It’s time for an album sales update, our first since . Brad Paisley is off to a strong start with American Saturday Night, selling 130k in its first week. That’s about 70k less than his previous two studio albums – Time Well Wasted and 5th Gear – opened with, but not a terrible drop-off, considering the state of the music market.
Meanwhile, the new studio albums by Rascal Flatts and Keith Urban are slowing down considerably, now being outpaced on a weekly basis by 2008 releases by Taylor Swift, Zac Brown Band, Darius Rucker and Lady Antebellum.
Among younger acts with a new album in 2009, the most impressive sales are coming from Jason Aldean, while 2008 releases from Kellie Pickler, Billy Currington, and Randy Houser are showing new signs of life.
Biggest disappointments? It’s hard not to look in the direction of Martina McBride, who has barely cleared the 100k mark on her new studio set. Lee Ann Womack’s 2008 set just made it over that mark, too. Then again, one only needs to have sold 455 copies to make the chart this week, with the anchor position going to Wynonna with that total. Her covers album Sing – Chapter 1 has sold 41k to date.
Here are the latest totals for albums released over the past three years that are still charting:
2009
- Rascal Flatts, Unstoppable – 842,000
- Keith Urban, Defying Gravity – 452,000
- Jason Aldean, Wide Open – 384,000
- Kenny Chesney, Greatest Hits II – 281,000
- Dierks Bentley, Feel That Fire – 219,000
- Martina McBride, Shine – 104,000
- John Rich, Son of a Preacher Man – 103,000
- Eric Church, Carolina – 94,000
- Rodney Atkins, It’s America – 88,000
- Jake Owen, Easy Does It – 81,000
- Randy Travis, I Told You So: Ultimate Hits – 78,000
- Montgomery Gentry, For Our Heroes – 64,000
- Willie Nelson & Asleep at the Wheel, Willie & The Wheel – 56,000
- Steve Earle, Townes – 47,000
- Colt Ford, Ride Through the Country – 45,000
- Jason Michael Carroll, Growing Up is Getting Old – 45,000
- Wynonna, Sing – Chapter 1 – 41,000
- Hank Williams Jr. – 127 Rose Avenue – 34,000
- Ryan Bingham, Roadhouse Sun – 15,000
- Tracy Lawrence, Rock – 11,000
- Darryl Worley, Sounds Like Life – 8,000
- Holly Williams, Here With Me – 5,000
- Charlie Robison, Beautiful Day – 3,000
- Tanya Tucker, My Turn – 3,000
2008
- Taylor Swift, Fearless – 3,464,000
- Sugarland, Love on the Inside – 1,683,000
- George Strait, Troubadour – 914,000
- Alan Jackson, Good Time – 869,000
- Darius Rucker, Learn to Live – 754,000
- Kenny Chesney, Lucky Old Sun – 721,000
- Zac Brown Band, Foundation – 681,000
- Rascal Flatts, Greatest Hits Vol. 1 – 680,000
- Lady Antebellum, Lady Antebellum – 674,000
- Toby Keith, 35 Biggest Hits – 652,000
- Jamey Johnson, That Lonesome Song – 509,000
- Toby Keith, That Don’t Make Me a Bad Guy – 403,000
- James Otto, Sunset Man – 374,000
- Julianne Hough, Julianne Hough – 314,000
- Kellie Pickler, Kellie Pickler – 261,000
- Dierks Bentley, Greatest Hits – 255,000
- Brad Paisley, Play – 247,000
- Dolly Parton, Backwoods Barbie – 208,000
- Tim McGraw, Greatest Hits Vol. 3 – 206,000
- Billy Currington, Little Bit of Everything – 191,000
- Trace Adkins, X – 185,000
- Montgomery Gentry, Back When I Knew it All – 184,000
- Joey + Rory, Life of a Song – 167,000
- Blake Shelton, Startin’ Fires – 165,000
- Eli Young Band, Jet Black and Jealous – 108,000
- Lee Ann Womack, Call Me Crazy – 102,000
- Craig Morgan, Greatest Hits – 81,000
- Hank Williams III, Damn Right Rebel Proud – 80,000
- Randy Houser, Anything Goes – 79,000
- Lost Trailers, Holler Back – 69,000
2006-2007
- Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift – 4,129,000
- Carrie Underwood, Carnival Ride – 2,918,000
Wow, this is kind of depressing.
It may be ‘depressing’ but country does make up more than 1/4 of the Top 40 on the Hot 200 chart.
Why didn’t you put the total for Tim Mcgraw’s Limited Edition that includes Greatest Hits 1&2 not only is it still on the Country Album chart its still on Billboard Top 200.
Even though it contains his 2000 GH that has sold 6 million and his 2006 GH that has sold 2 1/2 million the Limited Edition has sold about 400,000.
QUESTION: How come it appears Keith Urban has sold more than Jason Aldean, but they’ve already declared Jason’s album Gold and not Keith’s?? This is just puzzling!
Oh yeah, what about Keith’s Greatest Hits??
Keith’s GH is not on the most recent chart. Album certifications are completed at the request of record labels, who have to pay for the process. That’s why you’ll often see a batch of certifications at the same time from one label. A recent example of this is the digital single certifications of Carrie Underwood and Kellie Pickler.
Thanks Kevin….what a confusing process.
It’s crazy. Also making things more confusing are certifications from earlier eras (up till 2003 or so), which included record clubs that weren’t measured by SoundScan and were often of the 12 for a penny variety. Hence the big gaps between scanned and certified on the really big albums.
Wow. Only 14 albums on that list have scanned more than 500,000. Sign of the times I guess.
I am also surprised by the low numbers for Shine. I would have expected 100k from first-week sales for Martina McBride.
Pretty sobering stuff overall, though I love that Joey + Rory have managed to sell almost as many records as Trace Adkins and Montgomery Gentry despite getting a fraction of the radio play. They must have made quite a good impression on Can You Duet and with their videos.
I’m a little surprised to see Holly Williams has that low of a cume a month in, but I guess that goes to show how ineffective internet ads are at attracting new fans. Unless they want her to be an alt-country act, Mercury needs to put their focus on getting radio to play something of hers. I’m not completely sold on her yet myself, but she’s another one like Jamey and Miranda who could potentially shake the format up if she got traction.