Beyond Jack Johnson's reign atop the Nielsen SoundScan sales chart and the imminent rise of Janet Jackson to No. 1, the interesting story sits at No. 7: Sara Bareilles' “Little Voice.”
Bareilles' debut album, on Epic,  was released 21 weeks ago and makes its first entry into the top 10 by selling 37,000 copies. It rose 14 slots to No. 7, buoyed partially by her song appearing in commercials for Rhapsody/TiVo. Disc has not charted higher than No. 15. Disc’s cume is 403,000.
She's on tour opening for James Blunt; her video for "Love Song" has been viewed more than 4 million times on YouTube; and she is booked for TRL today and Thursday.
Another significant jump went to an act capable of remembering lyrics.

Daughtry and "High School Musical 2" are duking it out to see which will be the top-selling album of the year, but in Apple's world, Maroon 5 is the top dog. While Apple did not release sales figures, a little bit of math could give us a ballpark figure. It won't be Soon" has sold 244,000 digital copies and the current rule of thumb is that iTunes is responsible for 80% of all download sales. That puts iTunes sales at about 195,000 copies. The digital sales represent 17% of the album's 1.439 million units sold.

ITUNES BEST-SELLING ALBUMS OF 2007

1. Maroon 5 - It Won't Be Soon Before Long
2. Amy Winehouse - Back To Black
3. Kanye West - Graduation
4. Daughtry - Daughtry
5. Colbie Caillat - Coco
6. Linkin Park - Minutes to Midnight
7. Various Artists - High School Musical 2 (Original Soundtrack)
8. Timbaland - Shock Value
9. John Mayer - Continuum
10. Various Artists-  Hairspray (Soundtrack to the Motion Picture)

ITUNES BEST-SELLING SONGS OF 2007

1. Fergie "Big Girls Don't Cry (Personal)"
2. Gwen Stefani "The Sweet Escape"
3. Plain White T's "Hey There Delilah"
4. Avril Lavigne "Girlfriend"
5. Fergie "Glamorous"
6. Kanye West "Stronger"
7. Maroon 5 "Makes Me Wonder"
8. Akon "Don't Matter"
9. Timbaland "The Way I Are (feat. Keri Hilson & D.O.E.)
10. Shop Boyz "Party Like a Rock Star"

The folks who track sales at independent record stores, CIMS, released an intersting list this week: Vinyl sales. Good old fashioned 12-inch records and their continued comeback as charted by Streetpulse. 

1 Paul McCartney - Amoeba's Secret 
2 Joy Division - Closer 
3 Daniel Johnston - Yip Jump Music
4 Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Follow The Lights 
5 Tegan & Sara - Con 
6 Nick Drake - Fruit Tree 
7 Zion I & The Grouch - Hit Em/Trains & Planes 
8 Why - Hollows 
9 Bruce Springsteen - We Shall Overcome: Seeger Sessions
10 LCD Soundsystem - 45:33:00

I say Christmas, you say Eurythmics. Bit of a surprise from ASCAP today: Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart's version of "Winter Wonderland" has racked up the most performances on radio over the last five years of any ASCAP tune.It is the first time "Winter Wonderland" has topped this particular chart, which also counts versions by  Guy Lombardo And His Royal Canadians, the Andrews Sisters, Perry Como, Jewel and Air Supply.
ASCAP's top 10 most performed holiday songs for the past five years, with the most popular recording:
1. Winter Wonderland (Felix Bernard, Richard B. Smith)
Performed by Eurythmics
2.The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) (Mel Tormé, Robert Wells)
Performed by Nat "King" Cole
3.Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (Ralph Blane, Hugh Martin)
Performed by the Pretenders
4.Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (Fred Coots, Haven Gillespie)
Performed by Bruce Springsteen
5. White Christmas(Irving Berlin)
Performed by Bing Crosby
6. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! (Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne)
Performed by Aaron Neville
7. Jingle Bell Rock (Joseph Carleton Beal, James Ross Boothe)
Performed by Bobby Helms
8. Sleigh Ride (Leroy Anderson, Mitchell Parish)
Performed by the Ronettes
9. Little Drummer Boy (Katherine K. Davis, Henry V. Onorati, Harry Simeone)
Performed by the Harry Simeone Chorale & Orchestra
10.Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer (Johnny Marks)
Performed by Gene Autry

Hits magazine is reporting that Kid Rock will hold onto the No. 1 slot on the album chart for a second week, but his "Rock N Roll Jesus" will post the lowest sales total of any October chart-topper ever. Kid Rock, Hits calculates, will beat Bruce Springsteen's "Magic" by a very small margin.

Colbie Caillat and soul singer Ledisi are outperforming Kanye West's "Graduation,' 50 Cent's "Curtis"and James Blunt in P2P cyberspace, according to the folks who track "swapping." Though what sort of world are we living in in which just about the same number of people are stealing Bruce Springsteen's week-away-from-release album and Universal's 6-year-old Cat Stevens  boxed set?
Courtesy of idolator.com

Newton Faulkner, an indie singer-songwriter from London who has caught on the Brit surfing set,   has displaced Elvis Presley atop the U.K. album chart. His disc, "Hand Built By Robots," was released last month.
Faulkner has built a following opening shows for James Morrison and Paolo Nutini.

When the company that owns Billboard purchased Radio & Records, the airplay tracking company MediaBase had nowhere to print its charts. Billboard closed its Radio Monitor, and R&R began using the Nielsen data that Billboard also uses. MediaBase has been running an ad in USA Today touting its genre by genre playlists and now Music Connection will be carrying the airplay charts on its website.