Perusing the SoundScan totals for country albums makes all of those mergers and layoffs seem a lot more understandable. Wow, the market is weak. Even Entertainer of the Year nominees are having a hard time breaking the million mark.
Here are the totals for the most recent albums by country artists, with the weeks released included to give a sense of how long it took to reach those marks. The albums are ranked by total sales to date. Here are the only current albums to scan over a million units:
1. Shania Twain Greatest Hits (84 weeks) 3.46 million
2. Carrie Underwood Some Hearts (31 weeks) 3.16 million
3. Keith Urban Be Here (91 weeks) 3.04 million
4. Kenny Chesney Road & The Radio (33 weeks) 2.31 million
5. Sugarland Twice The Speed of Life (86 weeks) 1.97 million
6. Rascal Flatts Me & My Gang (11 weeks) 1.88 million
7. Faith Hill Fireflies (46 weeks) 1.87 million
8. Trace Adkins Songs About Me (65 weeks) 1.48 million
9. Martina McBride Timeless (35 weeks) 1.12 million
10. Brad Paisley Time Well Wasted (44 weeks) 1.11 million
11. Dixie Chicks Taking The Long Way (4 weeks) 1.10 million
12. Gretchen Wilson All Jacked Up (38 weeks) 1.10 million
13. Dierks Bentley Modern Day Drifter (58 weeks) 1.09 million
The only albums on this list that are still actively selling, meaning they’re scanning more than 25k a week, are the Chicks, Rascal Flatts and Carrie Underwood. The Paisley, Chesney and Bentley CD’s have slowed down considerably, but still sell between 20-25k a week, so they could conceivably pad their totals by quite a bit.
Here are some albums that have a shot at cracking the million mark. The McGraw hits collection and the new Toby Keith are still selling in the 35-40k range each week, but are slowing down considerably faster than normal for those two artists. Of the two, McGraw’s will likely have much longer legs due to the inclusion of “Live Like You Were Dying” and a few other big hits.
1. Brooks & Dunn Hillbilly Deluxe (42 weeks ) 894 k
2. Tim McGraw Greatest Hits Vol. 2 (12 weeks) 881 k
3. Toby Keith White Trash With Money (10 weeks) 774 k
4. Alan Jackson Precious Memories (16 weeks) 718 k
5. Josh Turner Your Man (21 weeks) 712 k
Leave a Reply