In case you haven’t bought your copy of Long Road Out Of Eden yet, there’s good news: Only three weeks after its release, the album’s coming out in a deluxe two-disc version, complete with 40-page booklet and “red linen wrapping.” More »
Don Van Cleave, the head of the Coalition of Independent Music Stores, on the Eagles’ so-called Wal-Mart exclusive and its performance on his sales chart of shops that are decidedly not the Bentonville big box: “”… More »
Hoping to evade the possibility of an asterisk-tainted chart, the powers that be at Billboard and Nielsen SoundScan changed their rules for charting albums last night in such a way to ensure that the Eagles’ Long Road Out Of Eden–their Wal-Mart-only album that sold 711,000 copies last week–would top this week’s Billboard 200, pushing Britney Spears’ 290,000-copy-selling Blackout to the No. 2 slot.
Those of us who regard following the Billboard charts as our version of sports fandom have a problem, of the Roger Maris-in-1961 variety, to contend with on this week’s album charts: two different, legitimate No. 1 albums.
On the official SoundScan tally, to be released at end-of-day today and published in Billboard later this week, the victor will be Britney Spears’s Blackout, with about 300,000 albums sold.
But in terms of actual, nationwide sales, the winner–announced this afternoon in a press release–is the Eagles’ Long Road Out of Eden, with a staggering 700,000 sold.
That’s the second-largest first-week total of the year, and it was achieved through just one chain: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (including Sam’s Club and the Wal-Mart/Sam’s websites). And therein lies the confusion, and the problem for us score-keepers.
Last week, people around the world had to make a difficult choice, a choice between drugged-out, leathery pop musicians of two very different generations. England chose Glenn Frey and Don Henley. Just something for Anglophiles to keep in mind in the future. More »
Last week, people around the world had to make a difficult choice, a choice between drugged-out, leathery pop musicians of two very different generations. England chose Glenn Frey and Don Henley. Just something for Anglophiles to keep in mind in the future. More »
Britney Spears’ Blackout is already being projected as the decisive winner on next week’s Billboard albums chart, but Eagles manager Irving Azoff tells Billboard that Britney fans shouldn’t be too sure–at least if Wal-Mart, the only place where people can buy the new Eagles album Long Road Out Of Eden, decides to throw its sales figures into the ring.
After Prince, it’s something of a…step down:
