Beatles Feel Minor 'Idol' Bump

After several seasons of bolstering album sales for 95% of the established artists who appear on "American Idol," the use of songs penned by John Lennon and Paul McCartney provided only a minimal boost in Beatles album sales.
Obviously there's a big difference between having an act perform and just having the contestants sing an act's tunes. But in this case, with the Beatles catalog still not available for download, there was no option to make an immediate purchase. Never mind that the interpretations were pretty bad, any time the Beatles are in the musical news, there are usually sales bumps. One would think, however, they would not be as slight as they were last week.
The two soundtrack packages for "Across the Universe," which, like "Idol," is interpretations of Beatles tunes, saw bumps of about 1,000 copies each. The deluxe edition was up to 18,000 sold; the regular edition hit 9,000, according to Nielsen Soundscan.
The 2007 release "Beatles Love," which was responsible for two Grammy wins last year, saw a 2,000 unit spike to 6,000 sold.
The best-selling Beatles album was the hits collection "1," which sold 9,000 copies, up from 5,000 two weeks ago. "Abbey Road," the penultimate Beatles release, was up 700 units to just over 3,000 sold.