Idol Sales News ‘“ Week Ending 11/22/09

By On 11/25/2009 · 147 Comments · In American Idol, Charts

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After the Jump, today’s Idol Sales Numbers

Downloads

21 Carrie Underwood “Cowboy Casanova” 51,213 (-31%; lw 74,077) Total: 557,602 (14)
24 Kelly Clarkson “Already gone” 45,958 (-1%; lw 46,511) Total: 756,127 (24)
34 Kris Allen “Live Like We’re Dying” 35,787 (67%; lw 21,402) Total: 155,340 (80)
75 Adam Lambert “For Your Entertainment” 19,465 (-25%; lw 26,065) Total: 63,927 (56)

Glee
23 Glee “Lean on Me” 46,363 (NEW) 46.363 (NEW)
31 Glee “Don’t Stand So Close To Me/Young Girl” 37,914 (NEW) Total: 37,914 (NEW)
37 Glee “I’ll Stand By You” 33,357 (NEW) Total: 33,357 (NEW)
38 Glee (Chris Colfer) “Defying Gravity” 32,722 (-53%; lw 69,979) Total: 127,240 (15)
42 Glee “Endless Love” 31,498 (NEW) Total: 31,498 (NEW)
86 Glee “Crush” 16,702 (NEW) Total: 16,702 (NEW)
139 Glee “You’re Having My Baby” 10,672 (NEW) Total: 10,672 (NEW)

Albums:
9 Carrie Underwood “Play On” 86,218 (-33%; lw 128,443) Total: 532,472 **NOW GOLD**
11 Kris Allen “Kris Allen” 80,072 (NEW) Total: 80,072 (NEW)
44 David Archuleta “Christmas From the Heart” 17,717 (83%; lw 9,657) Total: 67,185
68 Daughtry “Leave This Town” 11,429 (-13%; lw 13,125) Total: 748,579
72 Adam Lambert “Take One” 11,090 (NEW; lw 289) Total: 11,379
171 Kelly Clarkson “All I Ever Wanted” 4,956 (-5%; lw 5,208) Total: 755,093

Idol Related:
14 Various “Now 32″ 57,911 (-15%; lw 68,343) Total: 227,953
51 Various “Wow Hits 2010″ 14,243 (-7%; lw 15,303) Total: 32,574
115 Various “Now 31″ 7,878 (-10%; lw 8,735) Total: 770,909
136 Various “Now Country V2″ 6,207 (-10%; lw 6,907) Total: 156,216

Airplay before recurrents are removed (increase in AI)
No. 8 – Kelly Clarkson (+2.3 million)
No. 148 – Kris Allen (+1.1 million)
No. 323 – Daughty (+2.2 million)

 
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  • SpenserJ

    Neither of those numbers invalidates the argument made, which is that in both examples the albums in question were able to continue selling slow and steady for a long, long time, and that is what Kris needs to aim for.

    Well, except for the fact that there was nothing “slow” about the Daughtry sales at all. They were steady, but those sales were pretty consistently fast. I recall at some point, he went below and then back up above the six figure mark pretty late in the game due to his ridiculously good radio play. So, outside of the similar first week sales, there’s really nothing about the rest of the trajectory of Daughtry and Cook’s overall sales that’s comparable to me at all.

    And, they both had more than 3 times Kris’s opening numbers. So, I have no idea where this woman is coming from with this comparative grouping at all.

    Not to say that I don’t agree with her conclusions though – that Kris’s CD could very well turn out to have legs. This isn’t the end of the story. While it may not seem so promising, it’s certainly not time to write Kris off at all.

    Yes jpfan. You were damn close on both fronts. I’ll happily conjure up some kind of imaginary prize for you :)

  • Hazehel

    From USA Today:

    Carrie Underwood, Carnival Ride (4,000, -17 percent, 2.997 million)
    Carrie Underwood, Some Hearts (4,000, -7 percent, 6.867 million)

    Thanks. So these are the updated numbers –

    Kelly Clarkson -
    Thankful ‘“ 2,730K
    Breakaway ‘“ 6,104K
    My December ‘“ 800K
    All I Ever Wanted ‘“ 755K
    Total ‘“ 10,389 K

    Carrie Underwood ‘“
    Some Hearts ‘“ 6,867K
    Carnival Ride ‘“ 2,997K
    Play On ‘“ 532K
    Total ‘“ 10,396K

    If all the numbers are correct (I suspect however a couple more thousands may need to be added to Kelly Clarkson’s total from the sales of her older albums, but probably not enough to change the result) , then Carrie Underwood has overtaken Kelly Clarkson as the biggest selling Idol winner in the US. Worldwide Kelly still rules, and that probably won’t change for a while yet.

  • cookcricket

    I also think the Jive rep used Daughtry and DC as examples because they are both idol artists that are also mainly HAC artists.

  • cookcricket

    Carrie and Kelly are both successes that continue to do well! Both have pretty impressive numbers overall! ;)

  • tinawina

    And I went with 180-200K for Adam. It looks like he’ll be at the higher end if the HDD predictions hold up. Actually if it wasn’t for the crap sales of his early singles, I would have gone with 230-260K based purely on his promo. Oh well, I still think I got closer than most here.
    Where’s my prize?

    Bragging rights! You are officially The Queen Of Prediction! LOL! Well, you will technically not be official until next Wednesday, but you get the idea.

  • dhunken

    Ok I am even getting surprised but Adam fye single has moved up another notch to #26 in combined Itune single sales. Maybe it’s the video? It’s not radio!

  • Hazehel

    And I went with 180-200K for Adam. It looks like he’ll be at the higher end if the HDD predictions hold up. Actually if it wasn’t for the crap sales of his early singles, I would have gone with 230-260K based purely on his promo. Oh well, I still think I got closer than most here.
    Where’s my prize?

    My prediction of 140-180K now looks way off, but there is still the likelihood that HDD might have over-estimated (your upper limit of 200K still looks good to me and may turn out to be correct), but I’m perfectly happy to be wrong about this. Without the crappy singles sales I would have gone for 200K plus or minus 20K, although I do think my prediction is still a reasonable one (the AMA controversy and the Amazon cut-prize offer may have given the sales a bit of extra boost).

  • serene

    Tess
    11/25/2009 at 2:10 pm
    Kris is Kris’ ¦a journeyman musician with a relatively good voice that will play well to smaller venues. He will never be another John Mayer’ ¦.his guitar playing is adequate and his piano skills less so. Based on what I heard from him on the album I don’t think his songwriting skills are on the same level, by any means, of most of the singer/songwriters of today.

    http://www.cosmogirl.com/entertainment/celeb-qa/kris-allen-nov09-2

    Kris was offered a music scholarship from University of Arkansas – I don’t think ‘adequate’ musicality a term we can use on Kris. For him to be confident enough to play the piano on TV live, only after learning the instrument a year before, does not warrant ‘less than adequate’ tag.

    That guy is mad talented – but he is too subdued in selling skills (yeah, he didn’t enrol Business major under scholarship!)

  • mzbet

    Kris’ LLWD will be #41 on Billboard Top 100 next week up from #70.

    http://www.billboarddirectories.com/billboard/images/pdf/index_song.pdf

    Don’t know if this has been posted anywhere and don’t have the patience to page back through all the comments.

  • lucy

    Kris was offered a music scholarship from University of Arkansas ‘“ I don’t think ‘adequate’ musicality a term we can use on Kris. For him to be confident enough to play the piano on TV live, only after learning the instrument a year before, does not warrant ‘less than adequate’ tag.

    He is a very good musician. However, he was also a *viola* player, and the conservatory spots offered to viola players do come with an asterisk.

    If you ask any conservatory or music school at all, you’ll find that there are so few viola players out there that there are almost always viola scholarships and viola spots in university (and other) orchestras going begging. For that reason, a pretty good viola player is likely to get offered a couple of scholarships while a violin player, for example, with the same level of skill and ability doesn’t even have a ghost of a chance of getting into a music school at all, because the numbers of violin players — and thus of great violin players — is so high.

    I’m not making this up. Your shot at a music-school spot varies *hugely* based on the instrument you play, and viola happens to be one that’s highly sought after by music schools, orchestras, and so forth. Not a lot of people pick the viola as their instrument …. Note that Kris has basically said that he didn’t really know what to choose so they kind of thrust the viola on him and he said okay.

  • lucy

    Well, can’t edit … I wanted to add that Kris’s taking the viola when asked also shows his diffidence and his lack of spotlight seeking. The big reason people don’t take up the viola is that it isn’t considered a solo instrument. You *need* violas to play symphonies, string quartets and a lot of other stuff. But if you’re the viola player, you are almost never the star. …. Others in that high school orchestra didn’t want to put themselves in that position — but it was okay with Kris. …. That diffidence is very sweet on a personal level, but he’s probably going to need to develop a bigger ego to fight for his due now that he’s in the extremely competitive world of professional music.

  • dv

    BILLBOARD HOT 100

    20 16 KELLY CLARKSON ALREADY GONE
    21 23 CARRIE UNDERWOOD COWBOY CASANOVA
    70 41 KRIS ALLEN LIVE LIKE WE’RE DYING
    — 50 GLEE CAST LEAN ON ME
    — 64 GLEE CAST DON’T STAND SO CLOSE TO ME / YOUNG GIRL
    — 73 GLEE CAST I’LL STAND BY YOU
    31 74 GLEE CAST FEATURING DEFYING GRAVITY
    — 78 GLEE CAST ENDLESS LOVE

  • lucy

    BILLBOARD HOT 100

    20 16 KELLY CLARKSON ALREADY GONE
    21 23 CARRIE UNDERWOOD COWBOY CASANOVA
    70 41 KRIS ALLEN LIVE LIKE WE’RE DYING

    Hurrah for Kris and Kelly rising on the chart! *Big* jump for Kris — hope that radio play continues.

  • cookcricket

    Note that Kris has basically said that he didn’t really know what to choose so they kind of thrust the viola on him and he said okay.

    Oops correction, Kris started playing the viola because a friend did. LOL. Okay, not much different, BUT, this doesn’t disqualify the fact that he’s a born musician.

  • CathyMK

    He is a very good musician. However, he was also a *viola* player, and the conservatory spots offered to viola players do come with an asterisk.

    Kind of a big leap to assume that his scholarship was given to him for mediocre playing, don’t you think? Kris is a talented enough musician to play 3 instruments, 2 of them on national television, leading to his winning AI. It’s also an accomplishment to be offered a music scholarship. I don’t think it’s fair to imply that he only got it because he played an unpopular instrument. Do you even know that the scholarship was solely for his viola playing? Do you have access to the scholarship committee’s notes on why he was accepted?

    Good news about LLWD’s jump on the Hot 100!

  • LK09

    FYI- David Archuleta’s Christmas CD went up 83% in sales this week. Of course a Christmas album will sell more as it gets closer to Christmas. It will be interesting to watch it as he goes on this tour.

  • girlygirl

    LLWD has jumped from #92 to #41 in 2 weeks. That’s a pretty impressive move. Hopefully he can get into the Top 40 next week.

    Congrats to Kelly on moving up the chart as well. She was great at the AMAs on Sunday — first time I’ve ever seen her live.

  • Starr

    Blake Lewis was dropped from his label?

  • unique28v

    For your Entertainment is 24 on Itunes now. It’s made a big bump since the performance. I don’t think the music video is for sale yet though.

  • Keel

    Are we playing by Price is Right rules? Or is it the person who comes closest wins (whether over or under)? Because I predicted 250-300K for Adam in a thread from this weekend and I’ve heard a 263K prediction from a media source.

  • lucy

    Oops correction, Kris started playing the viola because a friend did. LOL. Okay, not much different, BUT, this doesn’t disqualify the fact that he’s a born musician.

    No, it absolutely does not. I totally agree that he’s an excellent, very talented musician. …. But what it does say, I think, is that he wasn’t seeking the limelight and was content to take the backup instrument, while everybody else was scrambling for the solo instrument.

    He is a very good musician. However, he was also a *viola* player, and the conservatory spots offered to viola players do come with an asterisk.

    Kind of a big leap to assume that his scholarship was given to him for mediocre playing, don’t you think? Kris is a talented enough musician to play 3 instruments, 2 of them on national television, leading to his winning AI. It’s also an accomplishment to be offered a music scholarship. I don’t think it’s fair to imply that he only got it because he played an unpopular instrument. Do you even know that the scholarship was solely for his viola playing? Do you have access to the scholarship committee’s notes on why he was accepted?

    Well, you get accepted to music school on the basis of the instrument you play and, pretty universally, you get accepted on the basis of the *classical* instrument you play. The classical instrument Kris played was the viola. …. Therefore, there was really no other basis for him to be accepted.

    They weren’t going to accept him as a singer, because there’s never been any evidence that Kris aspired to be a classical singer, and universities don’t generally admit pop singers, except for some jazz singers, which Kris also doesn’;t seem ever to have pursued. They weren’t going to accept him based on his playing rock guitar, because they probably don’t teach rock guitar, and they definitely don’t *need* rock guitar. They need the instruments that are in orchestral pieces and string-quartet pieces. And one of those — and the one that is in the lowest supply — is the viola.

    I *never* said, implied, or thought that he was a “mediocre” musician or that anybody who gets into music school playing the viola is “mediocre.” It’s clear that he’s an excellent musician, which i’ve never denied. What I said was — and you can check this out in *multiple* places, believe me — is that you *can* get into music school and get a scholarship by being a less good viola player than you would have to be to get in as a violin player. That’s just fact. Facts interest me. And I think the fact that Kris chose to be a viola player shows something that *is* very relevant about him — he has never chosen the limelight.

  • Sherena

    Aw, why isn’t FYE doing better than that? :(

    But I’m glad that LLWD is doing well, and Kris’ album opening sales aren’t bad either. Especially not if they build over time instead of falling, like LLWD has. As I’ve always said, it’s longevity that matters, not huge openers.

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