Idol Billboard Update for Issue 1/17/09 – January Doldrums Set In

The January doldums have set in for the retail music business.   Except for the last of the iTunes gift card bonanza, sales were typically slow this week.   According to Billboard, album units are down 55% from last week, and 14% from the same week last year.

Here’s my Idol Billboard Update for you right HERE.

As an update to the HDD numbers I posted earlier in the week, here are the final Soundcan numbers for David Cook and David Archuleta, organized by numbers goddess, Kirsten.   The final numbers are pretty much in the same ballpark as HDD.   The percentage decreases are a bit worse than Kirsten’s original estimate:

16 David Cook David Cook 30, 595 (-70%; lw 100, 745 ) Total: 842, 262 (10)
51 David Archuleta David Archuleta 14, 157 (-75%; lw 56, 368) Total: 580, 210 (33)

Digital downloads faired a little better due to residual holiday gift card purchases:

29 David Archuleta …Crush 68, 043 (-47%; lw 128, 226) Total: 1, 372, 708 (22)
39 David Cook …Light On 57, 735 (-30%; lw 82, 489) Total: 486, 647 (42)
120 David Cook …Time of My Life 18K (-20%; lw 23, 976) Total: 1.06M (179)
176 Jennifer Hudson …Spotlight 11K (-27%; lw 16K) Total: 343K (OFF)

A few highlights from the Billboard chart:

  •  Elliott Yamin’s holiday album My Kind Of Holiday debuted on the Top Independent Albums chart at #26.
  • Speaking of the holidays, seasonal tunes are all but gone from the charts, allowing songs that were bumped off the charts to re-enter:   “Telluride”, Josh Gracin at #45 on Hot Country Songs, “One Step at at Time”, Jordin Sparks at #20 on Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks, Hot Adult Contemporary Recurrents are back, with   “No Air”, Jordin Sparks re-entering at #7, “Home”, Daughtry at #8, “Tattoo”, Jordin Sparks at #18 and “Breakaway”, Kelly Clarkson at #20.
  • David Archuleta’s “Crush” re-enters the Hot 100 Airplay at #69.
  • David Cook’s “Time of My Life” remains in the #1 position on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. Cook is the only male artist to dominate the AC chart in the last 54 weeks.
About mj santilli 34832 Articles
Founder and editor of mjsbigblog.com, home of the awesomest fan community on the net. I love cheesy singing shows of all kinds, whether reality or scripted. I adore American Idol, but also love The Voice, Glee, X Factor and more!