Album Sales Testing New Lows in Summer Doldrums
10.08.09
LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Opposing blessings for rapper Fabolous, more bad news for the music determination.
The New York rapper topped the latest Billboard 200 album tabulation after selling a less-than-fabulous 99,000 copies of his new release "Loso's Way" during the week ended August 2. His past release, 2007's "From Nothin' to Somethin,'" debuted at No. 2 with 159,000 copies.
More ominously, the latest sales full stop marked just the second July week when not one in circulation album sold at least 100,000 copies since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking facts in 1991.
This last happened in 2006, when Johnny Cash's "American V: A Hundred Highways" was released July 4 and sold 88,000 copies, also enough to appear at No. 1.
The dreary sales story may continue next week. On August 4, the biggest new album salvation was country group Sugarland's Wal-Mart-exclusive CD/DVD combo stuff "Live on the Inside." The 10-track CD is paired with a 16-inexpensively concert DVD. The album boasts the duo's covers of Kings of Leon's "Sex on Fire," Beyonce's "Irreplaceable" and the B-52s' "Disposition Shack."
Source: ABC News