Not such great expectations for US albums market

09:13 | Friday December 19, 2008

It was the best of times: album sales were up 14% week-on-week to a 2008 best tally of 12.9m.

It was the worst of times: that’s a massive 5.1m (28%) down on same week 2007 sales of 18m, 10.5m (45%) below same week 2006 sales of 23.4m, and barely half of the 24.8m albums sold in the same week in 2005.

It’s the worst figure achieved in this week since 2000, and not much more than double the 6.08m albums sold in UK. As America has a little over 300m inhabitants and the UK has just 60m, that means that the average UK citizen was 2.35 times more likely to have bought an album last week than his/her American counterpart.

In this gloomy environment, country’s latest superstar Taylor Swift sold 249,000 copies of her album, Fearless, enough for her to return to number one, relegating Britney Spears’ Circus (200,000 sales) to number two.

With only five albums selling enough copies to earn a Top 200 debut – three urban albums, a Maroon 5 remix set and an EP by Maine – no new release sold well enough to make the Top 10, though Musiq Soulchild’s onmyradio arrives at number 11 on sales of 91,000 copies, while Common’s Universal Mind Control follows a place and 9,000 sales behind.

Although the largely UK-born but completely Australian-based AC/DC’s Black Ice bounces 11-8, and UK-signed Enya and Il Divo move 14-13 and 12-16 respectively, it is the first week this year that no true Brits are in the Top 40. Coldplay’s Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends comes closest, slipping 35-41, while Seal’s Soul holds at number 49 and Leona Lewis’ Spirit slips 57-59.

The fastest mover on the chart are Northern’s Ireland’s Catholic clergymen The Priests, whose self-titled debut album rockets 170-66.

On the Hot 100, Beyonce’s Single Ladies (Put The Ring On It) regains the number one slot but suffers a 12% dip in sales of downloads to 136,003. Britney Spears’ Circus remains the top selling download but suffers a 28% dip in digital deliveries to 153,219, and pays the price with a 3-4 dip on the Hot 100. Of four debuts, the highest is Just Like Me by Jamie Foxx and T.I., which debuts at number 75 thanks to excellent airplay support.

As Gordon Ramsey would say – 2008, done. Let’s hope 2009 brings more cheer.