Album Sales News

As we await the windfall of new American Idol music - from Carrie Underwood to Jordin Sparks and Blake Lewis albums - let's take a look at where current CDs are ranked on the charts...

• Daughtry is still top Idol, remaining at No. 33 with 20,000 sold, a meager 2% decline from the previous week. His total is 3.04 million, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

• Kelly Clarkson is next, but drops 36-45, selling 15,000, a 20% drop from the previous week, for a total of 619,000.

• Carrie Underwood falls 42-47, selling 14,000, a 12% decline, for a total of 5.88 million. That's the top-selling album currently on the top 200.

• Elliott Yamin has the best sales news of the week, jumping 89-76 on 9,000 sales, up 14%, for a total of 371,000.

• Bucky Covington drops 97-115, selling a little less than 6,000, a 21% drop, for a total of 260,000.

• Mandisa falls 122-129, selling 5,000 for a total of 36,000.

• Kellie Pickler is down 140-147, selling slightly under 5,000 (down 9%) for a total of 616,000.

• Fantasia manages to climb a bit, 193-188, selling 4,000, a 3% increase, for a total of 463,000.

• Katharine McPhee sold 900, her first venture into three figures, down from 1,200. Total is 353,000.

• Taylor Hicks dropped to 400 from 500, with a total of 694,000.

It's official:

Some Hearts from Carrie Underwood has finally passed Kelly Clarkson's Breakaway to become the best-selling Idol album of all-time. The margin was razor-thin, according to Nielsen SoundScan: 5,813,400 for Carrie, 5,813,200 for Kelly.

Clarkson's current album, My December, is still the top-selling Idol album of the week, dropping from No. 11 to No. 15 on the Billboard chart. It sold 31,000, down from 42,000 the previous week, a 27% drop. It's sold 536,000 total.

Daughtry drops 22-25 on the chart, selling 23,000, an 8% drop; his total is 2.96 million. Carrie moves from number-30 to number-28 on the chart, selling 21,000, off 1% from the previous week.

Meanwhile, Elliott Yamin moves 81-84 with flat sales of about 9,000 and a total of 333,000; Bucky Covington slides 83-91, selling a bit more than 8,000, down 5%, with a total of 231,000.

Kellie Pickler has a nice week, climbing 141-99 on a 42% sales increase to more than 7,000. Her total's 593,000. And Fantasia drops 125-179, selling 4,000, a 31% drop. Total: 447,000.

Courtesy of USA Today, here's a look at how American Idols are faring in terms of downloaded albums on the charts...

• Daughtry drops from number-22 to 23, selling 28,000, down 12%, with a total of 2.91 million.  His two hit singles are still on the digital songs chart, Home moving 32-31 despite a 13% sales drop (it was a mediocre digital track sales week as well), and totaling 876,000; and It's Not Over falling 72-77 after selling 12,000, down 15%, with a total of 1.39 million.

• Carrie Underwood drops 26-29 on the chart, selling 23,000, an 11% drop, for a total of 5.77 million, around 30,000 shy of Kelly Clarkson's mark.  She's down to two songs on the digital chart: Before He Cheats, 24-26, 29,000, off 16%, total 1.62 million; and Wasted, 161-180, about 6,000, off 13%, total 359,000. Jesus, Take the Wheel falls off the chart.

• Elliott Yamin takes a dive on the album chart, 59-77, selling around 9,000 copies, down 26%. His total is 315,000. But Wait for You is the highest-charting digital track this week, climbing 23-22 despite a 6% sales drop to 32,000. The song has sold 392,000 to date.

• Bucky Covington holds his own at 81 on the album chart, selling a little less than 9,000, a 6% drop, with a total of 214,000. A Different World takes a big jump on the track chart, 131-115, but that's more a consequence of the weak sales tallies for the week than anything else, as he sells the same slightly less than 8,000 amount as the previous week. Total for the track is 115,000.

• Fantasia drops 126-130 on the album chart, selling in the 6,000 range, down by 4%, with a total of 437,000. Single When I See U rebounds hugely on the track chart, 185-152, and gains 5% in sales, up to midway between 6,000 and 7,000. Total is 99,000.

• Kellie Pickler is the last Idol on the album chart, but drops 136-157 to endanger that status, selling a bit less than 5,000, a 10% drop. She's sold 580,000 so far. Her I Wonder stays even on the track chart, 146-146, but drops 8% in sales down to the mid-6,000s

American Idols were all over the lists of top-selling albums and downloads in the first half of 2007, as reported by USA Today. The greatest triumph was all Chris Daughtry; his album is No. 1 for the year so far with 1.73 million sold in 2007 (out of 2.85 million total).

Carrie Underwood also did great, landing at No. 5 with 1.07 million, despite Some Hearts coming out in 2005.

All told, there were 10 Idols in the top 200 for the year to date. The rest:

• 59. Katharine McPhee: 342,000. Outpointed Taylor because the bulk of Taylor's sales came in late '06.

• 77. Elliott Yamin: 294,000

• 79. Kelly Clarkson, My December: 292,000. One week's sales got her this high.

• 116. Kellie Pickler: 217,000. More sold in late '06.

• 124. Fantasia: 208,000. About half of her total sold this year.

• 135. Bucky Covington: 196,000

• 184. Taylor Hicks: 150,000

• 192. Kelly Clarkson, Breakaway: Another 146,000 added to the 5.8 million total.

It's been a good week for American Idol album sales, as reported by USA Today.

They were up 10%, while most Idols enjoyed increased figures. Once again no Idols made the Billboard top 10, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Daughtry led the pack at No. 13, down from No. 12. But he sold 56,000, up 4%, for a total of 2.78 million.

Similarly, Carrie Underwood dropped 16-22 on the chart but registered a 2% sales increase, to 41,000, to bring her total to 5.66 million.

The rest of the charting and non-charting Idols:

• After the big two, we slide down to No. 57 on the chart, occupied by Bucky Covington, who was No. 63 last week. His sales jumped 24% to 14,000, and his total is 177,000.

• Elliott Yamin slides 62-70, but is also up in sales, 5% to 12,000, and has reached 274,000 in total.

• Fantasia Barrino is the only charting Idol to drop in sales: She's off 7% to 7,100 and falls 97-116 on the chart. Her sales total is 413,000, making it likely that she'll eventually hit gold, though.

• Kellie Pickler climbs 128-122 on the chart, with a 12% gain to 6,700 and a total of 559,000. She could end up outselling Taylor Hicks and wind up as the season's No. 2 seller.

• Off the charts, Kelly Clarkson's Breakaway sold 7,300, up from 7,000, for a total of 5.8 million.

• Katharine McPhee picked up 2,300 new customers, down from 2,500, for a 339,000 total.

• Taylor sold 1,700, up from 1,400, to move up to 688,000 in total.

• Paris Bennett sold 800, down from 1,100, and has sold 16,000 total. Ruben racked up 700 more copies (same as last week) for a total of 229,000.

• Kimberley Locke sold 600 (down from 700); total is 12,000.

• Clay Aiken sold 400 (same as last week) for a total of 513,000.

• Mandisa has the No. 1 single in the country with Only the World; it sold 1,900 copies, down from 2,000.

Former contestants and guest stars enjoyed a sales boost out of last week's American Idol finale.

Chris Daughtry's self-titled Daughtry album made a 45% leap, moving 74,218 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. His single Home increased 17% with 85,925 in digital sales.

Other big winners:

• Kelly Clarkson's Never Again (80,451, up 26%)
• Green Day's Working Class Hero (24,472, up 440%)
• Gwen Stefani's 4 in the Morning (16,088, up 247%)

Idol winner Jordin Sparks placed four new songs in the digital top 200, including trophy tune This Is My Now (No. 12 with 74,303 downloads).

Here's the weekly American Idol sales report:

• 5-7 last week Daughtry (49,000; 2.36 million total): Daughtry is top Idol dog again, netting a two-point chart jump despite a 7% sales decline week to week.

• Carrie (44,000; 5.33 milion total): Carrie Underwood was nearly even with last week, possibly thanks to the Idol special, which gave her a huge boost in the digital songs arena..

• Bucky (23,000; 84,000 total): Big drop of 62%; that indicates Bucky's fan base went out and bought the album as soon as possible; further sales are likely to come in much smaller weekly increments.

• Elliott Yamin (9,100; 173,000 total): Off a fairly normal 13%, but unless something dramatic happens, we can forecast a ceiling of around 300,000 for this album. Not, considering all the factors, that that's a bad thing by any means.

• Kellie Pickler (6,400; 512,000 total): Despite the chart improvement, it was down 1% in sales, but that's not bad at all at this stage.

• Fantasia (5,800; 357,000 total): Enjoying a late resurgence of sorts (up 18% this week), perhaps attributable to The Color Purple publicity?

• Katharine McPhee (5,600; 311,000 total): Drops 19% in sales and takes a dive on the chart, and Over It didn't really become the kind of across-the-board pop hit she needed.

Off the chart:

• Taylor Hicks sold 1,700 (2,000 the previous week) for a total of 673,000. Ruben Studdard sold 1,000 (down from 1,200) for a total of 223,000. Clay Aiken sold 600 (same as the last couple of weeks) and is at 509,000. Kelly Clarkson sold 5,900 (up from 4,900 and enough to rank around No. 129 on the chart if it weren't ineligible by Billboard rules). Her total is 5.7 million.

Here's an update on American Idol alumni album sales from last week:

• Daughtry is still top-selling Idol, still in the top 10, up from No. 7 to No. 6, though his sales plunged from 98,000 the previous week to 54,000 last week. Total is 2.26 million.

• Carrie Underwood: Up 18-14 on the chart, but also off in sales, 36,000 compared to 54,000 the previous week. Total: 5.25 million.

• Elliott Yamin: Dropped 49-59, with sales of 12,000, compared to 21,000 the previous week. Total: 153,000.

• Katharine McPhee: Fell 95-112 on the chart, selling 7,500 after amassing 11,000 units sold the previous week. Total: 299,000.

• Kellie Pickler: Down 128-142, and sold 6,300, compared to 9,600 the previous week. Total: 499,000.

• Fantasia Barrino: Will be the next chart drop-off, sliding slightly from 187 to 192 last week. She sold 4,600 copies (5,900 the previous week), and her total is 346,000.

Elliott Yamin drops from No. 3 to No. 28 on the Billboard music chart, selling 30,000 copies, one-third of his first week's sales. That brings his total to 120,000, but at this pace it will be a fairly long, hard slog to top a quarter million.

Other Idols on the album chart (and a few who have fallen off):

• Daughtry is once again king of the charting Idols, but he drops 4-6, selling 66,000 - 13% off the previous week's total. Grand total is 2.11 million.

• Carrie Underwood falls 15-16, only because there are 10 debuts ahead of her. Her sales were up 4% to 39,000, and her total is 5.16 million.

• Katharine McPhee drops 74-93, falling 12% in sales down to 9,900 for a total of 279,000.

• Kellie Pickler falls 131-150, selling 6,100, 9% off the previous week, for a total of 484,000.

• Fantasia Barrino was down 139-152 on the chart, selling 6,000 copies, down just 3%. Total: 336,000

• Off the chart, Taylor Hicks sold 2,900, down from 3,400 the previous week. Total: 664,000. Ruben sold 1,300, down from 1,500, for a total of 218,000. Clay Aiken sold 700, down from 800, to bring his total to 507,000. And Kelly Clarkson sold 4,300, down a bit from 4,400, for a total of 5.7 million.

Gwen Stefani's Sweet Escape jumps to No. 1 on the digital songs chart, selling 140,000 in the week she performed on American Idol.

With his debut album, American Idol second runner-up Elliott Yamin broke the soundscan record for the highest selling debut ever on an independent label.

Yamin's record sold over 90,000 copies in its first week. To put this in perspective, he sold about 20,000 more than Kellie Pickler did during her first week, and about 15k fewer than runner-up Katharine McPhee.

Congrats, Elliott!