Wow. Pentatonix. Last week they doubled their sales and they doubled them again this week. They have the Christmas album of the season. Pentatonix is estimated to have sold around 207K this week of “That’s Christmas Time” and another 24K of “PTXMAS”. They have the second biggest selling album of the week by a fairly comfortable margin. They still hold it on the BB200 chart (see below). The question is if they can make a run for number 1.
Taylor Swift returned to number 1 this week with 280K in sales. Kind of glum having the top selling album of Black Friday week selling 280K. Last year, the top 8 sold more than 100K. This year, it was just the top 4. One Direction slides to 4th in its second week with a hefty 75% drop (lots of pre-orders, I imagine). Kelly Clarkson is 37th with “Wrapped in Red”.
“Blank Space” for the top of the Hot 100 this week? That is a clever pop song.
To help us out with the BB200 predictions, HDD has released an SPS chart (Sales Plus Streaming). I love those guys.
— 1 TAYLOR SWIFT 1989 BIG MACHINE 335,419 —
— 2 PENTATONIX THAT’S CHRISTMAS TO ME RCA 216,261 —
— 3 SHADYXV VARIOUS SHADY/AFTERMATH/INTERSCOPE 145,167 —
— 4 ONE DIRECTION FOUR SYCO/COLUMBIA 125,144 —
— 5 SAM SMITH IN THE LONELY HOUR CAPITOL 118,021 —
— 6 RICK ROSS HOOD BILLIONAIRE DEF JAM 71,405 —
— 7 BEYONCE PLATINUM EDITION EP COLUMBIA 68,188 —
— 8 NICKELBACK NO FIXED ADDRESS REPUBLIC 67,460 —
— 9 ARIANA GRANDE MY EVERYTHING REPUBLIC 67,370 —
— 10 FROZEN SOUNDTRACK WALT DISNEY 65,896 —
…
— 12 MAROON 5 V 222/INTERSCOPE 61,652 —
…
— 15 NOW 52 VARIOUS NOW 53,793 —
…
— 34 PENTATONIX PTXMAS RCA 26,807 —
…
— 43 KELLY CLARKSON WRAPPED IN RED RCA 21,370 —
…
— 48 BLAKE SHELTON BRINGING BACK THE SUNSHINE WARNER BROS. NASHVILLE 19,186 —
…
— 50 NEW BASEMENT TAPES LOST ON THE RIVER HARVEST 18,800 —
A little math…
Taylor Swift
HDD Prediction = 279,331
HDD SPS Precition = 335,419
TEAs and SEAs = 56,088
Pentatonix
HDD Prediction = 206,659
HDD SPS Precition = 216,261
TEAs and SEAs = 9,602
To top the BB200, Pentatonix will not only have to outsell Taylor in albums, they are going to do it by about 50K more.
One Direction
HDD Prediction = 102,272
HDD SPS Precition = 125,144
TEAs and SEAs = 22,872
Sam Smith
HDD Prediction = 92,949
HDD SPS Precition = 118,021
TEAs and SEAs = 25,072
One Direction can probably stay in front of Sam if they continue to outsell him in albums. They are about even on TEAs and SEAs. But, with a 40% drop likely next week, Sam Smith will probably push them further down the chart.
The top 6 all held their positions. Beyonce moved up from 16th to 7th to push Nickelback back a spot while Ariane Grande leap frogged up from 17th to 9th. Garth Brooks fell out of the top 10 at 8th to 11th. Frozen got moved back one spot while Idina moved from 10th to 13th. Maroon 5 moved up from 15th to 12th.
HDD reports that over 80% of the Hunger Games SPS total comes from TEAs and SEAs. Meghan Trainer was not even in the top 50, but her singles push her to 29th (that doesn’t include “Lips are Movin” because it isn’t on the EP). Iggy Azalea manages to get two albums on the SPS.
This BB200 change is really going to favour the Pop artists – especially those who can move singles, but sometimes struggle with moving albums.
