UPDATE: Official numbers from Billboard for Kelly Clarkson’s Piece by Piece: “Kelly Clarkson earns her third No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart, as her new Piece By Piece debuts atop the tally. Clarkson’s album, which was released through 19/RCA Records on March 3, bows with 97,000 units earned in the week ending March 8, according to Nielsen Music. Traditional album sales comprise 85.2 percent of that total (equating to nearly 83,000 copies sold — which also makes it No. 1 on the Top Album Sales chart).” The #2 album, The Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack rose to #2 with 96K sales.
The numbers are in and it looks like Kelly Clarkson has yet another number one album. Her “Piece by Piece” easily tops the sales chart by over 33K, but the number 2 album has impressive TEAs & SEAs making the BB200 chart a nail-biter. Kelly is leading by only about 900 albums. Can she hold that lead when the final chart comes out? This would be her third number one album (“Thankful” and “All I Ever Wanted” were her first two). 80.5K in sales is a stronger opening than her last two albums (“Wrapped in Red” opened with 70K and her Greatest Hits opened with 75K), but half of what her last album of new material had (“Stronger” opened with 163K). Still, she has been out of the market for a while so this is a good start.
“Fifty Shades of Grey” looks to be holding down the second spot, but could easily top it. The album was originally expected to debut at the top of the chart a few weeks ago, but a surprise release by Drake shut them out. So, the album could one of the uncommon (though not unheard of) albums that move to number one later in its career. Even if it does not make it this week, it is challenging for number one during this sales week against Madonna and Luke Bryan. The label has to be happy about that.
Taylor and Drake are 3rd and 4th on both charts respectively. Ed and Sam continue to move up the chart when combined sales are considered. Brandi was the other big debut and she opens 5th on the sales and 9th on the combined. Carrie Underwood is in the top 50 of the sales, but falls of the combined. One Direction falls out of the top 50 on the sales, but has enough juice with singles to still appear on the combined.
Sales Chart
LW TW Artist / Album Label Sales Index % Change
— 1 KELLY CLARKSON PIECE BY PIECE RCA 80,502 —
3 2 FIFTY SHADES OF GREY SOUNDTRACK REPUBLIC 57,129 -14%
6 3 TAYLOR SWIFT 1989 BIG MACHINE 42,189 -11%
4 4 DRAKE IF YOU’RE READING THIS, IT’S TOO LATE YMCMB/REPUBLIC 38,914 -33%
— 5 BRANDI CARLILE FIREWATCHER’S DAUGHTER ATO 37,429 —
1 6 BIG SEAN DARK SKY PARADISE DEF JAM 36,784 -73%
8 7 ED SHEERAN X ATLANTIC 32,375 -19%
2 8 KID ROCK FIRST KISS WARNER BROS. 31,089 -77%
9 9 SAM SMITH IN THE LONELY HOUR CAPITOL 29,818 -23%
12 10 NOW 53 VARIOUS ARTISTS NOW/LEGACY 27,331 -14%
16 16 MAROON 5 V 222/INTERSCOPE 18,988 6%
43 48 CARRIE UNDERWOOD GREATEST HITS: DECADE #1 19/ARISTA NASHVILLE 5,826 -13%
Sales Plus Streaming Chart (sales+track equivalent albums+stream equivalent albums)
LW TW Artist / Album Label SPS Index % Change [TEAs/SEAS, Position Change]
— 1 KELLY CLARKSON PIECE BY PIECE RCA 96,002 — [15.5K, 0]
3 2 FIFTY SHADES OF GREY SOUNDTRACK REPUBLIC 95,129 -11% [38K, 0]
5 3 TAYLOR SWIFT 1989 BIG MACHINE 74,481 -5% [32K, 0]
4 4 DRAKE IF YOU’RE READING THIS, IT’S TOO LATE YMCMB/REPUBLIC 70,883 -34% [32K, 0]
6 5 ED SHEERAN X ATLANTIC 58,546 -16% [26K, 2]
1 6 BIG SEAN DARK SKY PARADISE DEF JAM 51,873 -69% [15K, 0]
10 7 MAROON 5 V 222/INTERSCOPE 46,556 -2% [27.5K, +9]
8 8 SAM SMITH IN THE LONELY HOUR CAPITOL 44,815 -25% [14K, +1]
— 9 BRANDI CARLILE FIREWATCHER’S DAUGHTER ATO 41,979 — [4.5K, -4]
14 10 HOZIER HOZIER COLUMBIA 37,280 13% (17K, +4]
18 18 NOW 53 VARIOUS ARTISTS NOW/LEGACY 27,331 -14% [0K, -8]
37 39 ONE DIRECTION FOUR SYCO/COLUMBIA 12,076 -3% [OFF CHART, at least 12 spots and 6.5K]
