Idol Sales News – Week Ending 12/30/12

By On 01/03/2013 · 52 Comments · In American Idol, Charts, X Factor UK

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Just like last week, the sales numbers did not get released until Thursday.

In album sales, Taylor leads the pack moving 241K of “RED” helped by a $1.99 sale at Amazon (and yes, those sales count because we are outside of the 4 week window). 54% of her sales were digital. It is her 7th week at number one with that album. With the typical lack of new albums around this ear, that streak is likely to be continued.

Adam may not like their singing, but others do. The Les Mis Soundtrack bounds up the chart to the number 2 position with 136K in sales. Sales are up 218% since the movie premiered. The week previously, it sold 43K based on two days worth of sales.

3 (4) One Direction “Take Me Home” 120K (-32%)

The rest of the top 10 is taken up by albums that were $1.99 specials and/or “Boxing Week” sales on iTunes.

Digital downloads were their usual impressive post Christmas sales-self. This year, 48 songs sold over the 100K threshold. Seven songs sold more than 300K – woah!

Taylor Swift headed that chart with a jaw-dropping 582K in sales for “I Knew You Were Trouble” (let me guess, it’s a song about a crummy ex-boyfriend. Am I right?). Bruno’s “Locked out of Heaven” sold 497K, Psy “Gangnam Style” sold 400K, Justin’s “Beauty and the Beast” 372K, Rihanna’s “Diamonds” 365K, Lumineers’ “Ho Hey” 304K and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ “Thrift Shop” 304K.

10 Phil Phillip “Home” sells 281K. Is that his biggest week ever? Loves those iTunes gift cards. Home is 9 on the Hot 100.

Here is what BB has to say:

“Digital track sales this past week totaled 55.74 million downloads — the single largest week ever for digital track sales. That’s up 119% compared with last week (25.50 million) and up 20% stacked next to the comparable week of 2011 (46.42 million). The previous largest frame on record was the week ending Dec. 28, 2008, when 47.73 million tracks were sold.”

 
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  • maymay

    From Billboard:

    Industry sources suggest that “Babel” may sell between 80,000 and 100,000 by the end of the tracking week on Jan. 6, while Phillips’ effort could sell 55,000 to 75,000. Both titles were temporarily sale-priced for $6.99 in the iTunes Store for a limited time. The price of the standard version of “Babel” is back up to it’s normal $11.99 while Phillips’ remains $6.99. “Babel” also benefits from its high-profile placement in the store itself: it’s the first title seen in the “New Music” window in the main store (even though the album has been out for 14 weeks). On next week’s chart, “Babel” may have to settle for a big jump to the No. 2 slot. (It was No. 8 on the Billboard 200 this past week.) Standing in “Babel’s” way (possibly) is the “Les Miserables” soundtrack. As we reported on Jan. 3, it may sell more than 100,000 this week and jump into the penthouse.

    Other albums looking to gain thanks to iTunes’ promotion are P!nk’s “The Truth About Love” and Alicia Keys’ “Girl On Fire.” Both titles have a chance of returning to the top 10 with more than 50,000 each. On Nielsen SoundScan’s Building chart (below), “Babel” leads the list, while “Les Miserables” is in second place. The Building tally is a precursor to the final Billboard 200 ranking, reflecting the first four days (Monday through Thursday) of SoundScan’s tracking week as reported by six major merchants. Phillips’ “World” is No. 3, One Direction’s “Take Me Home” is No. 4 and “Red” is No. 5. Keys’ “Girl On Fire” claims the No. 6 slot, while Bruno Mars’ “Unorthodox Jukebox” is No. 7. The “Pitch Perfect” soundtrack is No. 8, followed by Justin Bieber’s “Believe” and the Lumineers’ self-titled album at Nos. 9 and 10, respectively.

    1 8 Mumford & Sons “Babel”
    2 2 Soundtrack “Les Miserables: Highlights”
    3 11 Phillip Phillips “The World From the Side of the Moon”
    4 3 One Direction “Take Me Home”
    5 1 Taylor Swift “Red”
    6 18 Alicia Keys “Girl On Fire”
    7 4 Bruno Mars “Unorthodox Jukebox”
    8 10 Soundtrack “Pitch Perfect”
    9 12 Justin Bieber “Believe”
    10 9 The Lumineers “The Lumineers”

  • LongKissGoodnight

    Another thing that might have been overlooked in the flurry of good year-end Idol news is that with post-Christmas “defrosting” of AC and to a lesser degree HAC & AAA charts Home have see highest level of radio exposer yet, going up 8-6 on Hot 100 Airplay chart!

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