The Set List

Spilled Ink: A Rundown of Press-Driven Albums in the Top 200

A look at one week sales of recent press darlings in the post-SXSW, post-spring break week of March 17-23.
List is organized by overall Nielsen Soundscan number, artist, title and units sold. * signifies first week sales.

18. Gnarls Barkley - Odd Couple (31,000)*
24. Amy Winehouse - Back to Black (26,000)
37. Erykah Badu - New Amerykah (19,000)
40. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend (18,000)
50. Robert Plant/Alison Krauss - Raising Sand (16,000)
61. Radiohead - In Rainbows (14,000)
81. She & Him - Vol. 1 (10,000)*
84. Eddie Vedder - Into the Wild (10,000)
96. Herbie Hancock - River: The Joni Letters (9,000)
123. k.d. lang - Watershed (7,000)
133. The Kills - Midnight Boom (6,000)*
158. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular (5,000)
172. Kate Nash - Made of Bricks (5,000)
179. Matches - Band in Hope (5,000)*

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. 

'Thriller' Blocked From The Pop Chart

When is the second highest selling album of the week nowhere to be found in the top 200?
There used to be a number of reasons but now it's down to one: When the disc has been classified as a catalog release.
The 25th anniversary edition of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" (Epic/Legacy) sold 166,000 copies in its first week of release, which would make it the second biggest seller of the week that ended Sunday. Despite it containing a DVD and five newly reworked versions of the songs, it is considered a catalog release by Billboard, which categorizes sales data collected by Nielsen SoundScan.
In much of the rest of the world it has been categorized as a new release and debuted at No. 1 in France, No. 2 in Germany, Australia, Holland, Norway and Switzerland,  and No. 3 in the U.K. “Thriller,” which has sold 27 million copies, is No. 1 on Billboard’s catalog chart. Most catalog chart toppers sell between 15,000 and 20,000 copies per week.
Last year, Billboard eliminated its rule that barred from the top 200, releases available at a single retailer. That was in response to the Eagles selling more than 700,000 copies of "Long Road to Eden" at Wal-Mart outlets.
Billboard continues to make decisions on bonus packages that mystify many people in the industry. In many cases, a major star - Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, etc. - can release a second version of a hit album that includes new songs, new mixes and videos, but its sales are included with the initial release.
Other discs - and this often affects soundtracks -  are almost always split between regular and deluxe editions, regardless of their time of release. There have been exceptions, though, and that seems to drive some execs bonkers. Just like the folks who want the world to know "Thriller 25" is the No. 2 seller in the country.

Jack Johnson, Vampire Weekend Top Indie Record Store Sales

Coalition of Independent Music Stores Top 20 for week ending Feb. 10
1 Jack Johnson- Sleep Through The Static
2 Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
3 Radiohead - In Rainbows
4 Juno soundtrack
5 Mars Volta - Bedlam In Goliath
6 Cat Power - Jukebox
7 Nada Surf -Lucky
8 Plant/Krauss - Raising Sand
9 Drive-By Truckers  - Brighter Than Creations Dark
10 Sheryl Crow - Detours
11 Bob Mould - District Line
12 Shelby Lynne - Just A Little Lovin
13 Hot Chip - Made In The Dark
14 k.d.lang - Watershed
15 Carolyn Wonderland - Miss Understood
16 Magnetic Fields - Distortion
17 MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
18 Helio Sequence - Keep Your Eyes
19 Amy Winehouse - Back To Black
20 Matt Costa - Unfamiliar Faces

'Rainbows': A Pot of Gold For Indie Stores

The top 20 from the Coalition of Independent Music Stores includes four soundtracks and the notion that the Dap-Kings are one killer band. Sia and Kate Nash were the debuts; Sia was No. 26 and Nash came in at No. 36 on the Nielsen Soundscan chart.

Pos.    ARTIST|TITLE
1    Radiohead - IN RAINBOWS
2    "Juno" SOUNDTRACK
3    Robert Plant/Alison Krauss - RAISING SAND
4    Various - KGSR Broadcast Vol. 15
5    Iron & Wine - SHEPHERD'S DOG
6    "Once" SOUNDTRACK
7    Band of Horses - CEASE TO BEGIN
8    Feist - REMINDER
9    Spoon -GA GA GA GA GA
10    Levon Helm - DIRT FARMER
11    Kate Nash - MADE OF BRICKS
12    Sia - SOME PEOPLE HAVE REAL PROBLEMS
13    M.I.A. - KALA
14    Various - I'm Not There 
15    Eddie Vedder - MUSIC FOR INTO THE WILD
16    Bruce Springsteen - MAGIC
17    Led Zeppelin  - MOTHERSHIP
18    Sharon Jones - 100 DAYS 100 N
19    Amy Winehouse - BACK TO BLACK
20    Lupe Fiasco - LUPE FIASCO'S THE COOL

Radiohead Vinyl Rocks Indie Retail

Don Van Cleave of the Coalition of Independent Music Stores  reports  in his weekly email that Radiohead's "In Rainbows" was his favorite album of the year and notes "Many of our customers bought the vinyl after listening to crappy
small MP3's on ear buds for three month's. Hopefully when they put it
on the table they might actually notice how amazing this record really sounds."
"In Rainbows' topped the vinyl and over CIMS charts for the week ending Jan. 6
The overall top 10 from independent retailers:
1 Radiohead "In Rainbows"
2 Robert Plant & Alison Krauss ' "Raising Sand"
3 Various  "KGSR Broadcast Vol. 15"
4 Iron & Wine "Shepherd's Dog"
5 Feist "Reminder"
6 Levon Helm - "Dirt Farmer"
7 M.I.A. "Ikala"
8 "Once" soundtrack
9 Spoon "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga"
10 Band of Horses "Cease to Begin"

Slots 11-30 (unedited) follow

A Rebirth For Soundtracks At Retail?

With the "Juno" soundtrack showing impressive sales numbers in its digital only week - and the expectation that it will hit No. 1 next week at around 100,000 sold - starts to make one wonder if the death certificate for the film soundtrack was not signed a little early.
"Juno," dominated by the acoustic work of Kimya Dawson, is one of those rare entries that holds together as a single entity with other works flowing around hers. Other soundtracks, some as artful, some not, are selling briskly, as well.
"Alvin & the Chipmunks" keeps rising on the chart, it's now No. 13, despite selling fewer copies than the last two weeks. It sold 33,000 in the week ended Sunday.
In addition, cumulative sales for individual tracks from the soundtrack are nearing 1 million, accoridng to the label, Razor & Tie. The Chipmunks are also the only artist with four songs on the top 100 singles sales chart.
After that, it's:
"Sweeney Todd," up five to No. 18, selling 31,000 for a cume of 126,000.
The DVD release of "Once" a week before Christmas has meant significant leaps on the chart. This week it's No. 38, up from 74 and, the week before that, 122. It sold 20,000 in the latest frame bringing its cume 260,000.
"P.S. I Love  You" rose 64 slots to No. 70, selling 13,000 in its second week.
"Enchanted" was down two to No. 86 selling 11,000.
The deluxe edition of "Across the Universe" sold 8,000, about half the previous week's tally, yet dropped only four slots to No. 105.
Eddie Vedder's "Into the Wild" dropped four grand to 7,000 and rose one slot to No. 188. Its cume is 213,000.

U.K. Music Buyers Go One Tune At A Time

Buoyed by a record sales week, British music sales saw individual track sales soar in 2007 and CDs slump by about 10%.
The British Phonographic Industry reported that 77.6 million songs were downloaded legally in the U.K. last year, up from 52.5 million in 2006.The BPI did not release specific figures on CD sales, noting only that sales were down about 10%.CDs represent 95% of all music sold in the country.
In the week between Christmas and New Year's Day, 2.95 million tracks were purchased, a record, topping the same week from 2006 by nearly 1 million sales.
Topping the download chart were songs by "X Factor" winners Leon Jackson ("When You Believe") and Leona Lewis ("Bleeding Love").Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black" was the year's top-selling album, coming in at 2 million moved.
The U.K.'s Top 10 Downloads feature at least five tracks that will never crack the U.S. marketplace.

1. When You Believe - Leon Jackson
2. Bleeding Love - Leona Lewis
3. Apologize - Timbaland featuring One Republic
4. Crank That - Soulja Boy
5. Rule The World - Take That
6. Call The Shots - Girls Aloud
7. Valerie - Mark Ronson featuring Amy Winehouse
8. Fairytale Of New York - Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl
9. Goodbye Mr A - Hoosiers
10. Heartbroken - T2 featuring Jodie Aysha

Christmas Albums Filling Soundscan's Stocking

Josh Groban's "Noel" leads the Christmas charge as a full 26 albums with holiday themes make it into the top 200 this week. Many of the titles are available exclusively at certain retailers, but since the altering of the top 200 requirements - we'll call it the Eagles Rule - the flood has come in holiday titles. SoundScan, for whatever reason, is not posting cumulative totals for several of the albums, leaving the dirty work of doing math to us. And Taylor Swift's disc, for some inexplicable reason, was left off last week's list where it would have landed at No. 88. It is No. 46 this week. At the end of the season, we'll tally it up to determine who is No. 2 in the most unwatched sales race of the year. Noticeably absent from the list are any hip-hop albums. Seems like it has been a long time since Run-DMC's "Christmas in Hollis," the only hip-hop holiday tune with any staying power. 
The top 26 (year to date) of holiday albums released this season are:
Josh Groban - Noel (1.5 million sold)
Mannheim Steamroller - Christmas Song (289,000)
Toby Keith - A Classic Christmas (151,000)
Various - Stockings By the Fire (142,000)
Disney Channel Holiday (141,000)
Kidz Bop Kids - Coolest Kidz Bop Christmas (58,000)
Relient K - Let It Snow Baby (45,000)
Elvis Presley - Home for the Holidays (42,000)
Soundtrack - This Christmas (42,000)
Trans-Siberian Orchestra - EP (41,000)
Taylor Swift - Sounds of the Season (39,000)
Michael W. Smith - It's a Wonderful Christmas (39,000)
Mannheim Steamroller - Christmas Traditions (38,000)
Various - Hear Something Country Christmas (35,000)
Randy Travis - Songs of the Season (33,000)
Various - WOW Gospel Christmas (27,000)
Marie Osmond - Magic of Christmas (26,000)
Jim Brickman - Homecoming (23,000)
Elliot Yamin - Sounds of the Season (21,000)
Jars of Clay - Christmas Songs (19,000)
Yolanda Adams - What a Wonderful Time (14,000)
Various - Christmas No. 1's (13,000)*
Various - Celtic Ladies Christmas (6,000)*
Patti LaBelle - Miss Patti's Christmas (6,000)*
KT Tunstall - Sounds of the Season (5,000)*
Mormon Tabernacle Choir - Like an Angel (5,000)*
* first week of release

Indie Stores' Top 10

Coalition of Independent Music Stores Top 10 for the week ending Nov. 11
1 Jay-Z - American Gangster
2 Big Prime Da Ge - Prime Time
3 Sigur Ros - Hvarf/Heim
4 Plant/Krauss - Raising Sand
5 Angels & Airwaves - I-Empire
6 Gram Parsons & Flying Burrito Brothers - Archive, Vol. 1
7 Levon Helm - Dirt Farmer
8 Band Of Horses - Cease To Beg
9 Neil Young - Chrome Dreams Ii
10 Iron & Wine - Shepherd's Dog