. Drake moving 244,000 downloads.
Records to watch this week include:
Dave Stewart/The Blackbird Diaries: The Eurythmics dude releases another solo album that will be much-praised but will probably sell precious little.
Hugh Laurie/Let Them Talk: Yes, Dr. House can sing. New Orleans blues seems to be his thing.
Barbra Streisand/What Matters Most: Barbra Streisand Sings the Lyrics of Al and Marilyn Bergman: Don’t be surprised if this debutes in the top three next week. Early sales figures show that it’s selling more than Jay-Z/Kanye and Adele.
Black Tide/Post-Mortum: Metal produced in part by Canadian GGGarth Richardson.
The Human League/Credo: Yes, them. Party like it’s 1981.
Sales figures from Nielsen SoundScan. New release list courtesy of The Tuesday Guide.
