Update from Billboard:
2 One Direction “Midnight Memories” 117K (-79%)
3 Kelly Clarkson “Wrapped In Red” 112K (-15%) Woot! Number 1 Christmas Album
4 Britney Spears “Britney Jean” 107K Top Debut
5 Robertsons “Duck the Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas” 105K (-23%)
7 Pentatonix “PTXmas” 60K (119%) “Little Drummber Boy” uploaded to Youtube on Nov. 25 has 16.5M views!
Garth Brooks is pretty much guaranteed to have the number one album in his second week since he’s far enough out ahead in the HDD estimates. And that’s with a 26% drop. The week after Black Friday always takes its toll, but Garth is somewhat cushioned by only having a four day sales week the previous week.
One Direction may be in second after a massive 79% drop in their second week. That’s in line with their previous album and Black Friday first weeks usually do lead to higher drops in the second week, so it’s not time to hit the panic button yet. I said “may be in second” because this is one of the closest races we’ve seen in a while. HDD’s second through fifth albums differ in estimated sales by under 1500 albums. That’s certainly within their margin of error. One Direction is followed by Duck Dynasty (My Boos! Love you crazy kids! Come shoot something in my yard anytime. The spiders are pretty huge and will make good eatin’. Yum! I smell product tie-in! Duck Dynasty Spiders in a Can – like Spam but Crunchier! It will sell like hotcakes! Just like everything else with a DD label), Kelly Clarkson (Boo! Hiss! Take your amazing singing someplace else! Our Christmas plate is full of Duck!) and former ex-X-Factor judge Britney Spears.
The Sing-Off is revived just in time to see Pentatonix’s Christmas album hit 7th in it’s second year. Is it just me, or is Pentatonix’s success one of the reasons NBC is giving the Sing-Off a second chance? Well, that and the fact that NBC seems to struggle to find a hit with anything other than The Voice? In any event, its nice to see Pentatonix’s hard work paying off. They are actually one of five Christmas albums in the top 10 this week. The others being The Robertsons’s (<3!!!), Kelly (|-<), Michael Buble and Mary J. Blige. Others in the top 50 are the "Sound of Music" soundtrack featuring Carrie Underwood, Voice winner and new NBC Olympic spokesinger Danielle Bradbery in her second week (sporting a smaller than expected second week drop especially post-Black Friday), Daughtry in their third week and the "Best Man Holiday" soundtrack featuring Fantasia and Jordin Sparks. This is the weekly sales thread. Please post numbers as you find them. Thanks!
