Taylor Swift Sells CD and Makes History

[jobeterob]

Glee .As mentioned yesterday, a strong first week of digital sales [[288,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan), propels Ke$ha's "We R Who We R" to a No. 1 debut on the Billboard Hot 100. But she's hardly the only artist making noise on the chart.



Ke$ha Crashes Hot 100 at No. 1 with 'We R Who We R'



Taylor Swift, who has her own No. 1 glory on the Billboard 200 with "Speak Now," debuts 10 tracks from that album onto the Hot 100, led by "Sparks Fly" at No. 17. With holdover "Mine" falling 13-21, the singer has a total of 11 titles on the list, the most ever by a female artist.



With prior pre-album digital releases "Speak Now," "Back to December" and "Mean" having previously charted, every track from the 14-song standard edition of "Speak Now" has appeared on the Hot 100.



Taylor Swift Sells Over 1 Million in Record Billboard 200 Debut



Relegated to No. 2 status on the Hot 100 and Digital Songs by Ke$ha's arrival is "Like a G6," by Far*East Movement featuring Cataracs & Dev. "Like a G6" topped the former list the past two weeks and had led Hot Digital Songs for three non-consecutive frames. It's possible that the song could return to the top of the Hot 100 next week.



Former No. 1 "Just the Way You Are," by Bruno Mars, falls 2-3 ahead of "Only Girl [[In The World)" which also slips a spot to No. 4. "What's My Name," Rihanna's second single from "Loud," out Nov. 16, jumps 83-60 with Airplay Gainer honors. Without a digital single contributing to its ranking [[it will next week), the title becomes the lowest-ranked Airplay Gainer winner since T.I.'s "Whatever You Like" [[No. 71) on the chart dated Aug. 30, 2008, similarly a week prior to that single's digital release. T.I. took his track straight to No. 1 the following week, a move Rihanna could possibly mirror on our next chart, though a bump into the top 10 is more likely.



Back to the top 10, the songs from No. 6 to No. 9 all descend one rung on the ladder. Nelly's "Just A Dream' dips to No. 5, Usher featuring Pitbull's "DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love" lands at No. 6 and "Bottoms Up" by Try Songs retreats to No. 7. Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" and Taio Cruz's "Dynamite" come in at No. 8 and No. 9, respectively.



Maintaining her standing at No. 10 is P!nk with "Raise Your Glass," one notch above 10-year old Willow, who wanders 78-11 in her second week on the list with "Whip My Hair." "Hair" sells 137,000 downloads in it its first week of availability.



"Monster" by Kanye West featuring Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Bon Iver and Nicki Minaj moves 79-18 after entering the Hot 100 and Hot Digital Songs last week with download sales accrued in a single day. Now with a full-week sales haul, the song rockets up the chart as the top Digital Gainer with 97,000 downloads [[up 78,000 units).



While Taylor Swift makes a Glee Cast-like arrival with multiple debuts, the stars from the Fox series come in with just a single track from their "Rocky Horror Picture Show" episode, which aired on October 26. The cast's take on the classic "Time Warp" starts at No. 89. This is only the fourth week that the troupe has placed a single entry onto the chart, compared to 22 multiple-debut weeks.



Chris Brown debuts in the upper half of the list with "Yeah 3X" at No. 33. The pop/dance track, from Brown's upcoming fourth studio album, due first quarter 2011, moves 66,000 downloads in first week of release.



Also new to the list is "I Won't Let Go" by Rascal Flatts [[No. 72), Kid Cudi's "Mr. Rager" [[No. 77), "One in a Million" by Ne-Yo [[No. 97) and Luke Bryan's "Someone Else Calling You Baby" [[No. 100).

[jobeterob]

Taylor Swift .Taylor Swift's "Speak Now" album spoke loud and clear last week, as it will debut at No. 1 on this week's Billboard 200 chart with a whopping 1,047,000 copies sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It's the largest sales week for an album since 50 Cent's "The Massacre" bowed at No. 1 with 1,141,000 in March of 2005.



Since SoundScan began tracking music sales in 1991, there have only been 16 instances where an album sold at least a million copies in a week. The last time we had a million-plus frame was when Lil Wayne's "Tha Carter III" launched at No. 1 with 1,006,000 in June of 2008. The SoundScan-era record week is still held by NSYNC's "No Strings Attached," when it debuted at No. 1 with 2,416,000 in 2000.



16 Albums That Sold 1 Million Copies in 1 Week



Nielsen SoundScan, which fuels Billboard's music sales charts, tracks point-of-purchase sales of recorded music product, aggregating data from more than 20,000 retailers in the U.S. [[including digital download services like iTunes and Amazon MP3), which represents more than 95% of retail music product sales in the U.S.



Taylor Swift: The Billboard Cover Story



A day after its Oct. 25 release, industry pundits were projecting that "Speak Now" would sell between 800,000 and 900,000 by the end of SoundScan's tracking week on Sunday, Oct. 31. Those predictions got even sunnier over the weekend, and by yesterday [[Nov. 1), it seemed a sure bet that the 1 million mark would be met.





"Speak Now" marks Swift's second Billboard 200 No. 1 after her last set, "Fearless" started with 592,000 in November of 2008. It spent 11 non-consecutive weeks at the summit.



Photos: Taylor's Fashion Evolution



A few more Swift milestones to note: "Speak Now" has the second-largest sales week of any country album since 1991. Only Garth Brooks' 1998 effort "Double Live" moved more, when it started with 1,085,000. Thus, Swift also achieves the biggest sales week of any female country act since 1991. Previously, the high-water mark was set by fellow crossover diva Shania Twain when her "Up!" started with 874,000 at No. 1 in 2002.





And, "Speak" owns the biggest week for any album by a woman -- regardless of genre -- since 2000, when Britney Spears' "Oops! I Did It Again" danced into the No. 1 spot with 1,319,000. In total, just four albums by women have notched million-plus weeks. Aside from Swift and Spears, Whitney Houston's "The Bodyguard" soundtrack moved 1,061,000 over the busy Christmas week of 1992, and Norah Jones' "Feels Like Home" debuted at No. 1 with 1,022,000 in 2004.



Come back Wednesday morning when we'll have our traditional run down of the week's top 10 albums and highlights from the Digital Songs chart.

[copley]

Am I the only one who just can't understand why Miss Swift is so successful? I'm sure that she's a nice person but IMHO her music is bland, boring and offers nothing new. Thankfully in the UK she has only had limited success.

[timmyfunk]

Am I the only one who just can't understand why Miss Swift is so successful? I'm sure that she's a nice person but IMHO her music is bland, boring and offers nothing new. Thankfully in the UK she has only had limited success.

Thank you. What is her purpose, musically?

[nysister]

Thank you. What is her purpose, musically?

Taylor writes her own material, and teens and tweens relate to her story telling. She has loyal country and pop fans. They love her!!!

[jobeterob]

I dont really know her music; what I've heard on TV would fit in the "bland" category to me.

But she and Justin Bieber are all that is selling anything anymore.

I think her purpose in the music WORLD is to re-ignite things along with Justin Bieber so that the industry continues to exist.

[abfan]

The industry needs a new Justin T and Brittney Spears so they can bring em up to bring em down..eat em up and spit em.out til the next teen craze.....Willow Smith needs to be ready

[smark21]

The industry needs a new Justin T and Brittney Spears so they can bring em up to bring em down..eat em up and spit em.out til the next teen craze.....Willow Smith needs to be ready

Justin Timberlake has done very well for himself, he's never been brought down hard or suffer a fall like Britney.

Taylor Swift is not much of a singer, but she has a knack for writing lyrics that connect with her audience, she is a sound of young america today.

[carlo]

I like Taylor Swift. I think she's a talented and classy young lady, who is setting an awesome example for young girls. She's a breath of fresh air in a failing music industry filled with rehab-bound artists who have music filled with swear words and explicit sexual themes. She's a true artist in every sense of the word. She can sing LIVE and she writes her OWN songs. Thank God that true artistry and creativity is not completely lost.

[soulster]

The only problem I have with Swift is that a lot of her stuff sounds the same.

[Doug-Morgan]

Hey, Tommy Roe made a career out of selling to young teens. Taylor and Justin are just the new, improved 2010 version of the same thing.

[stephanie]

Carlo you beat me to the punch! I thought people would have figured this out already Taylor is the cleanest thing out there. She has good hooks, she is the new Miley Cyrus she is a role model for young girls. I wish there was a black example of this right now it is certainly not Rihanna! I knew that when Miley got older the next one on the food chain would get the attention and sell the records and here comes Taylor. Being part of the country music world doesnt hurt either I really like her she is listenable. No new musical revelations but she is a breath of fresh air and they promote the heck out of her.

[pshark]

This is "news" I can do without

[midnightman]

^ LOL yeah it ain't like it's that special. She's in fact more pop than country but anyway lol

[boywonder]

And the relevance of this is? She's not soulful and neither is she from detroit.

I watched an old episode of the apprentice last week where they had to write a radio jingle. Should I put a message on SoulfulDetroit as well? That has just as much relevane as your so-called story.

[jobeterob]

The main relevance is that is it music, it is ALL that is selling, and it is the only thing generating some money for these CD companies to keep employees working and chugging out the odd Sly and the Family Stone, Temptations, Supremes, George Clinton, Phyllis Hyman, Esther Phillips, Aretha Franklin CD.

Plus it's a little bit fun to watch the new fads come and go.............

[copley]

And the relevance of this is? She's not soulful and neither is she from detroit.

I watched an old episode of the apprentice last week where they had to write a radio jingle. Should I put a message on SoulfulDetroit as well? That has just as much relevane as your so-called story.

It is not set in stone that posts have to be about soul music or Detroit related. All music is talked about here. The good, the bad & the ugly!

[jobeterob]

How about cute, Copley? Taylor is pretty, cute, cuddly and all that..........

[smark21]

How about cute, Copley? Taylor is pretty, cute, cuddly and all that..........

Although given the number of songs she's written calling out ex boyfriends who've done her wrong, she better watch it or she'll get the same loser in love image that Jennifer Aniston has.

[boywonder]

I get that we shouldn't take too narrow a view of what is relevant, but some barely talented teeny bopper selling absolute dross is hardly worth writing home about. I think most people here realise that talent does not always equal sales. Most of the interesting releases these days are from specialist labels like Rhino handmade, Hip-o, Ace, Shout RPM, Stateside... Still don't see why anyone here would find this interesting. Apart from some bizarre reason me, as this is my second post!