Billboard's telling another story that LotuFlow3r doing even better than expected. I stll think it'll land at No.2 behind KU. We'll see. Here's the link.

http://www.billboard.biz/...89d3b686dc

Prince's 'Lotusflow3r' Off To Strong Sales Start
April 01, 2009 - Retail

By Keith Caulfield, L.A.

Prince's new album, "LotusFlow3r" (NPG), issued exclusively in the U.S. through Target stores on Sunday, March 29, leads Nielsen SoundScan's Building Chart, which was released today, April 1.

Yet, the album may not finish the week at No. 1.

Why? The Building Chart reflected unweighted sales through the close of business on Tuesday, March 31. Which means that new releases -- which almost always bow on Tuesday -- usually only have one day's worth of sales included on the Building Chart that is released on Wednesday of each week. However, Prince's album dropped on Sunday, so the Building Chart actually reflects the set's first three days worth of sales.

We'll have a better gauge on how next week's official Billboard 200 chart will shake out on Friday, April 3, when SoundScan releases its next Building Chart. As it stands now, Prince's album is ahead of the No. 2 set, Keith Urban's new "Defying Gravity" (Capitol Nashville), by a very wide margin.

Billboard estimates the seven merchants who report to Nielsen SoundScan's Building chart -- Trans World Entertainment, Best Buy, iTunes, Starbucks, Borders, Target and Anderson Merchandisers -- comprise about 60% of all U.S. album sales.

Other albums looking good for a top 10 debut on next week's Billboard 200 chart include UGK's "UGK For Life" (UGK/Jive/JLG), Diana Krall's "Quiet Nights" (Verve) and Flo Rida's "R.O.O.T.S." (Poe Boy/Atlantic).

Nielsen SoundScan's sales tracking week, as reflected in the official Billboard 200 chart, runs from Monday through Sunday of each week. The newest Billboard 200 chart, released today (April 1) -- where the "Now 30" compilation debuted at No. 1 with 146,000 -- reflected the week that ended on Sunday, March 29.

Sweet! Hope it continues.

chris89 said:

According to Billboard, since P's cd came out on Sunday vs KU's today, obviously he has the lead. But by Friday, that should change because traditionally country artists whose cd was released on Tuesday tends to build stronger througout the first week. In this case, they're projecting P's sales will dwindle by the end of this week giving KU the slight edge. All I can say is "word of mouth" to other music lovers could change this potential pattern. Peace!

Prince has it goin on

Smittyrock70 said:

I don't think the article has anything to do with the type of CD released on Tuesday, only that Prince appears to be ahead now ONLY because they have 3 days of reported sales for him vs 1 day for normal releases.
[Edited 4/1/09 17:42pm]

jtfolden said:

That's what I was saying but in a longwinded manner.