Michael, Maxwell and Miley: The music you bought this week

Fans continued to feverishly purchase Michael Jackson albums in the days after his Staples Center memorial last week. More than 1.1 million copies of Jackson's catalog were sold through Sunday, according to Nielsen SoundScan figures released to Billboard.

Jackson was expected to be the week's hot seller, but it was a bit of a surprise to see the numbers increase once again. Overall, Jackson's sales jumped 37% over the previous week. His sales were led by "Number Ones," which sold 349,000 copies, followed by "Thriller," which sold 264,000 copies.

Jackson again, however, is relegated to Billboard's catalog charts, as are any albums that are older than 18 months and have fallen below No. 100 on the U.S. pop chart. In two and a half weeks, Jackson titles have sold 2.3 million copies.

On the current U.S. pop charts, R&B singer Maxwell leads. His "BLACKsummers'night" opened with 316,000 copies, and Billboard reports that's a career best. His last album, 2001's "Now," debuted with 296,000 copies.

Also new is Miley Cyrus' latest soundtrack to the "Hannah Montana" TV series. The album lands at No. 3, having sold 137,000 copies in its first week. That number is significantly lower than some past "Hannah Montana"-branded titles. A 2006 soundtrack to the Disney Channel series sold 281,000 copies in its first week, and a double-disc effort in 2007 bowed with 326,000 copies.

Yet don't make the mistake of thinking that "Hannah Montana" has run its course.

The posthumous sales dominance of Michael Jackson continues at music retailers this week, and momentum may not slow for the foreseeable future. Jackson albums sold a total of 800,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, almost doubling the 422,000 sold last week.

The increase was to be expected, as SoundScan's tabulates its numbers through Sunday, and this marked the first full week of sales since Jackson's passing on June 25. With massive interest in Tuesday's memorial at Staples Center, interest in the artist's music isn't expected to slow any time soon.

Jackson's sales were led by his hits compilation "Number Ones" (Sony), which moved a total of 339,000 copies, up from the 108,000 it sold in the previous sales week. To date, the album has sold 2.3 million copies.

Jackson's "Thriller" is a distant second to the hits package, having sold 187,000 copies this week. Often cited as the bestselling album of all time, with reports putting its total worldwide sales at anywhere between 40 million and 100 million, "Thriller" has sold 4.8 million copies since SoundScan began tracking data in 1991, an impressive figure for an album released in 1982.

Of Jackson's 800,000 albums sold, about 140,000 came from the digital sector. Last week, that number was higher, as 241,000 of Jackson's 422,000 albums sold were downloads. Billboard reports that distributors ran out of physical CDs in the wake of Jackson's death, and online purchases were no doubt fueled by the sudden surge of interest in the wake of his passing.

Jackson's top-selling digital single in North America last week was "Man in the Mirror," which moved 217,000 downloads. "Billie Jean" was behind that with 199,000 downloads. All told, Jackson sold about 2.7 million digital singles over the last week. If you include the Jackson 5 in Nielsen SoundScan's totals, Jackson has been responsible for more than 6.2 million downloads.

Jackson's titles are eligible only for Billboard's "top pop catalog" chart, as they are older than 18 months and have fallen below the top 100 on the main pop chart. But no matter, as there's little to distract from Jackson at the top of the main pop chart.

The current U.S. pop chart is topped only by the latest edition of the hits compilation series "Now! That's What I Call Music." The 31th volume in the collection opens this week with 169,000 copies sold.

But there is some action further down.

The death of Michael Jackson on Thursday has sent an expected jolt through music retail. Three of his albums, led by hits collection "Number Ones," have topped 100,000 copies in sales, according to Nielsen SoundScan data released by Billboard. Collectively, Jackson's titles sold more than 422,000 copies -- more than half of which came in the form of digital downloads.  

Jackson's titles accrued those sales in a matter of days, as Nielsen SoundScan data are tracked through Sunday evening. By comparison, in the week that ended June 21, Jackson's titles sold about 10,000 albums, collectively. 

Jackson's 2003 compilation "Number Ones" (Sony) sold 108,000 copies, which bests the 88,000 copies sold by the Black Eyes Peas' "The E.N.D." (Interscope). The latter is the album that will lead the U.S. pop chart when it's issued Wednesday morning. Jackson's titles are eligible only for Billboard's "top pop catalog" chart, as they are older than 18 months and have fallen below the top 100 on the main pop chart. Billboard reports that Jackson set a record on that tally by possessing eight out of the top 10 positions on the chart -- nine if one includes the Jackson 5's "The Ultimate Collection" (Motown) at No. 5. 

Jackson's last studio album, "Invincible" (Sony), was released in 2001. That album topped the U.S. pop charts when it debuted with a first-week total of 366,000 copies sold, according to Billboard archives. Though Jackson's 1982 "Thriller" (Sony) album is routinely cited as the "bestselling album of all time," SoundScan began tracking data in 1991, and Jackson's top week in the SoundScan era came in 1995, when the artist's "HIStory" (Sony) bowed with 391,000 copies sold. 

News of Jackson's death has dominated the media since Thursday, and there's been an uptake in Jackson searches and downloads on peer-to-peer networks, according to data from Big Champagne. On Monday, tracks such as "Thriller," "Smooth Criminal" and "Billie Jean" all saw major spikes in searches and downloads. 

The hottest artists, however, on the file-sharing networks remain young rapper Drake and R&B newcomers Jeremih and Keri Hilson, among others. Jeremih's self-titled Def Jam debut was released this week, and it should have a strong debut on next week's pop chart, helped no doubt by Amazon's $2.99 download price.

Last summer, the Jonas Brothers sold more than half a million copies when they landed atop the U.S. pop charts with “A Little Bit Longer.” What a difference a year makes. The Disney powerhouse still lands at No. 1 with its latest, “Lines, Vines and Trying Times,” but a little of the magic appears to be gone.

First week sales for the newest topped off at 247,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That gives the Jonas kids a healthy lead over the Black Eyed Peas' “The E.N.D.” (Interscope), which falls to No. 2 in its second week of release, but may cast some doubt as to just how much is left in the Jonas Brothers' tank.

Disney has had the boys working, as the Jonas Brothers have released four studio albums in less than three years. The brand has also spawned a 3-D concert film, a Disney Channel film in “Camp Rock” and a recent Disney Channel series, “Jonas.”

The marketing blitz has been designed to keep the Jonas Brothers in the lucrative tween-pop world, all while expanding their fan base to a more grown-up market. The Jonas Brothers partnered with Stevie Wonder at last year’s Grammys, and are gradually bringing on more adult themes in their music, but lead-off single “Paranoid” hasn’t been burning up the charts yet.

Fellow Disney peer Miley Cyrus, for instance, is still in the top 25 of iTunes’ bestselling singles with "The Climb,” which sees her making overtures to the country world, but “Paranoid” is languishing farther down – at No. 56 today. On Billboard's Hot 100, the cut hit No. 60 last week, which is down from its peak of No. 37, a high-water mark last month based on first week digital download sales. So far, it's sold 192,000 digital downloads.

Other notes on this week’s chart, including news on the Black Eyed Peas, Jay-Z and Pete Yorn below:

Local hip-hop outfit the Black Eyed Peas score a rare feat on this week's pop chart, becoming one of the few mainstream acts to experience a first-week sales increase over its last album. The group's fifth full-length release, "The E.N.D." (Interscope), became its first to debut at No. 1, selling 304,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan numbers released on Billboard. 

In 2005, the Black Eyed Peas bowed at No. 2 with "Monkey Business," which sold 291,000 copies in its first week and went on to sell 4.19 million. This year alone has seen such popular artists as U2, Kelly Clarkson and Eminem fail to live up to the sales numbers they set earlier in their careers.  

"The E.N.D." came with a lengthy setup, which included an appearance on "American Idol," and the March release of the single "Boom Boom Pow." The cut has topped Billboard's Hot 100 for 10 weeks, and has sold 2.8 million downloads. 

The song is still generating heat. According to data provided by BigChampagne Media Measurement, "Boom Boom Pow" ranked in YouTube's top-five streams in the last week, generating more than 1.6 million views. It's iTunes' No. 2 song, topped by another track from "The E.N.D.," "I Gotta Feeling." 

The resurgent vinyl market isn't showing any signs of slowing down. In fact, recent figures released by Nielsen SoundScan indicate that overall U.S. vinyl sales will once again set a benchmark in 2009, with sales up 50% through the first five months of the year. 

SoundScan predicts vinyl sales will reach 2.8 million units in 2009, up from 1.9 million in 2008, a record since SoundScan began tracking sales data in 1991. Already in 2009, vinyl sales have topped 1 million. At this point last year, vinyl sales stood at 701,000 copies. To be fair, the number is still tiny compared to overall album sales. 

Vinyl, SoundScan points out, accounts for less than 1% of overall album sales. In other words, vinyl sales represent about six months in the life of Taylor Swift, whose late 2008 release, "Fearless," has already sold more than 3.3 million copies. To date in 2009, 121.8 million CDs have been sold, versus 33.2 million digital albums, compared to 151.01 million CDs and 27.52 digital albums for the same period last year.

Yet vinyl appears to be a niche market that's here to stay, and one that's showing signs of expansion. Rock albums account for 70% of all vinyl sold, but country vinyl is enjoying a growth spurt. Year-to-date country vinyl sales are already at 15,000 copies, compared with 5,000 for the comparable period in 2008.  

Of course, if someone wants to rain on the vinyl good news, there's this stat: Vinyl sales were up 90% in 2008 over 2007, and the rate of growth has certainly slowed. 

-- Todd Martens

Photo: Origami Vinyl in Echo Park. Credit: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times

Despite leaking to the Web in March, the latest from much-hyped Brooklyn indie-rock quartet Grizzly Bear has made a top 10 debut on the U.S. pop charts. The band's first-week sales of 33,000 copies are in a distant universe from the numbers tallied by the likes of Eminem and Green Day, but in today's depressed sales climate, that's more than enough for the chamber-pop of "Veckatimest" to land at No. 8.

Since hitting the file-sharing networks, Warp Records' "Veckatimest" has been hyped as one of the year's stronger indie rock efforts, receiving rave reviews from this publication, the Chicago Tribune, popular Web-zine Pitchfork and  Rolling Stone, among many others. The band members pleaded with fans to buy the album, despite admitting on their blog that they had "conflicting opinions" about file-sharing.

"Veckatimest" gives  Grizzly Bear its best sales week by far. The group's sophomore effort, "Yellow House," was released in 2006 and has sold 55,000 copies to date. Of the 33,000 copies sold of "Veckatimest," a relatively high number came in the form of digital download purchases -- a reflection of the band's Web-savvy fan base or perhaps Amazon.com's loss-leading first-week price of $3.99. A total of 13,000 digital albums were purchased.

A strong number of "Veckatimest's" first-week sales came from the independent sector. Billboard's chart analyst Ketih Caulfield writes that 24% were made at independent and small chain outlets. Not unexpectedly, Grizzly Bear also performed well in the ever-burgeoning vinyl market, selling 4,000 LPs  in the first week.

At the top of the chart, it's all Eminem, Green Day and Miley Cyrus. It won't be known until next week whether Eminem will receive a sales-boost from his MTV Movie Awards appearances. For now, he's   withstood a major second-week drop-off to hold at No. 1

Eminem hasn’t had any trouble generating headlines since he announced that he’d be unleashing a new album late last year. On “Relapse,” he’s taking shots at Mariah Carey and getting graphic when rapping about “Hannah Montana,”  which almost guarantees that the rapper will continue to be a media obsession.

But does his pop culture outlaw act still generate album sales? First-week returns for Aftermath/Interscope’s “Relapse” indicate Eminem’s audience has diminished slightly, but it’s still a sizable one. “Relapse” sold 608,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan, giving the artist the largest debut of 2009 and best first week since AC/DC’s “Black Ice” arrived with 784,000 copies last October, according to Billboard.

Overall album sales have diminished significantly from Eminem’s height in the late ‘90s and the start of the new decade, when it was expected that an album bearing his name would top first-week sales of 1 million copies. Lil Wayneaccomplished the feat last year with his Cash Money/Universal album “Tha Carter III,” and Eminem can still generate plenty of attention, but not that kind of heat.

When last we heard from the rapper, his late 2004 effort  “Encore” was able to sell 711,000 copies in just three days. The album was released off-cycle on a Friday, and in its first full week in stores it went on to sell 871,000 copies. The album’s 10-day total topped 1.5 million copies sold, a tally Eminem probably won’t reach in the coming weeks.

To date, AC/DC’s “Black Ice” (Columbia) has sold about 2 million copies. As for 2009’s other blockbuster albums, they’re still struggling to top the 1 million mark. U2’s “No Line on the Horizon” (Interscope) opened strong, tallying 484,000 copies in its first week, and is getting closer to the seven-figure mark, having sold 902,000 copies to date.

Kelly Clarkson’s “All I Ever Wanted” (RCA) won rave reviews and debuted with 255,000 copies sold but has petered out at around 581,000 copies. Disney’s soundtrack to “Hannah Montana: The Movie” opened lower, with 139,000 copies sold in its first week, but has since taken off, and now stands at 952,000 and should top 1 million sold in the next two weeks.

Last week’s topper, Green Day’s Reprise set “21st Century Breakdown,” brought in 166,000 copies in its first full week in stores. It sold 215,000 copies in a shortened sales week, having been released on a Friday, and stands with a 10-day total of 381,000 copies sold.

Aside from Eminem, the other big sales news this week comes from “American Idol.”  In the battle between Adam Lambert and Kris Allen fans, both sects can claim a victory of sorts this week.

Perhaps everyone was saving their extra cash for new albums from Eminem and Green Day.  In a slow release week, R&B singer Chrisette Michele tops the U.S. pop chart, selling only 83,000 copies of her “Epiphany,” according to Nielsen SoundScan.

That’s the lowest-ever debut on the U.S. pop charts since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking data in 1991, according to Billboard’s Chart Alert. It’s also only the third newcomer to land atop the chart with less than 100,000 copies sold.

Def Jam's “Epiphany” joins the ranks of Johnny Cash’s “American V: A Hundred Highways,” which entered in 2006 with 88,000 copies sold, and the Notorious B.I.G.’s “#1’s,” which bowed atop the chart in 2005 with 99,000 copies sold. Michele’s “Epiphany” isn’t the lowest No. 1 total, however. The soundtrack to“Dreamgirls” topped the chart in January 2007 with only 60,000 copies sold.

Yet even in the down market, Michele’s chart-topper is still a large achievement for the neo-soul artist. Her debut, “I Am,” never sold more than 27,000 copies in one week, and went on to scan a total of 431,000 copies. Sales of “Epiphany” were no doubt helped by the low-low-low price of $2.99 on Amazon.com, and 14,000 sales were from the digital sector.

Michele has a narrow lead at the top, as the Disney soundtrack to “Hannah Montana: The Movie” is close behind at No. 2, having sold 82,000 copies. That pushes the soundtrack to a total of 826,000 copies, showing there’s plenty of life left in the Disney vehicle. “Hannah Montana” is on the verge of passing one of 2009’s earlier blockbusters, as U2’s “No Line on the Horizon” stands this week at 882,000 copies sold. 

New at No. 3 is the more pop-leaning R&B singer Ciara, who’s LaFace/Zomba release “Fantasy Ride” sold 81,000 copies in its first week. As Michele experiences a career high, Ciara falls victim to a career low. In 2006, her “Ciara: The Evolution” sold 338,000 copies when it debuted at No. 1. Her “Love Sex Magic” featuring Justin Timberlake is at No. 37 on the U.S. single’s chart, and seems to be treading down. But perhaps her upcoming tour with Jay-Z will put bring her numbers back up.

Other notes from this week’s chart:

Bob Dylan is back in a familiar place, landing at the top of the U.S. pop music chart for the fifth time in his career. His Columbia release "Together Through Life" sold 125,000 copies in its first week in stores, according to data provided by Nielsen SoundScan.

The sales are in line with Dylan's recent past, with one exception. In 2006, his "Modern Times" debuted at the top of the chart with 192,000 copies sold. Sales three years ago benefited from a massive ad campaign for Apple's iTunes store featuring Dylan, who in one of the commercials performed the album's "Someday Baby" while sitting on a stool.

Comparing the two albums provides a glimpse at the marketing prowess of Apple and what a difference the retailer's support can make. Dylan's digital sales took a dip this time around, which defies industry trends. "Together Through Life" sold 18,000 downloads, whereas "Modern Times" tallied 20,000 in download sales in its first week of release.

The disparity might not seem like much, but it is, considering the brisk growth of the digital album market since 2006. So far this year, digital album sales are at 26.3 million, up from 21.7 million for the same period last year. And sales of digital albums jumped 38% in 2008 over 2007.

Dylan hasn't exactly been missing in action. But the Super Bowl commercial with the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am did not give him the same splash the Apple ads did.

Wilco, Paisley, Jeremih debuts overshadowed by Michael Jackson

The posthumous sales dominance of Michael Jackson continues at music retailers this week, and momentum may not slow for the foreseeable future. Jackson albums sold a total of 800,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, almost doubling the 422,000 sold last week.

The increase was to be expected, as SoundScan's tabulates its numbers through Sunday, and this marked the first full week of sales since Jackson's passing on June 25. With massive interest in Tuesday's memorial at Staples Center, interest in the artist's music isn't expected to slow any time soon.

Jackson's sales were led by his hits compilation "Number Ones" (Sony), which moved a total of 339,000 copies, up from the 108,000 it sold in the previous sales week. To date, the album has sold 2.3 million copies.

Jackson's "Thriller" is a distant second to the hits package, having sold 187,000 copies this week. Often cited as the bestselling album of all time, with reports putting its total worldwide sales at anywhere between 40 million and 100 million, "Thriller" has sold 4.8 million copies since SoundScan began tracking data in 1991, an impressive figure for an album released in 1982.

Of Jackson's 800,000 albums sold, about 140,000 came from the digital sector. Last week, that number was higher, as 241,000 of Jackson's 422,000 albums sold were downloads. Billboard reports that distributors ran out of physical CDs in the wake of Jackson's death, and online purchases were no doubt fueled by the sudden surge of interest in the wake of his passing.

Jackson's top-selling digital single in North America last week was "Man in the Mirror," which moved 217,000 downloads. "Billie Jean" was behind that with 199,000 downloads. All told, Jackson sold about 2.7 million digital singles over the last week. If you include the Jackson 5 in Nielsen SoundScan's totals, Jackson has been responsible for more than 6.2 million downloads.

Jackson's titles are eligible only for Billboard's "top pop catalog" chart, as they are older than 18 months and have fallen below the top 100 on the main pop chart. But no matter, as there's little to distract from Jackson at the top of the main pop chart.

The current U.S. pop chart is topped only by the latest edition of the hits compilation series "Now! That's What I Call Music." The 31th volume in the collection opens this week with 169,000 copies sold.

But there is some action further down.

The death of Michael Jackson on Thursday has sent an expected jolt through music retail. Three of his albums, led by hits collection "Number Ones," have topped 100,000 copies in sales, according to Nielsen SoundScan data released by Billboard. Collectively, Jackson's titles sold more than 422,000 copies -- more than half of which came in the form of digital downloads.  

Jackson's titles accrued those sales in a matter of days, as Nielsen SoundScan data are tracked through Sunday evening. By comparison, in the week that ended June 21, Jackson's titles sold about 10,000 albums, collectively. 

Jackson's 2003 compilation "Number Ones" (Sony) sold 108,000 copies, which bests the 88,000 copies sold by the Black Eyes Peas' "The E.N.D." (Interscope). The latter is the album that will lead the U.S. pop chart when it's issued Wednesday morning. Jackson's titles are eligible only for Billboard's "top pop catalog" chart, as they are older than 18 months and have fallen below the top 100 on the main pop chart. Billboard reports that Jackson set a record on that tally by possessing eight out of the top 10 positions on the chart -- nine if one includes the Jackson 5's "The Ultimate Collection" (Motown) at No. 5. 

Jackson's last studio album, "Invincible" (Sony), was released in 2001. That album topped the U.S. pop charts when it debuted with a first-week total of 366,000 copies sold, according to Billboard archives. Though Jackson's 1982 "Thriller" (Sony) album is routinely cited as the "bestselling album of all time," SoundScan began tracking data in 1991, and Jackson's top week in the SoundScan era came in 1995, when the artist's "HIStory" (Sony) bowed with 391,000 copies sold. 

News of Jackson's death has dominated the media since Thursday, and there's been an uptake in Jackson searches and downloads on peer-to-peer networks, according to data from Big Champagne. On Monday, tracks such as "Thriller," "Smooth Criminal" and "Billie Jean" all saw major spikes in searches and downloads. 

The hottest artists, however, on the file-sharing networks remain young rapper Drake and R&B newcomers Jeremih and Keri Hilson, among others. Jeremih's self-titled Def Jam debut was released this week, and it should have a strong debut on next week's pop chart, helped no doubt by Amazon's $2.99 download price.

Last summer, the Jonas Brothers sold more than half a million copies when they landed atop the U.S. pop charts with “A Little Bit Longer.” What a difference a year makes. The Disney powerhouse still lands at No. 1 with its latest, “Lines, Vines and Trying Times,” but a little of the magic appears to be gone.

First week sales for the newest topped off at 247,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That gives the Jonas kids a healthy lead over the Black Eyed Peas' “The E.N.D.” (Interscope), which falls to No. 2 in its second week of release, but may cast some doubt as to just how much is left in the Jonas Brothers' tank.

Disney has had the boys working, as the Jonas Brothers have released four studio albums in less than three years. The brand has also spawned a 3-D concert film, a Disney Channel film in “Camp Rock” and a recent Disney Channel series, “Jonas.”

The marketing blitz has been designed to keep the Jonas Brothers in the lucrative tween-pop world, all while expanding their fan base to a more grown-up market. The Jonas Brothers partnered with Stevie Wonder at last year’s Grammys, and are gradually bringing on more adult themes in their music, but lead-off single “Paranoid” hasn’t been burning up the charts yet.

Fellow Disney peer Miley Cyrus, for instance, is still in the top 25 of iTunes’ bestselling singles with "The Climb,” which sees her making overtures to the country world, but “Paranoid” is languishing farther down – at No. 56 today. On Billboard's Hot 100, the cut hit No. 60 last week, which is down from its peak of No. 37, a high-water mark last month based on first week digital download sales. So far, it's sold 192,000 digital downloads.

Other notes on this week’s chart, including news on the Black Eyed Peas, Jay-Z and Pete Yorn below:

Local hip-hop outfit the Black Eyed Peas score a rare feat on this week's pop chart, becoming one of the few mainstream acts to experience a first-week sales increase over its last album. The group's fifth full-length release, "The E.N.D." (Interscope), became its first to debut at No. 1, selling 304,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan numbers released on Billboard. 

In 2005, the Black Eyed Peas bowed at No. 2 with "Monkey Business," which sold 291,000 copies in its first week and went on to sell 4.19 million. This year alone has seen such popular artists as U2, Kelly Clarkson and Eminem fail to live up to the sales numbers they set earlier in their careers.  

"The E.N.D." came with a lengthy setup, which included an appearance on "American Idol," and the March release of the single "Boom Boom Pow." The cut has topped Billboard's Hot 100 for 10 weeks, and has sold 2.8 million downloads. 

The song is still generating heat. According to data provided by BigChampagne Media Measurement, "Boom Boom Pow" ranked in YouTube's top-five streams in the last week, generating more than 1.6 million views. It's iTunes' No. 2 song, topped by another track from "The E.N.D.," "I Gotta Feeling." 

The resurgent vinyl market isn't showing any signs of slowing down. In fact, recent figures released by Nielsen SoundScan indicate that overall U.S. vinyl sales will once again set a benchmark in 2009, with sales up 50% through the first five months of the year. 

SoundScan predicts vinyl sales will reach 2.8 million units in 2009, up from 1.9 million in 2008, a record since SoundScan began tracking sales data in 1991. Already in 2009, vinyl sales have topped 1 million. At this point last year, vinyl sales stood at 701,000 copies. To be fair, the number is still tiny compared to overall album sales. 

Vinyl, SoundScan points out, accounts for less than 1% of overall album sales. In other words, vinyl sales represent about six months in the life of Taylor Swift, whose late 2008 release, "Fearless," has already sold more than 3.3 million copies. To date in 2009, 121.8 million CDs have been sold, versus 33.2 million digital albums, compared to 151.01 million CDs and 27.52 digital albums for the same period last year.

Yet vinyl appears to be a niche market that's here to stay, and one that's showing signs of expansion. Rock albums account for 70% of all vinyl sold, but country vinyl is enjoying a growth spurt. Year-to-date country vinyl sales are already at 15,000 copies, compared with 5,000 for the comparable period in 2008.  

Of course, if someone wants to rain on the vinyl good news, there's this stat: Vinyl sales were up 90% in 2008 over 2007, and the rate of growth has certainly slowed. 

-- Todd Martens

Photo: Origami Vinyl in Echo Park. Credit: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times

Despite leaking to the Web in March, the latest from much-hyped Brooklyn indie-rock quartet Grizzly Bear has made a top 10 debut on the U.S. pop charts. The band's first-week sales of 33,000 copies are in a distant universe from the numbers tallied by the likes of Eminem and Green Day, but in today's depressed sales climate, that's more than enough for the chamber-pop of "Veckatimest" to land at No. 8.

Since hitting the file-sharing networks, Warp Records' "Veckatimest" has been hyped as one of the year's stronger indie rock efforts, receiving rave reviews from this publication, the Chicago Tribune, popular Web-zine Pitchfork and  Rolling Stone, among many others. The band members pleaded with fans to buy the album, despite admitting on their blog that they had "conflicting opinions" about file-sharing.

"Veckatimest" gives  Grizzly Bear its best sales week by far. The group's sophomore effort, "Yellow House," was released in 2006 and has sold 55,000 copies to date. Of the 33,000 copies sold of "Veckatimest," a relatively high number came in the form of digital download purchases -- a reflection of the band's Web-savvy fan base or perhaps Amazon.com's loss-leading first-week price of $3.99. A total of 13,000 digital albums were purchased.

A strong number of "Veckatimest's" first-week sales came from the independent sector. Billboard's chart analyst Ketih Caulfield writes that 24% were made at independent and small chain outlets. Not unexpectedly, Grizzly Bear also performed well in the ever-burgeoning vinyl market, selling 4,000 LPs  in the first week.

At the top of the chart, it's all Eminem, Green Day and Miley Cyrus. It won't be known until next week whether Eminem will receive a sales-boost from his MTV Movie Awards appearances. For now, he's   withstood a major second-week drop-off to hold at No. 1

Eminem hasn’t had any trouble generating headlines since he announced that he’d be unleashing a new album late last year. On “Relapse,” he’s taking shots at Mariah Carey and getting graphic when rapping about “Hannah Montana,”  which almost guarantees that the rapper will continue to be a media obsession.

But does his pop culture outlaw act still generate album sales? First-week returns for Aftermath/Interscope’s “Relapse” indicate Eminem’s audience has diminished slightly, but it’s still a sizable one. “Relapse” sold 608,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan, giving the artist the largest debut of 2009 and best first week since AC/DC’s “Black Ice” arrived with 784,000 copies last October, according to Billboard.

Overall album sales have diminished significantly from Eminem’s height in the late ‘90s and the start of the new decade, when it was expected that an album bearing his name would top first-week sales of 1 million copies. Lil Wayneaccomplished the feat last year with his Cash Money/Universal album “Tha Carter III,” and Eminem can still generate plenty of attention, but not that kind of heat.

When last we heard from the rapper, his late 2004 effort  “Encore” was able to sell 711,000 copies in just three days. The album was released off-cycle on a Friday, and in its first full week in stores it went on to sell 871,000 copies. The album’s 10-day total topped 1.5 million copies sold, a tally Eminem probably won’t reach in the coming weeks.

To date, AC/DC’s “Black Ice” (Columbia) has sold about 2 million copies. As for 2009’s other blockbuster albums, they’re still struggling to top the 1 million mark. U2’s “No Line on the Horizon” (Interscope) opened strong, tallying 484,000 copies in its first week, and is getting closer to the seven-figure mark, having sold 902,000 copies to date.

Kelly Clarkson’s “All I Ever Wanted” (RCA) won rave reviews and debuted with 255,000 copies sold but has petered out at around 581,000 copies. Disney’s soundtrack to “Hannah Montana: The Movie” opened lower, with 139,000 copies sold in its first week, but has since taken off, and now stands at 952,000 and should top 1 million sold in the next two weeks.

Last week’s topper, Green Day’s Reprise set “21st Century Breakdown,” brought in 166,000 copies in its first full week in stores. It sold 215,000 copies in a shortened sales week, having been released on a Friday, and stands with a 10-day total of 381,000 copies sold.

Aside from Eminem, the other big sales news this week comes from “American Idol.”  In the battle between Adam Lambert and Kris Allen fans, both sects can claim a victory of sorts this week.

Perhaps everyone was saving their extra cash for new albums from Eminem and Green Day.  In a slow release week, R&B singer Chrisette Michele tops the U.S. pop chart, selling only 83,000 copies of her “Epiphany,” according to Nielsen SoundScan.

That’s the lowest-ever debut on the U.S. pop charts since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking data in 1991, according to Billboard’s Chart Alert. It’s also only the third newcomer to land atop the chart with less than 100,000 copies sold.

Def Jam's “Epiphany” joins the ranks of Johnny Cash’s “American V: A Hundred Highways,” which entered in 2006 with 88,000 copies sold, and the Notorious B.I.G.’s “#1’s,” which bowed atop the chart in 2005 with 99,000 copies sold. Michele’s “Epiphany” isn’t the lowest No. 1 total, however. The soundtrack to“Dreamgirls” topped the chart in January 2007 with only 60,000 copies sold.

Yet even in the down market, Michele’s chart-topper is still a large achievement for the neo-soul artist. Her debut, “I Am,” never sold more than 27,000 copies in one week, and went on to scan a total of 431,000 copies. Sales of “Epiphany” were no doubt helped by the low-low-low price of $2.99 on Amazon.com, and 14,000 sales were from the digital sector.

Michele has a narrow lead at the top, as the Disney soundtrack to “Hannah Montana: The Movie” is close behind at No. 2, having sold 82,000 copies. That pushes the soundtrack to a total of 826,000 copies, showing there’s plenty of life left in the Disney vehicle. “Hannah Montana” is on the verge of passing one of 2009’s earlier blockbusters, as U2’s “No Line on the Horizon” stands this week at 882,000 copies sold. 

New at No. 3 is the more pop-leaning R&B singer Ciara, who’s LaFace/Zomba release “Fantasy Ride” sold 81,000 copies in its first week. As Michele experiences a career high, Ciara falls victim to a career low. In 2006, her “Ciara: The Evolution” sold 338,000 copies when it debuted at No. 1. Her “Love Sex Magic” featuring Justin Timberlake is at No. 37 on the U.S. single’s chart, and seems to be treading down. But perhaps her upcoming tour with Jay-Z will put bring her numbers back up.

Other notes from this week’s chart:

Bob Dylan is back in a familiar place, landing at the top of the U.S. pop music chart for the fifth time in his career. His Columbia release "Together Through Life" sold 125,000 copies in its first week in stores, according to data provided by Nielsen SoundScan.

The sales are in line with Dylan's recent past, with one exception. In 2006, his "Modern Times" debuted at the top of the chart with 192,000 copies sold. Sales three years ago benefited from a massive ad campaign for Apple's iTunes store featuring Dylan, who in one of the commercials performed the album's "Someday Baby" while sitting on a stool.

Comparing the two albums provides a glimpse at the marketing prowess of Apple and what a difference the retailer's support can make. Dylan's digital sales took a dip this time around, which defies industry trends. "Together Through Life" sold 18,000 downloads, whereas "Modern Times" tallied 20,000 in download sales in its first week of release.

The disparity might not seem like much, but it is, considering the brisk growth of the digital album market since 2006. So far this year, digital album sales are at 26.3 million, up from 21.7 million for the same period last year. And sales of digital albums jumped 38% in 2008 over 2007.

Dylan hasn't exactly been missing in action. But the Super Bowl commercial with the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am did not give him the same splash the Apple ads did.

Off the chart: Sales surge for Michael Jackson, but he's not No. 1*

The death of Michael Jackson on Thursday has sent an expected jolt through music retail. Three of his albums, led by hits collection "Number Ones," have topped 100,000 copies in sales, according to Nielsen SoundScan data released by Billboard. Collectively, Jackson's titles sold more than 422,000 copies -- more than half of which came in the form of digital downloads.  

Jackson's titles accrued those sales in a matter of days, as Nielsen SoundScan data are tracked through Sunday evening. By comparison, in the week that ended June 21, Jackson's titles sold about 10,000 albums, collectively. 

Jackson's 2003 compilation "Number Ones" (Sony) sold 108,000 copies, which bests the 88,000 copies sold by the Black Eyes Peas' "The E.N.D." (Interscope). The latter is the album that will lead the U.S. pop chart when it's issued Wednesday morning. Jackson's titles are eligible only for Billboard's "top pop catalog" chart, as they are older than 18 months and have fallen below the top 100 on the main pop chart. Billboard reports that Jackson set a record on that tally by possessing eight out of the top 10 positions on the chart -- nine if one includes the Jackson 5's "The Ultimate Collection" (Motown) at No. 5. 

Jackson's last studio album, "Invincible" (Sony), was released in 2001. That album topped the U.S. pop charts when it debuted with a first-week total of 366,000 copies sold, according to Billboard archives. Though Jackson's 1982 "Thriller" (Sony) album is routinely cited as the "bestselling album of all time," SoundScan began tracking data in 1991, and Jackson's top week in the SoundScan era came in 1995, when the artist's "HIStory" (Sony) bowed with 391,000 copies sold. 

News of Jackson's death has dominated the media since Thursday, and there's been an uptake in Jackson searches and downloads on peer-to-peer networks, according to data from Big Champagne. On Monday, tracks such as "Thriller," "Smooth Criminal" and "Billie Jean" all saw major spikes in searches and downloads. 

The hottest artists, however, on the file-sharing networks remain young rapper Drake and R&B newcomers Jeremih and Keri Hilson, among others. Jeremih's self-titled Def Jam debut was released this week, and it should have a strong debut on next week's pop chart, helped no doubt by Amazon's $2.99 download price.

Last summer, the Jonas Brothers sold more than half a million copies when they landed atop the U.S. pop charts with “A Little Bit Longer.” What a difference a year makes. The Disney powerhouse still lands at No. 1 with its latest, “Lines, Vines and Trying Times,” but a little of the magic appears to be gone.

First week sales for the newest topped off at 247,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That gives the Jonas kids a healthy lead over the Black Eyed Peas' “The E.N.D.” (Interscope), which falls to No. 2 in its second week of release, but may cast some doubt as to just how much is left in the Jonas Brothers' tank.

Disney has had the boys working, as the Jonas Brothers have released four studio albums in less than three years. The brand has also spawned a 3-D concert film, a Disney Channel film in “Camp Rock” and a recent Disney Channel series, “Jonas.”

The marketing blitz has been designed to keep the Jonas Brothers in the lucrative tween-pop world, all while expanding their fan base to a more grown-up market. The Jonas Brothers partnered with Stevie Wonder at last year’s Grammys, and are gradually bringing on more adult themes in their music, but lead-off single “Paranoid” hasn’t been burning up the charts yet.

Fellow Disney peer Miley Cyrus, for instance, is still in the top 25 of iTunes’ bestselling singles with "The Climb,” which sees her making overtures to the country world, but “Paranoid” is languishing farther down – at No. 56 today. On Billboard's Hot 100, the cut hit No. 60 last week, which is down from its peak of No. 37, a high-water mark last month based on first week digital download sales. So far, it's sold 192,000 digital downloads.

Other notes on this week’s chart, including news on the Black Eyed Peas, Jay-Z and Pete Yorn below:

Local hip-hop outfit the Black Eyed Peas score a rare feat on this week's pop chart, becoming one of the few mainstream acts to experience a first-week sales increase over its last album. The group's fifth full-length release, "The E.N.D." (Interscope), became its first to debut at No. 1, selling 304,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan numbers released on Billboard. 

In 2005, the Black Eyed Peas bowed at No. 2 with "Monkey Business," which sold 291,000 copies in its first week and went on to sell 4.19 million. This year alone has seen such popular artists as U2, Kelly Clarkson and Eminem fail to live up to the sales numbers they set earlier in their careers.  

"The E.N.D." came with a lengthy setup, which included an appearance on "American Idol," and the March release of the single "Boom Boom Pow." The cut has topped Billboard's Hot 100 for 10 weeks, and has sold 2.8 million downloads. 

The song is still generating heat. According to data provided by BigChampagne Media Measurement, "Boom Boom Pow" ranked in YouTube's top-five streams in the last week, generating more than 1.6 million views. It's iTunes' No. 2 song, topped by another track from "The E.N.D.," "I Gotta Feeling." 

The resurgent vinyl market isn't showing any signs of slowing down. In fact, recent figures released by Nielsen SoundScan indicate that overall U.S. vinyl sales will once again set a benchmark in 2009, with sales up 50% through the first five months of the year. 

SoundScan predicts vinyl sales will reach 2.8 million units in 2009, up from 1.9 million in 2008, a record since SoundScan began tracking sales data in 1991. Already in 2009, vinyl sales have topped 1 million. At this point last year, vinyl sales stood at 701,000 copies. To be fair, the number is still tiny compared to overall album sales. 

Vinyl, SoundScan points out, accounts for less than 1% of overall album sales. In other words, vinyl sales represent about six months in the life of Taylor Swift, whose late 2008 release, "Fearless," has already sold more than 3.3 million copies. To date in 2009, 121.8 million CDs have been sold, versus 33.2 million digital albums, compared to 151.01 million CDs and 27.52 digital albums for the same period last year.

Yet vinyl appears to be a niche market that's here to stay, and one that's showing signs of expansion. Rock albums account for 70% of all vinyl sold, but country vinyl is enjoying a growth spurt. Year-to-date country vinyl sales are already at 15,000 copies, compared with 5,000 for the comparable period in 2008.  

Of course, if someone wants to rain on the vinyl good news, there's this stat: Vinyl sales were up 90% in 2008 over 2007, and the rate of growth has certainly slowed. 

-- Todd Martens

Photo: Origami Vinyl in Echo Park. Credit: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times

Despite leaking to the Web in March, the latest from much-hyped Brooklyn indie-rock quartet Grizzly Bear has made a top 10 debut on the U.S. pop charts. The band's first-week sales of 33,000 copies are in a distant universe from the numbers tallied by the likes of Eminem and Green Day, but in today's depressed sales climate, that's more than enough for the chamber-pop of "Veckatimest" to land at No. 8.

Since hitting the file-sharing networks, Warp Records' "Veckatimest" has been hyped as one of the year's stronger indie rock efforts, receiving rave reviews from this publication, the Chicago Tribune, popular Web-zine Pitchfork and  Rolling Stone, among many others. The band members pleaded with fans to buy the album, despite admitting on their blog that they had "conflicting opinions" about file-sharing.

"Veckatimest" gives  Grizzly Bear its best sales week by far. The group's sophomore effort, "Yellow House," was released in 2006 and has sold 55,000 copies to date. Of the 33,000 copies sold of "Veckatimest," a relatively high number came in the form of digital download purchases -- a reflection of the band's Web-savvy fan base or perhaps Amazon.com's loss-leading first-week price of $3.99. A total of 13,000 digital albums were purchased.

A strong number of "Veckatimest's" first-week sales came from the independent sector. Billboard's chart analyst Ketih Caulfield writes that 24% were made at independent and small chain outlets. Not unexpectedly, Grizzly Bear also performed well in the ever-burgeoning vinyl market, selling 4,000 LPs  in the first week.

At the top of the chart, it's all Eminem, Green Day and Miley Cyrus. It won't be known until next week whether Eminem will receive a sales-boost from his MTV Movie Awards appearances. For now, he's   withstood a major second-week drop-off to hold at No. 1

Eminem hasn’t had any trouble generating headlines since he announced that he’d be unleashing a new album late last year. On “Relapse,” he’s taking shots at Mariah Carey and getting graphic when rapping about “Hannah Montana,”  which almost guarantees that the rapper will continue to be a media obsession.

But does his pop culture outlaw act still generate album sales? First-week returns for Aftermath/Interscope’s “Relapse” indicate Eminem’s audience has diminished slightly, but it’s still a sizable one. “Relapse” sold 608,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan, giving the artist the largest debut of 2009 and best first week since AC/DC’s “Black Ice” arrived with 784,000 copies last October, according to Billboard.

Overall album sales have diminished significantly from Eminem’s height in the late ‘90s and the start of the new decade, when it was expected that an album bearing his name would top first-week sales of 1 million copies. Lil Wayneaccomplished the feat last year with his Cash Money/Universal album “Tha Carter III,” and Eminem can still generate plenty of attention, but not that kind of heat.

When last we heard from the rapper, his late 2004 effort  “Encore” was able to sell 711,000 copies in just three days. The album was released off-cycle on a Friday, and in its first full week in stores it went on to sell 871,000 copies. The album’s 10-day total topped 1.5 million copies sold, a tally Eminem probably won’t reach in the coming weeks.

To date, AC/DC’s “Black Ice” (Columbia) has sold about 2 million copies. As for 2009’s other blockbuster albums, they’re still struggling to top the 1 million mark. U2’s “No Line on the Horizon” (Interscope) opened strong, tallying 484,000 copies in its first week, and is getting closer to the seven-figure mark, having sold 902,000 copies to date.

Kelly Clarkson’s “All I Ever Wanted” (RCA) won rave reviews and debuted with 255,000 copies sold but has petered out at around 581,000 copies. Disney’s soundtrack to “Hannah Montana: The Movie” opened lower, with 139,000 copies sold in its first week, but has since taken off, and now stands at 952,000 and should top 1 million sold in the next two weeks.

Last week’s topper, Green Day’s Reprise set “21st Century Breakdown,” brought in 166,000 copies in its first full week in stores. It sold 215,000 copies in a shortened sales week, having been released on a Friday, and stands with a 10-day total of 381,000 copies sold.

Aside from Eminem, the other big sales news this week comes from “American Idol.”  In the battle between Adam Lambert and Kris Allen fans, both sects can claim a victory of sorts this week.

Perhaps everyone was saving their extra cash for new albums from Eminem and Green Day.  In a slow release week, R&B singer Chrisette Michele tops the U.S. pop chart, selling only 83,000 copies of her “Epiphany,” according to Nielsen SoundScan.

That’s the lowest-ever debut on the U.S. pop charts since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking data in 1991, according to Billboard’s Chart Alert. It’s also only the third newcomer to land atop the chart with less than 100,000 copies sold.

Def Jam's “Epiphany” joins the ranks of Johnny Cash’s “American V: A Hundred Highways,” which entered in 2006 with 88,000 copies sold, and the Notorious B.I.G.’s “#1’s,” which bowed atop the chart in 2005 with 99,000 copies sold. Michele’s “Epiphany” isn’t the lowest No. 1 total, however. The soundtrack to“Dreamgirls” topped the chart in January 2007 with only 60,000 copies sold.

Yet even in the down market, Michele’s chart-topper is still a large achievement for the neo-soul artist. Her debut, “I Am,” never sold more than 27,000 copies in one week, and went on to scan a total of 431,000 copies. Sales of “Epiphany” were no doubt helped by the low-low-low price of $2.99 on Amazon.com, and 14,000 sales were from the digital sector.

Michele has a narrow lead at the top, as the Disney soundtrack to “Hannah Montana: The Movie” is close behind at No. 2, having sold 82,000 copies. That pushes the soundtrack to a total of 826,000 copies, showing there’s plenty of life left in the Disney vehicle. “Hannah Montana” is on the verge of passing one of 2009’s earlier blockbusters, as U2’s “No Line on the Horizon” stands this week at 882,000 copies sold. 

New at No. 3 is the more pop-leaning R&B singer Ciara, who’s LaFace/Zomba release “Fantasy Ride” sold 81,000 copies in its first week. As Michele experiences a career high, Ciara falls victim to a career low. In 2006, her “Ciara: The Evolution” sold 338,000 copies when it debuted at No. 1. Her “Love Sex Magic” featuring Justin Timberlake is at No. 37 on the U.S. single’s chart, and seems to be treading down. But perhaps her upcoming tour with Jay-Z will put bring her numbers back up.

Other notes from this week’s chart:

Bob Dylan is back in a familiar place, landing at the top of the U.S. pop music chart for the fifth time in his career. His Columbia release "Together Through Life" sold 125,000 copies in its first week in stores, according to data provided by Nielsen SoundScan.

The sales are in line with Dylan's recent past, with one exception. In 2006, his "Modern Times" debuted at the top of the chart with 192,000 copies sold. Sales three years ago benefited from a massive ad campaign for Apple's iTunes store featuring Dylan, who in one of the commercials performed the album's "Someday Baby" while sitting on a stool.

Comparing the two albums provides a glimpse at the marketing prowess of Apple and what a difference the retailer's support can make. Dylan's digital sales took a dip this time around, which defies industry trends. "Together Through Life" sold 18,000 downloads, whereas "Modern Times" tallied 20,000 in download sales in its first week of release.

The disparity might not seem like much, but it is, considering the brisk growth of the digital album market since 2006. So far this year, digital album sales are at 26.3 million, up from 21.7 million for the same period last year. And sales of digital albums jumped 38% in 2008 over 2007.

Dylan hasn't exactly been missing in action. But the Super Bowl commercial with the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am did not give him the same splash the Apple ads did.

Jonas Brothers: Is the magic still there? And chart news on Jay-Z, Pete Yorn and more

Last summer, the Jonas Brothers sold more than half a million copies when they landed atop the U.S. pop charts with “A Little Bit Longer.” What a difference a year makes. The Disney powerhouse still lands at No. 1 with its latest, “Lines, Vines and Trying Times,” but a little of the magic appears to be gone.

First week sales for the newest topped off at 247,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That gives the Jonas kids a healthy lead over the Black Eyed Peas' “The E.N.D.” (Interscope), which falls to No. 2 in its second week of release, but may cast some doubt as to just how much is left in the Jonas Brothers' tank.

Disney has had the boys working, as the Jonas Brothers have released four studio albums in less than three years. The brand has also spawned a 3-D concert film, a Disney Channel film in “Camp Rock” and a recent Disney Channel series, “Jonas.”

The marketing blitz has been designed to keep the Jonas Brothers in the lucrative tween-pop world, all while expanding their fan base to a more grown-up market. The Jonas Brothers partnered with Stevie Wonder at last year’s Grammys, and are gradually bringing on more adult themes in their music, but lead-off single “Paranoid” hasn’t been burning up the charts yet.

Fellow Disney peer Miley Cyrus, for instance, is still in the top 25 of iTunes’ bestselling singles with "The Climb,” which sees her making overtures to the country world, but “Paranoid” is languishing farther down – at No. 56 today. On Billboard's Hot 100, the cut hit No. 60 last week, which is down from its peak of No. 37, a high-water mark last month based on first week digital download sales. So far, it's sold 192,000 digital downloads.

Other notes on this week’s chart, including news on the Black Eyed Peas, Jay-Z and Pete Yorn below:

Local hip-hop outfit the Black Eyed Peas score a rare feat on this week's pop chart, becoming one of the few mainstream acts to experience a first-week sales increase over its last album. The group's fifth full-length release, "The E.N.D." (Interscope), became its first to debut at No. 1, selling 304,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan numbers released on Billboard. 

In 2005, the Black Eyed Peas bowed at No. 2 with "Monkey Business," which sold 291,000 copies in its first week and went on to sell 4.19 million. This year alone has seen such popular artists as U2, Kelly Clarkson and Eminem fail to live up to the sales numbers they set earlier in their careers.  

"The E.N.D." came with a lengthy setup, which included an appearance on "American Idol," and the March release of the single "Boom Boom Pow." The cut has topped Billboard's Hot 100 for 10 weeks, and has sold 2.8 million downloads. 

The song is still generating heat. According to data provided by BigChampagne Media Measurement, "Boom Boom Pow" ranked in YouTube's top-five streams in the last week, generating more than 1.6 million views. It's iTunes' No. 2 song, topped by another track from "The E.N.D.," "I Gotta Feeling." 

The resurgent vinyl market isn't showing any signs of slowing down. In fact, recent figures released by Nielsen SoundScan indicate that overall U.S. vinyl sales will once again set a benchmark in 2009, with sales up 50% through the first five months of the year. 

SoundScan predicts vinyl sales will reach 2.8 million units in 2009, up from 1.9 million in 2008, a record since SoundScan began tracking sales data in 1991. Already in 2009, vinyl sales have topped 1 million. At this point last year, vinyl sales stood at 701,000 copies. To be fair, the number is still tiny compared to overall album sales. 

Vinyl, SoundScan points out, accounts for less than 1% of overall album sales. In other words, vinyl sales represent about six months in the life of Taylor Swift, whose late 2008 release, "Fearless," has already sold more than 3.3 million copies. To date in 2009, 121.8 million CDs have been sold, versus 33.2 million digital albums, compared to 151.01 million CDs and 27.52 digital albums for the same period last year.

Yet vinyl appears to be a niche market that's here to stay, and one that's showing signs of expansion. Rock albums account for 70% of all vinyl sold, but country vinyl is enjoying a growth spurt. Year-to-date country vinyl sales are already at 15,000 copies, compared with 5,000 for the comparable period in 2008.  

Of course, if someone wants to rain on the vinyl good news, there's this stat: Vinyl sales were up 90% in 2008 over 2007, and the rate of growth has certainly slowed. 

-- Todd Martens

Photo: Origami Vinyl in Echo Park. Credit: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times

Despite leaking to the Web in March, the latest from much-hyped Brooklyn indie-rock quartet Grizzly Bear has made a top 10 debut on the U.S. pop charts. The band's first-week sales of 33,000 copies are in a distant universe from the numbers tallied by the likes of Eminem and Green Day, but in today's depressed sales climate, that's more than enough for the chamber-pop of "Veckatimest" to land at No. 8.

Since hitting the file-sharing networks, Warp Records' "Veckatimest" has been hyped as one of the year's stronger indie rock efforts, receiving rave reviews from this publication, the Chicago Tribune, popular Web-zine Pitchfork and  Rolling Stone, among many others. The band members pleaded with fans to buy the album, despite admitting on their blog that they had "conflicting opinions" about file-sharing.

"Veckatimest" gives  Grizzly Bear its best sales week by far. The group's sophomore effort, "Yellow House," was released in 2006 and has sold 55,000 copies to date. Of the 33,000 copies sold of "Veckatimest," a relatively high number came in the form of digital download purchases -- a reflection of the band's Web-savvy fan base or perhaps Amazon.com's loss-leading first-week price of $3.99. A total of 13,000 digital albums were purchased.

A strong number of "Veckatimest's" first-week sales came from the independent sector. Billboard's chart analyst Ketih Caulfield writes that 24% were made at independent and small chain outlets. Not unexpectedly, Grizzly Bear also performed well in the ever-burgeoning vinyl market, selling 4,000 LPs  in the first week.

At the top of the chart, it's all Eminem, Green Day and Miley Cyrus. It won't be known until next week whether Eminem will receive a sales-boost from his MTV Movie Awards appearances. For now, he's   withstood a major second-week drop-off to hold at No. 1

Eminem hasn’t had any trouble generating headlines since he announced that he’d be unleashing a new album late last year. On “Relapse,” he’s taking shots at Mariah Carey and getting graphic when rapping about “Hannah Montana,”  which almost guarantees that the rapper will continue to be a media obsession.

But does his pop culture outlaw act still generate album sales? First-week returns for Aftermath/Interscope’s “Relapse” indicate Eminem’s audience has diminished slightly, but it’s still a sizable one. “Relapse” sold 608,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan, giving the artist the largest debut of 2009 and best first week since AC/DC’s “Black Ice” arrived with 784,000 copies last October, according to Billboard.

Overall album sales have diminished significantly from Eminem’s height in the late ‘90s and the start of the new decade, when it was expected that an album bearing his name would top first-week sales of 1 million copies. Lil Wayneaccomplished the feat last year with his Cash Money/Universal album “Tha Carter III,” and Eminem can still generate plenty of attention, but not that kind of heat.

When last we heard from the rapper, his late 2004 effort  “Encore” was able to sell 711,000 copies in just three days. The album was released off-cycle on a Friday, and in its first full week in stores it went on to sell 871,000 copies. The album’s 10-day total topped 1.5 million copies sold, a tally Eminem probably won’t reach in the coming weeks.

To date, AC/DC’s “Black Ice” (Columbia) has sold about 2 million copies. As for 2009’s other blockbuster albums, they’re still struggling to top the 1 million mark. U2’s “No Line on the Horizon” (Interscope) opened strong, tallying 484,000 copies in its first week, and is getting closer to the seven-figure mark, having sold 902,000 copies to date.

Kelly Clarkson’s “All I Ever Wanted” (RCA) won rave reviews and debuted with 255,000 copies sold but has petered out at around 581,000 copies. Disney’s soundtrack to “Hannah Montana: The Movie” opened lower, with 139,000 copies sold in its first week, but has since taken off, and now stands at 952,000 and should top 1 million sold in the next two weeks.

Last week’s topper, Green Day’s Reprise set “21st Century Breakdown,” brought in 166,000 copies in its first full week in stores. It sold 215,000 copies in a shortened sales week, having been released on a Friday, and stands with a 10-day total of 381,000 copies sold.

Aside from Eminem, the other big sales news this week comes from “American Idol.”  In the battle between Adam Lambert and Kris Allen fans, both sects can claim a victory of sorts this week.

Perhaps everyone was saving their extra cash for new albums from Eminem and Green Day.  In a slow release week, R&B singer Chrisette Michele tops the U.S. pop chart, selling only 83,000 copies of her “Epiphany,” according to Nielsen SoundScan.

That’s the lowest-ever debut on the U.S. pop charts since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking data in 1991, according to Billboard’s Chart Alert. It’s also only the third newcomer to land atop the chart with less than 100,000 copies sold.

Def Jam's “Epiphany” joins the ranks of Johnny Cash’s “American V: A Hundred Highways,” which entered in 2006 with 88,000 copies sold, and the Notorious B.I.G.’s “#1’s,” which bowed atop the chart in 2005 with 99,000 copies sold. Michele’s “Epiphany” isn’t the lowest No. 1 total, however. The soundtrack to“Dreamgirls” topped the chart in January 2007 with only 60,000 copies sold.

Yet even in the down market, Michele’s chart-topper is still a large achievement for the neo-soul artist. Her debut, “I Am,” never sold more than 27,000 copies in one week, and went on to scan a total of 431,000 copies. Sales of “Epiphany” were no doubt helped by the low-low-low price of $2.99 on Amazon.com, and 14,000 sales were from the digital sector.

Michele has a narrow lead at the top, as the Disney soundtrack to “Hannah Montana: The Movie” is close behind at No. 2, having sold 82,000 copies. That pushes the soundtrack to a total of 826,000 copies, showing there’s plenty of life left in the Disney vehicle. “Hannah Montana” is on the verge of passing one of 2009’s earlier blockbusters, as U2’s “No Line on the Horizon” stands this week at 882,000 copies sold. 

New at No. 3 is the more pop-leaning R&B singer Ciara, who’s LaFace/Zomba release “Fantasy Ride” sold 81,000 copies in its first week. As Michele experiences a career high, Ciara falls victim to a career low. In 2006, her “Ciara: The Evolution” sold 338,000 copies when it debuted at No. 1. Her “Love Sex Magic” featuring Justin Timberlake is at No. 37 on the U.S. single’s chart, and seems to be treading down. But perhaps her upcoming tour with Jay-Z will put bring her numbers back up.

Other notes from this week’s chart:

Bob Dylan is back in a familiar place, landing at the top of the U.S. pop music chart for the fifth time in his career. His Columbia release "Together Through Life" sold 125,000 copies in its first week in stores, according to data provided by Nielsen SoundScan.

The sales are in line with Dylan's recent past, with one exception. In 2006, his "Modern Times" debuted at the top of the chart with 192,000 copies sold. Sales three years ago benefited from a massive ad campaign for Apple's iTunes store featuring Dylan, who in one of the commercials performed the album's "Someday Baby" while sitting on a stool.

Comparing the two albums provides a glimpse at the marketing prowess of Apple and what a difference the retailer's support can make. Dylan's digital sales took a dip this time around, which defies industry trends. "Together Through Life" sold 18,000 downloads, whereas "Modern Times" tallied 20,000 in download sales in its first week of release.

The disparity might not seem like much, but it is, considering the brisk growth of the digital album market since 2006. So far this year, digital album sales are at 26.3 million, up from 21.7 million for the same period last year. And sales of digital albums jumped 38% in 2008 over 2007.

Dylan hasn't exactly been missing in action. But the Super Bowl commercial with the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am did not give him the same splash the Apple ads did.

Black Eyed Peas' 'The E.N.D.' has a smashing beginning, but the people want Drake

Local hip-hop outfit the Black Eyed Peas score a rare feat on this week's pop chart, becoming one of the few mainstream acts to experience a first-week sales increase over its last album. The group's fifth full-length release, "The E.N.D." (Interscope), became its first to debut at No. 1, selling 304,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan numbers released on Billboard. 

In 2005, the Black Eyed Peas bowed at No. 2 with "Monkey Business," which sold 291,000 copies in its first week and went on to sell 4.19 million. This year alone has seen such popular artists as U2, Kelly Clarkson and Eminem fail to live up to the sales numbers they set earlier in their careers.  

"The E.N.D." came with a lengthy setup, which included an appearance on "American Idol," and the March release of the single "Boom Boom Pow." The cut has topped Billboard's Hot 100 for 10 weeks, and has sold 2.8 million downloads. 

The song is still generating heat. According to data provided by BigChampagne Media Measurement, "Boom Boom Pow" ranked in YouTube's top-five streams in the last week, generating more than 1.6 million views. It's iTunes' No. 2 song, topped by another track from "The E.N.D.," "I Gotta Feeling." 

The resurgent vinyl market isn't showing any signs of slowing down. In fact, recent figures released by Nielsen SoundScan indicate that overall U.S. vinyl sales will once again set a benchmark in 2009, with sales up 50% through the first five months of the year. 

SoundScan predicts vinyl sales will reach 2.8 million units in 2009, up from 1.9 million in 2008, a record since SoundScan began tracking sales data in 1991. Already in 2009, vinyl sales have topped 1 million. At this point last year, vinyl sales stood at 701,000 copies. To be fair, the number is still tiny compared to overall album sales. 

Vinyl, SoundScan points out, accounts for less than 1% of overall album sales. In other words, vinyl sales represent about six months in the life of Taylor Swift, whose late 2008 release, "Fearless," has already sold more than 3.3 million copies. To date in 2009, 121.8 million CDs have been sold, versus 33.2 million digital albums, compared to 151.01 million CDs and 27.52 digital albums for the same period last year.

Yet vinyl appears to be a niche market that's here to stay, and one that's showing signs of expansion. Rock albums account for 70% of all vinyl sold, but country vinyl is enjoying a growth spurt. Year-to-date country vinyl sales are already at 15,000 copies, compared with 5,000 for the comparable period in 2008.  

Of course, if someone wants to rain on the vinyl good news, there's this stat: Vinyl sales were up 90% in 2008 over 2007, and the rate of growth has certainly slowed. 

-- Todd Martens

Photo: Origami Vinyl in Echo Park. Credit: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times

Despite leaking to the Web in March, the latest from much-hyped Brooklyn indie-rock quartet Grizzly Bear has made a top 10 debut on the U.S. pop charts. The band's first-week sales of 33,000 copies are in a distant universe from the numbers tallied by the likes of Eminem and Green Day, but in today's depressed sales climate, that's more than enough for the chamber-pop of "Veckatimest" to land at No. 8.

Since hitting the file-sharing networks, Warp Records' "Veckatimest" has been hyped as one of the year's stronger indie rock efforts, receiving rave reviews from this publication, the Chicago Tribune, popular Web-zine Pitchfork and  Rolling Stone, among many others. The band members pleaded with fans to buy the album, despite admitting on their blog that they had "conflicting opinions" about file-sharing.

"Veckatimest" gives  Grizzly Bear its best sales week by far. The group's sophomore effort, "Yellow House," was released in 2006 and has sold 55,000 copies to date. Of the 33,000 copies sold of "Veckatimest," a relatively high number came in the form of digital download purchases -- a reflection of the band's Web-savvy fan base or perhaps Amazon.com's loss-leading first-week price of $3.99. A total of 13,000 digital albums were purchased.

A strong number of "Veckatimest's" first-week sales came from the independent sector. Billboard's chart analyst Ketih Caulfield writes that 24% were made at independent and small chain outlets. Not unexpectedly, Grizzly Bear also performed well in the ever-burgeoning vinyl market, selling 4,000 LPs  in the first week.

At the top of the chart, it's all Eminem, Green Day and Miley Cyrus. It won't be known until next week whether Eminem will receive a sales-boost from his MTV Movie Awards appearances. For now, he's   withstood a major second-week drop-off to hold at No. 1

Eminem hasn’t had any trouble generating headlines since he announced that he’d be unleashing a new album late last year. On “Relapse,” he’s taking shots at Mariah Carey and getting graphic when rapping about “Hannah Montana,”  which almost guarantees that the rapper will continue to be a media obsession.

But does his pop culture outlaw act still generate album sales? First-week returns for Aftermath/Interscope’s “Relapse” indicate Eminem’s audience has diminished slightly, but it’s still a sizable one. “Relapse” sold 608,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan, giving the artist the largest debut of 2009 and best first week since AC/DC’s “Black Ice” arrived with 784,000 copies last October, according to Billboard.

Overall album sales have diminished significantly from Eminem’s height in the late ‘90s and the start of the new decade, when it was expected that an album bearing his name would top first-week sales of 1 million copies. Lil Wayneaccomplished the feat last year with his Cash Money/Universal album “Tha Carter III,” and Eminem can still generate plenty of attention, but not that kind of heat.

When last we heard from the rapper, his late 2004 effort  “Encore” was able to sell 711,000 copies in just three days. The album was released off-cycle on a Friday, and in its first full week in stores it went on to sell 871,000 copies. The album’s 10-day total topped 1.5 million copies sold, a tally Eminem probably won’t reach in the coming weeks.

To date, AC/DC’s “Black Ice” (Columbia) has sold about 2 million copies. As for 2009’s other blockbuster albums, they’re still struggling to top the 1 million mark. U2’s “No Line on the Horizon” (Interscope) opened strong, tallying 484,000 copies in its first week, and is getting closer to the seven-figure mark, having sold 902,000 copies to date.

Kelly Clarkson’s “All I Ever Wanted” (RCA) won rave reviews and debuted with 255,000 copies sold but has petered out at around 581,000 copies. Disney’s soundtrack to “Hannah Montana: The Movie” opened lower, with 139,000 copies sold in its first week, but has since taken off, and now stands at 952,000 and should top 1 million sold in the next two weeks.

Last week’s topper, Green Day’s Reprise set “21st Century Breakdown,” brought in 166,000 copies in its first full week in stores. It sold 215,000 copies in a shortened sales week, having been released on a Friday, and stands with a 10-day total of 381,000 copies sold.

Aside from Eminem, the other big sales news this week comes from “American Idol.”  In the battle between Adam Lambert and Kris Allen fans, both sects can claim a victory of sorts this week.

Perhaps everyone was saving their extra cash for new albums from Eminem and Green Day.  In a slow release week, R&B singer Chrisette Michele tops the U.S. pop chart, selling only 83,000 copies of her “Epiphany,” according to Nielsen SoundScan.

That’s the lowest-ever debut on the U.S. pop charts since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking data in 1991, according to Billboard’s Chart Alert. It’s also only the third newcomer to land atop the chart with less than 100,000 copies sold.

Def Jam's “Epiphany” joins the ranks of Johnny Cash’s “American V: A Hundred Highways,” which entered in 2006 with 88,000 copies sold, and the Notorious B.I.G.’s “#1’s,” which bowed atop the chart in 2005 with 99,000 copies sold. Michele’s “Epiphany” isn’t the lowest No. 1 total, however. The soundtrack to“Dreamgirls” topped the chart in January 2007 with only 60,000 copies sold.

Yet even in the down market, Michele’s chart-topper is still a large achievement for the neo-soul artist. Her debut, “I Am,” never sold more than 27,000 copies in one week, and went on to scan a total of 431,000 copies. Sales of “Epiphany” were no doubt helped by the low-low-low price of $2.99 on Amazon.com, and 14,000 sales were from the digital sector.

Michele has a narrow lead at the top, as the Disney soundtrack to “Hannah Montana: The Movie” is close behind at No. 2, having sold 82,000 copies. That pushes the soundtrack to a total of 826,000 copies, showing there’s plenty of life left in the Disney vehicle. “Hannah Montana” is on the verge of passing one of 2009’s earlier blockbusters, as U2’s “No Line on the Horizon” stands this week at 882,000 copies sold. 

New at No. 3 is the more pop-leaning R&B singer Ciara, who’s LaFace/Zomba release “Fantasy Ride” sold 81,000 copies in its first week. As Michele experiences a career high, Ciara falls victim to a career low. In 2006, her “Ciara: The Evolution” sold 338,000 copies when it debuted at No. 1. Her “Love Sex Magic” featuring Justin Timberlake is at No. 37 on the U.S. single’s chart, and seems to be treading down. But perhaps her upcoming tour with Jay-Z will put bring her numbers back up.

Other notes from this week’s chart:

Bob Dylan is back in a familiar place, landing at the top of the U.S. pop music chart for the fifth time in his career. His Columbia release "Together Through Life" sold 125,000 copies in its first week in stores, according to data provided by Nielsen SoundScan.

The sales are in line with Dylan's recent past, with one exception. In 2006, his "Modern Times" debuted at the top of the chart with 192,000 copies sold. Sales three years ago benefited from a massive ad campaign for Apple's iTunes store featuring Dylan, who in one of the commercials performed the album's "Someday Baby" while sitting on a stool.

Comparing the two albums provides a glimpse at the marketing prowess of Apple and what a difference the retailer's support can make. Dylan's digital sales took a dip this time around, which defies industry trends. "Together Through Life" sold 18,000 downloads, whereas "Modern Times" tallied 20,000 in download sales in its first week of release.

The disparity might not seem like much, but it is, considering the brisk growth of the digital album market since 2006. So far this year, digital album sales are at 26.3 million, up from 21.7 million for the same period last year. And sales of digital albums jumped 38% in 2008 over 2007.

Dylan hasn't exactly been missing in action. But the Super Bowl commercial with the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am did not give him the same splash the Apple ads did.

Vinyl sales to hit another high point in 2009

The resurgent vinyl market isn't showing any signs of slowing down. In fact, recent figures released by Nielsen SoundScan indicate that overall U.S. vinyl sales will once again set a benchmark in 2009, with sales up 50% through the first five months of the year. 

SoundScan predicts vinyl sales will reach 2.8 million units in 2009, up from 1.9 million in 2008, a record since SoundScan began tracking sales data in 1991. Already in 2009, vinyl sales have topped 1 million. At this point last year, vinyl sales stood at 701,000 copies. To be fair, the number is still tiny compared to overall album sales. 

Vinyl, SoundScan points out, accounts for less than 1% of overall album sales. In other words, vinyl sales represent about six months in the life of Taylor Swift, whose late 2008 release, "Fearless," has already sold more than 3.3 million copies. To date in 2009, 121.8 million CDs have been sold, versus 33.2 million digital albums, compared to 151.01 million CDs and 27.52 digital albums for the same period last year.

Yet vinyl appears to be a niche market that's here to stay, and one that's showing signs of expansion. Rock albums account for 70% of all vinyl sold, but country vinyl is enjoying a growth spurt. Year-to-date country vinyl sales are already at 15,000 copies, compared with 5,000 for the comparable period in 2008.  

Of course, if someone wants to rain on the vinyl good news, there's this stat: Vinyl sales were up 90% in 2008 over 2007, and the rate of growth has certainly slowed. 

-- Todd Martens

Photo: Origami Vinyl in Echo Park. Credit: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times

Despite leaking to the Web in March, the latest from much-hyped Brooklyn indie-rock quartet Grizzly Bear has made a top 10 debut on the U.S. pop charts. The band's first-week sales of 33,000 copies are in a distant universe from the numbers tallied by the likes of Eminem and Green Day, but in today's depressed sales climate, that's more than enough for the chamber-pop of "Veckatimest" to land at No. 8.

Since hitting the file-sharing networks, Warp Records' "Veckatimest" has been hyped as one of the year's stronger indie rock efforts, receiving rave reviews from this publication, the Chicago Tribune, popular Web-zine Pitchfork and  Rolling Stone, among many others. The band members pleaded with fans to buy the album, despite admitting on their blog that they had "conflicting opinions" about file-sharing.

"Veckatimest" gives  Grizzly Bear its best sales week by far. The group's sophomore effort, "Yellow House," was released in 2006 and has sold 55,000 copies to date. Of the 33,000 copies sold of "Veckatimest," a relatively high number came in the form of digital download purchases -- a reflection of the band's Web-savvy fan base or perhaps Amazon.com's loss-leading first-week price of $3.99. A total of 13,000 digital albums were purchased.

A strong number of "Veckatimest's" first-week sales came from the independent sector. Billboard's chart analyst Ketih Caulfield writes that 24% were made at independent and small chain outlets. Not unexpectedly, Grizzly Bear also performed well in the ever-burgeoning vinyl market, selling 4,000 LPs  in the first week.

At the top of the chart, it's all Eminem, Green Day and Miley Cyrus. It won't be known until next week whether Eminem will receive a sales-boost from his MTV Movie Awards appearances. For now, he's   withstood a major second-week drop-off to hold at No. 1

Eminem hasn’t had any trouble generating headlines since he announced that he’d be unleashing a new album late last year. On “Relapse,” he’s taking shots at Mariah Carey and getting graphic when rapping about “Hannah Montana,”  which almost guarantees that the rapper will continue to be a media obsession.

But does his pop culture outlaw act still generate album sales? First-week returns for Aftermath/Interscope’s “Relapse” indicate Eminem’s audience has diminished slightly, but it’s still a sizable one. “Relapse” sold 608,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan, giving the artist the largest debut of 2009 and best first week since AC/DC’s “Black Ice” arrived with 784,000 copies last October, according to Billboard.

Overall album sales have diminished significantly from Eminem’s height in the late ‘90s and the start of the new decade, when it was expected that an album bearing his name would top first-week sales of 1 million copies. Lil Wayneaccomplished the feat last year with his Cash Money/Universal album “Tha Carter III,” and Eminem can still generate plenty of attention, but not that kind of heat.

When last we heard from the rapper, his late 2004 effort  “Encore” was able to sell 711,000 copies in just three days. The album was released off-cycle on a Friday, and in its first full week in stores it went on to sell 871,000 copies. The album’s 10-day total topped 1.5 million copies sold, a tally Eminem probably won’t reach in the coming weeks.

To date, AC/DC’s “Black Ice” (Columbia) has sold about 2 million copies. As for 2009’s other blockbuster albums, they’re still struggling to top the 1 million mark. U2’s “No Line on the Horizon” (Interscope) opened strong, tallying 484,000 copies in its first week, and is getting closer to the seven-figure mark, having sold 902,000 copies to date.

Kelly Clarkson’s “All I Ever Wanted” (RCA) won rave reviews and debuted with 255,000 copies sold but has petered out at around 581,000 copies. Disney’s soundtrack to “Hannah Montana: The Movie” opened lower, with 139,000 copies sold in its first week, but has since taken off, and now stands at 952,000 and should top 1 million sold in the next two weeks.

Last week’s topper, Green Day’s Reprise set “21st Century Breakdown,” brought in 166,000 copies in its first full week in stores. It sold 215,000 copies in a shortened sales week, having been released on a Friday, and stands with a 10-day total of 381,000 copies sold.

Aside from Eminem, the other big sales news this week comes from “American Idol.”  In the battle between Adam Lambert and Kris Allen fans, both sects can claim a victory of sorts this week.

Perhaps everyone was saving their extra cash for new albums from Eminem and Green Day.  In a slow release week, R&B singer Chrisette Michele tops the U.S. pop chart, selling only 83,000 copies of her “Epiphany,” according to Nielsen SoundScan.

That’s the lowest-ever debut on the U.S. pop charts since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking data in 1991, according to Billboard’s Chart Alert. It’s also only the third newcomer to land atop the chart with less than 100,000 copies sold.

Def Jam's “Epiphany” joins the ranks of Johnny Cash’s “American V: A Hundred Highways,” which entered in 2006 with 88,000 copies sold, and the Notorious B.I.G.’s “#1’s,” which bowed atop the chart in 2005 with 99,000 copies sold. Michele’s “Epiphany” isn’t the lowest No. 1 total, however. The soundtrack to“Dreamgirls” topped the chart in January 2007 with only 60,000 copies sold.

Yet even in the down market, Michele’s chart-topper is still a large achievement for the neo-soul artist. Her debut, “I Am,” never sold more than 27,000 copies in one week, and went on to scan a total of 431,000 copies. Sales of “Epiphany” were no doubt helped by the low-low-low price of $2.99 on Amazon.com, and 14,000 sales were from the digital sector.

Michele has a narrow lead at the top, as the Disney soundtrack to “Hannah Montana: The Movie” is close behind at No. 2, having sold 82,000 copies. That pushes the soundtrack to a total of 826,000 copies, showing there’s plenty of life left in the Disney vehicle. “Hannah Montana” is on the verge of passing one of 2009’s earlier blockbusters, as U2’s “No Line on the Horizon” stands this week at 882,000 copies sold. 

New at No. 3 is the more pop-leaning R&B singer Ciara, who’s LaFace/Zomba release “Fantasy Ride” sold 81,000 copies in its first week. As Michele experiences a career high, Ciara falls victim to a career low. In 2006, her “Ciara: The Evolution” sold 338,000 copies when it debuted at No. 1. Her “Love Sex Magic” featuring Justin Timberlake is at No. 37 on the U.S. single’s chart, and seems to be treading down. But perhaps her upcoming tour with Jay-Z will put bring her numbers back up.

Other notes from this week’s chart:

Bob Dylan is back in a familiar place, landing at the top of the U.S. pop music chart for the fifth time in his career. His Columbia release "Together Through Life" sold 125,000 copies in its first week in stores, according to data provided by Nielsen SoundScan.

The sales are in line with Dylan's recent past, with one exception. In 2006, his "Modern Times" debuted at the top of the chart with 192,000 copies sold. Sales three years ago benefited from a massive ad campaign for Apple's iTunes store featuring Dylan, who in one of the commercials performed the album's "Someday Baby" while sitting on a stool.

Comparing the two albums provides a glimpse at the marketing prowess of Apple and what a difference the retailer's support can make. Dylan's digital sales took a dip this time around, which defies industry trends. "Together Through Life" sold 18,000 downloads, whereas "Modern Times" tallied 20,000 in download sales in its first week of release.

The disparity might not seem like much, but it is, considering the brisk growth of the digital album market since 2006. So far this year, digital album sales are at 26.3 million, up from 21.7 million for the same period last year. And sales of digital albums jumped 38% in 2008 over 2007.

Dylan hasn't exactly been missing in action. But the Super Bowl commercial with the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am did not give him the same splash the Apple ads did.

Grizzly Bear roars onto the pop chart, as Eminem holds at No. 1

Despite leaking to the Web in March, the latest from much-hyped Brooklyn indie-rock quartet Grizzly Bear has made a top 10 debut on the U.S. pop charts. The band's first-week sales of 33,000 copies are in a distant universe from the numbers tallied by the likes of Eminem and Green Day, but in today's depressed sales climate, that's more than enough for the chamber-pop of "Veckatimest" to land at No. 8.

Since hitting the file-sharing networks, Warp Records' "Veckatimest" has been hyped as one of the year's stronger indie rock efforts, receiving rave reviews from this publication, the Chicago Tribune, popular Web-zine Pitchfork and  Rolling Stone, among many others. The band members pleaded with fans to buy the album, despite admitting on their blog that they had "conflicting opinions" about file-sharing.

"Veckatimest" gives  Grizzly Bear its best sales week by far. The group's sophomore effort, "Yellow House," was released in 2006 and has sold 55,000 copies to date. Of the 33,000 copies sold of "Veckatimest," a relatively high number came in the form of digital download purchases -- a reflection of the band's Web-savvy fan base or perhaps Amazon.com's loss-leading first-week price of $3.99. A total of 13,000 digital albums were purchased.

A strong number of "Veckatimest's" first-week sales came from the independent sector. Billboard's chart analyst Ketih Caulfield writes that 24% were made at independent and small chain outlets. Not unexpectedly, Grizzly Bear also performed well in the ever-burgeoning vinyl market, selling 4,000 LPs  in the first week.

At the top of the chart, it's all Eminem, Green Day and Miley Cyrus. It won't be known until next week whether Eminem will receive a sales-boost from his MTV Movie Awards appearances. For now, he's   withstood a major second-week drop-off to hold at No. 1

Eminem hasn’t had any trouble generating headlines since he announced that he’d be unleashing a new album late last year. On “Relapse,” he’s taking shots at Mariah Carey and getting graphic when rapping about “Hannah Montana,”  which almost guarantees that the rapper will continue to be a media obsession.

But does his pop culture outlaw act still generate album sales? First-week returns for Aftermath/Interscope’s “Relapse” indicate Eminem’s audience has diminished slightly, but it’s still a sizable one. “Relapse” sold 608,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan, giving the artist the largest debut of 2009 and best first week since AC/DC’s “Black Ice” arrived with 784,000 copies last October, according to Billboard.

Overall album sales have diminished significantly from Eminem’s height in the late ‘90s and the start of the new decade, when it was expected that an album bearing his name would top first-week sales of 1 million copies. Lil Wayneaccomplished the feat last year with his Cash Money/Universal album “Tha Carter III,” and Eminem can still generate plenty of attention, but not that kind of heat.

When last we heard from the rapper, his late 2004 effort  “Encore” was able to sell 711,000 copies in just three days. The album was released off-cycle on a Friday, and in its first full week in stores it went on to sell 871,000 copies. The album’s 10-day total topped 1.5 million copies sold, a tally Eminem probably won’t reach in the coming weeks.

To date, AC/DC’s “Black Ice” (Columbia) has sold about 2 million copies. As for 2009’s other blockbuster albums, they’re still struggling to top the 1 million mark. U2’s “No Line on the Horizon” (Interscope) opened strong, tallying 484,000 copies in its first week, and is getting closer to the seven-figure mark, having sold 902,000 copies to date.

Kelly Clarkson’s “All I Ever Wanted” (RCA) won rave reviews and debuted with 255,000 copies sold but has petered out at around 581,000 copies. Disney’s soundtrack to “Hannah Montana: The Movie” opened lower, with 139,000 copies sold in its first week, but has since taken off, and now stands at 952,000 and should top 1 million sold in the next two weeks.

Last week’s topper, Green Day’s Reprise set “21st Century Breakdown,” brought in 166,000 copies in its first full week in stores. It sold 215,000 copies in a shortened sales week, having been released on a Friday, and stands with a 10-day total of 381,000 copies sold.

Aside from Eminem, the other big sales news this week comes from “American Idol.”  In the battle between Adam Lambert and Kris Allen fans, both sects can claim a victory of sorts this week.

Perhaps everyone was saving their extra cash for new albums from Eminem and Green Day.  In a slow release week, R&B singer Chrisette Michele tops the U.S. pop chart, selling only 83,000 copies of her “Epiphany,” according to Nielsen SoundScan.

That’s the lowest-ever debut on the U.S. pop charts since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking data in 1991, according to Billboard’s Chart Alert. It’s also only the third newcomer to land atop the chart with less than 100,000 copies sold.

Def Jam's “Epiphany” joins the ranks of Johnny Cash’s “American V: A Hundred Highways,” which entered in 2006 with 88,000 copies sold, and the Notorious B.I.G.’s “#1’s,” which bowed atop the chart in 2005 with 99,000 copies sold. Michele’s “Epiphany” isn’t the lowest No. 1 total, however. The soundtrack to“Dreamgirls” topped the chart in January 2007 with only 60,000 copies sold.

Yet even in the down market, Michele’s chart-topper is still a large achievement for the neo-soul artist. Her debut, “I Am,” never sold more than 27,000 copies in one week, and went on to scan a total of 431,000 copies. Sales of “Epiphany” were no doubt helped by the low-low-low price of $2.99 on Amazon.com, and 14,000 sales were from the digital sector.

Michele has a narrow lead at the top, as the Disney soundtrack to “Hannah Montana: The Movie” is close behind at No. 2, having sold 82,000 copies. That pushes the soundtrack to a total of 826,000 copies, showing there’s plenty of life left in the Disney vehicle. “Hannah Montana” is on the verge of passing one of 2009’s earlier blockbusters, as U2’s “No Line on the Horizon” stands this week at 882,000 copies sold. 

New at No. 3 is the more pop-leaning R&B singer Ciara, who’s LaFace/Zomba release “Fantasy Ride” sold 81,000 copies in its first week. As Michele experiences a career high, Ciara falls victim to a career low. In 2006, her “Ciara: The Evolution” sold 338,000 copies when it debuted at No. 1. Her “Love Sex Magic” featuring Justin Timberlake is at No. 37 on the U.S. single’s chart, and seems to be treading down. But perhaps her upcoming tour with Jay-Z will put bring her numbers back up.

Other notes from this week’s chart:

Bob Dylan is back in a familiar place, landing at the top of the U.S. pop music chart for the fifth time in his career. His Columbia release "Together Through Life" sold 125,000 copies in its first week in stores, according to data provided by Nielsen SoundScan.

The sales are in line with Dylan's recent past, with one exception. In 2006, his "Modern Times" debuted at the top of the chart with 192,000 copies sold. Sales three years ago benefited from a massive ad campaign for Apple's iTunes store featuring Dylan, who in one of the commercials performed the album's "Someday Baby" while sitting on a stool.

Comparing the two albums provides a glimpse at the marketing prowess of Apple and what a difference the retailer's support can make. Dylan's digital sales took a dip this time around, which defies industry trends. "Together Through Life" sold 18,000 downloads, whereas "Modern Times" tallied 20,000 in download sales in its first week of release.

The disparity might not seem like much, but it is, considering the brisk growth of the digital album market since 2006. So far this year, digital album sales are at 26.3 million, up from 21.7 million for the same period last year. And sales of digital albums jumped 38% in 2008 over 2007.

Dylan hasn't exactly been missing in action. But the Super Bowl commercial with the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am did not give him the same splash the Apple ads did.

Eminem scores 2009's best debut, and who's the fairest 'Idol' of them all?*

Eminem hasn’t had any trouble generating headlines since he announced that he’d be unleashing a new album late last year. On “Relapse,” he’s taking shots at Mariah Carey and getting graphic when rapping about “Hannah Montana,”  which almost guarantees that the rapper will continue to be a media obsession.

But does his pop culture outlaw act still generate album sales? First-week returns for Aftermath/Interscope’s “Relapse” indicate Eminem’s audience has diminished slightly, but it’s still a sizable one. “Relapse” sold 608,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan, giving the artist the largest debut of 2009 and best first week since AC/DC’s “Black Ice” arrived with 784,000 copies last October, according to Billboard.

Overall album sales have diminished significantly from Eminem’s height in the late ‘90s and the start of the new decade, when it was expected that an album bearing his name would top first-week sales of 1 million copies. Lil Wayneaccomplished the feat last year with his Cash Money/Universal album “Tha Carter III,” and Eminem can still generate plenty of attention, but not that kind of heat.

When last we heard from the rapper, his late 2004 effort  “Encore” was able to sell 711,000 copies in just three days. The album was released off-cycle on a Friday, and in its first full week in stores it went on to sell 871,000 copies. The album’s 10-day total topped 1.5 million copies sold, a tally Eminem probably won’t reach in the coming weeks.

To date, AC/DC’s “Black Ice” (Columbia) has sold about 2 million copies. As for 2009’s other blockbuster albums, they’re still struggling to top the 1 million mark. U2’s “No Line on the Horizon” (Interscope) opened strong, tallying 484,000 copies in its first week, and is getting closer to the seven-figure mark, having sold 902,000 copies to date.

Kelly Clarkson’s “All I Ever Wanted” (RCA) won rave reviews and debuted with 255,000 copies sold but has petered out at around 581,000 copies. Disney’s soundtrack to “Hannah Montana: The Movie” opened lower, with 139,000 copies sold in its first week, but has since taken off, and now stands at 952,000 and should top 1 million sold in the next two weeks.

Last week’s topper, Green Day’s Reprise set “21st Century Breakdown,” brought in 166,000 copies in its first full week in stores. It sold 215,000 copies in a shortened sales week, having been released on a Friday, and stands with a 10-day total of 381,000 copies sold.

Aside from Eminem, the other big sales news this week comes from “American Idol.”  In the battle between Adam Lambert and Kris Allen fans, both sects can claim a victory of sorts this week.

Perhaps everyone was saving their extra cash for new albums from Eminem and Green Day.  In a slow release week, R&B singer Chrisette Michele tops the U.S. pop chart, selling only 83,000 copies of her “Epiphany,” according to Nielsen SoundScan.

That’s the lowest-ever debut on the U.S. pop charts since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking data in 1991, according to Billboard’s Chart Alert. It’s also only the third newcomer to land atop the chart with less than 100,000 copies sold.

Def Jam's “Epiphany” joins the ranks of Johnny Cash’s “American V: A Hundred Highways,” which entered in 2006 with 88,000 copies sold, and the Notorious B.I.G.’s “#1’s,” which bowed atop the chart in 2005 with 99,000 copies sold. Michele’s “Epiphany” isn’t the lowest No. 1 total, however. The soundtrack to“Dreamgirls” topped the chart in January 2007 with only 60,000 copies sold.

Yet even in the down market, Michele’s chart-topper is still a large achievement for the neo-soul artist. Her debut, “I Am,” never sold more than 27,000 copies in one week, and went on to scan a total of 431,000 copies. Sales of “Epiphany” were no doubt helped by the low-low-low price of $2.99 on Amazon.com, and 14,000 sales were from the digital sector.

Michele has a narrow lead at the top, as the Disney soundtrack to “Hannah Montana: The Movie” is close behind at No. 2, having sold 82,000 copies. That pushes the soundtrack to a total of 826,000 copies, showing there’s plenty of life left in the Disney vehicle. “Hannah Montana” is on the verge of passing one of 2009’s earlier blockbusters, as U2’s “No Line on the Horizon” stands this week at 882,000 copies sold. 

New at No. 3 is the more pop-leaning R&B singer Ciara, who’s LaFace/Zomba release “Fantasy Ride” sold 81,000 copies in its first week. As Michele experiences a career high, Ciara falls victim to a career low. In 2006, her “Ciara: The Evolution” sold 338,000 copies when it debuted at No. 1. Her “Love Sex Magic” featuring Justin Timberlake is at No. 37 on the U.S. single’s chart, and seems to be treading down. But perhaps her upcoming tour with Jay-Z will put bring her numbers back up.

Other notes from this week’s chart:

Bob Dylan is back in a familiar place, landing at the top of the U.S. pop music chart for the fifth time in his career. His Columbia release "Together Through Life" sold 125,000 copies in its first week in stores, according to data provided by Nielsen SoundScan.

The sales are in line with Dylan's recent past, with one exception. In 2006, his "Modern Times" debuted at the top of the chart with 192,000 copies sold. Sales three years ago benefited from a massive ad campaign for Apple's iTunes store featuring Dylan, who in one of the commercials performed the album's "Someday Baby" while sitting on a stool.

Comparing the two albums provides a glimpse at the marketing prowess of Apple and what a difference the retailer's support can make. Dylan's digital sales took a dip this time around, which defies industry trends. "Together Through Life" sold 18,000 downloads, whereas "Modern Times" tallied 20,000 in download sales in its first week of release.

The disparity might not seem like much, but it is, considering the brisk growth of the digital album market since 2006. So far this year, digital album sales are at 26.3 million, up from 21.7 million for the same period last year. And sales of digital albums jumped 38% in 2008 over 2007.

Dylan hasn't exactly been missing in action. But the Super Bowl commercial with the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am did not give him the same splash the Apple ads did.

Chrisette Michele sets personal high, industry low

Perhaps everyone was saving their extra cash for new albums from Eminem and Green Day.  In a slow release week, R&B singer Chrisette Michele tops the U.S. pop chart, selling only 83,000 copies of her “Epiphany,” according to Nielsen SoundScan.

That’s the lowest-ever debut on the U.S. pop charts since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking data in 1991, according to Billboard’s Chart Alert. It’s also only the third newcomer to land atop the chart with less than 100,000 copies sold.

Def Jam's “Epiphany” joins the ranks of Johnny Cash’s “American V: A Hundred Highways,” which entered in 2006 with 88,000 copies sold, and the Notorious B.I.G.’s “#1’s,” which bowed atop the chart in 2005 with 99,000 copies sold. Michele’s “Epiphany” isn’t the lowest No. 1 total, however. The soundtrack to“Dreamgirls” topped the chart in January 2007 with only 60,000 copies sold.

Yet even in the down market, Michele’s chart-topper is still a large achievement for the neo-soul artist. Her debut, “I Am,” never sold more than 27,000 copies in one week, and went on to scan a total of 431,000 copies. Sales of “Epiphany” were no doubt helped by the low-low-low price of $2.99 on Amazon.com, and 14,000 sales were from the digital sector.

Michele has a narrow lead at the top, as the Disney soundtrack to “Hannah Montana: The Movie” is close behind at No. 2, having sold 82,000 copies. That pushes the soundtrack to a total of 826,000 copies, showing there’s plenty of life left in the Disney vehicle. “Hannah Montana” is on the verge of passing one of 2009’s earlier blockbusters, as U2’s “No Line on the Horizon” stands this week at 882,000 copies sold. 

New at No. 3 is the more pop-leaning R&B singer Ciara, who’s LaFace/Zomba release “Fantasy Ride” sold 81,000 copies in its first week. As Michele experiences a career high, Ciara falls victim to a career low. In 2006, her “Ciara: The Evolution” sold 338,000 copies when it debuted at No. 1. Her “Love Sex Magic” featuring Justin Timberlake is at No. 37 on the U.S. single’s chart, and seems to be treading down. But perhaps her upcoming tour with Jay-Z will put bring her numbers back up.

Other notes from this week’s chart:

Bob Dylan is back in a familiar place, landing at the top of the U.S. pop music chart for the fifth time in his career. His Columbia release "Together Through Life" sold 125,000 copies in its first week in stores, according to data provided by Nielsen SoundScan.

The sales are in line with Dylan's recent past, with one exception. In 2006, his "Modern Times" debuted at the top of the chart with 192,000 copies sold. Sales three years ago benefited from a massive ad campaign for Apple's iTunes store featuring Dylan, who in one of the commercials performed the album's "Someday Baby" while sitting on a stool.

Comparing the two albums provides a glimpse at the marketing prowess of Apple and what a difference the retailer's support can make. Dylan's digital sales took a dip this time around, which defies industry trends. "Together Through Life" sold 18,000 downloads, whereas "Modern Times" tallied 20,000 in download sales in its first week of release.

The disparity might not seem like much, but it is, considering the brisk growth of the digital album market since 2006. So far this year, digital album sales are at 26.3 million, up from 21.7 million for the same period last year. And sales of digital albums jumped 38% in 2008 over 2007.

Dylan hasn't exactly been missing in action. But the Super Bowl commercial with the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am did not give him the same splash the Apple ads did.

Bob Dylan's 'Together Through Life' puts the artist back on top

Bob Dylan is back in a familiar place, landing at the top of the U.S. pop music chart for the fifth time in his career. His Columbia release "Together Through Life" sold 125,000 copies in its first week in stores, according to data provided by Nielsen SoundScan.

The sales are in line with Dylan's recent past, with one exception. In 2006, his "Modern Times" debuted at the top of the chart with 192,000 copies sold. Sales three years ago benefited from a massive ad campaign for Apple's iTunes store featuring Dylan, who in one of the commercials performed the album's "Someday Baby" while sitting on a stool.

Comparing the two albums provides a glimpse at the marketing prowess of Apple and what a difference the retailer's support can make. Dylan's digital sales took a dip this time around, which defies industry trends. "Together Through Life" sold 18,000 downloads, whereas "Modern Times" tallied 20,000 in download sales in its first week of release.

The disparity might not seem like much, but it is, considering the brisk growth of the digital album market since 2006. So far this year, digital album sales are at 26.3 million, up from 21.7 million for the same period last year. And sales of digital albums jumped 38% in 2008 over 2007.

Dylan hasn't exactly been missing in action. But the Super Bowl commercial with the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am did not give him the same splash the Apple ads did.