Oprah Appearance Helps Boost Album to #1 Bow, Ludacris, Tony Bennett, Alan Jackson Eye Top 5 Debuts

September 27, 2006

Never underestimate the Oprah effect. Janet Jackson’s new Virgin Records album, 20 Y.O., is feeling the love from Winfrey’s audience after her appearance on Monday and, based on one-day sales reports from those retailers who haven’t lost our e-mail address, the album could top next week’s HITS chart with a total anywhere between 340-360k. All that and a 60-pound weight loss to boot. Her last album, Damita Jo, which was released in March 2004, bowed with 381k in sales.

The renaissance man known as Luda, Dirty South rapper Ludacris’ Release Therapy is offering just that to shop owners nationwide with a 290-310k total, which will put him in the running for #1 if Janet’s totals begin to fall off, and a certain #2.

Columbia’s 80-year-old crooning legend Tony Bennett comes strong with his new duets album, Duets: An American Classic, buttressed by a national Target TV spot that features the singer and some of his co-stars on the album, including Stevie Wonder, Elton John, k.d. lang, John Legend, Diana Krall and Tim McGraw, among others. His estimated 140-150k total gives him a shot at the #3 spot, where he’ll be vying with young whippersnapper Justin Timberlake, this week’s chart-topper.

Sony BMG Nashville’s Alan Jackson is right behind, with a total just this side of 150k for his album, Like Red on a Rose. Rock’s leading satirist, Volcano/ZLG’s Weird Al Yankovic could notch a Top 10 debut for his Straight Outta Lynwood, right now hovering in the 60-70k range.

Universal Motown international sensation Scissor Sisters’ Ta Dah could go to 35k, with an appearance on the popular Dancing with the Stars tonight, though the ongoing Trans World controversy over pricing could well dog them.

Capitol metallurgists Saosin are looking at a nice first-week total of between 25-30k plus or minus for their Howard Benson-produced/Chris Lord-Alge mixed release.

Hollywood Records High School Musical alum Vanessa Ann Hudgens’ debut V could also sneak in with between 30-35k.

Overall, there wasn’t a whole lot to write home about, or even post on this website. The market was down over 3.5% from last week, down over 1.5% vs. same week last year and now down over 5% to date.
[Edited 10/2/06 15:48pm]

Good for her. I'm not a big fan of the album but she deserves it.

asg said:

Its a damn shame they cant get going in the States. Im sure they sold triple that in the UK.

What Trans World over pricing controversy?

MTV who?


get'em janet....

newpower99 said:

I read this on VH1. The lead guy, Jake Shears, said something about the high prices at FYE and Trans World, which owns FYE and a few other biggies like Sam Goody, won't carry the album. Now those are the kinds of places I assume the album might sell well, rahter than say Walmart or even Best Buy. Let me find the link for the story.

Here it is. Trans World's position sucks but Jake Shears should probably apologize.

http://www.vh1.com/news/a...lines=true

Go Janet! IT would be awesome if she hit number one in spite of MTV's efforts to fuck with her and obiviously help Luda (who appeared on the MTV awards well before "MOney Maker" was a hit....intersting!).

I missed it.

VinnyM27 said:

Thanks Vinny.


>>>"Our hands are up in the air, and there's no rhyme or reason in this country when it comes to music," Shears sighed. "And this gives you an idea of the iron curtain that's really going on. We've sort of just decided to work really hard and see what happens."<<<<

>>>"There are thousands of new releases out there, we've just decided not to carry this one. All they had to do was pick up the phone and talk to us," Litwak said. "But they didn't elect to do that. We were ignored, and he made those comments. So who's the injured party here?" <<<


good lawd ! what a bunch of drama queens...everyone involved

i didn't catch most of oprah but i hope she goes to number one regardless.

newpower99 said:

Well since i worked in Sam Goody for a long time up until this year when we shut down 500 loacations, i do understand the pricing and how this goes, but i would have thought someone in music would know it. The labels charge the stores between 11-13 dollars per cd that they sell a store, so from that stores set their sale pricing or not putting it on sale. now you ask why is it 9.99 in Best Buy, simply, they are losing money on CD's and DVDs and making their money on all the other things they sell, like Stereos,ipods,Tvs,Dvdplayers,washing machines, etc... FYE and these other stores do not carry these kind of "High margin" items, so they cannot afford to lose all their money on the items they sell, they have to make money somehow, i mean how does he think they pay employees,rent,electricity,etc.. An Example would be the store that I worked at here in NYC, paid 70,000 a month just in rent. I would think that someone in the industry would know how it worked.

lastdecember said:

Thanks for the post. I never knew the markup was so high on CDs. That's crazy! I for one, usually only go to Best Buy for Cds, but yes, I've seen how some people will buy their electronics there and a bunch of media as well.


I heard Tower is going out of business. Easly this year, Media Play did. Very dark times for music consumers. I like MP3s and the freedom of the Ipod but in the end, nothing beats something as concrete as a CD. A fucking shame. No wonder music sales are so low this year....a lot of outlets are going out of business.

VinnyM27 said:

Yeah a few years ago, Universal dropped their list price $2 to make them look like "the good guys" to the consumers, but what wasnt known was the fact that they didnt drop what they charge the stores. So basically a A cd will have a list price of 18.99, what universal did was drop that to 16.99, but they were still charging the stores the same 10-13 dollars, so in retrospect they were limiting the margin that a store could make, not what they make. Im not saying prices arent high but its not a stores doing, I mean if all you had was CD's to sell and they charge you 13 dollars to buy it, why would you resell it for 10?

Media Play was owned by Musicland which closed down over half the company, what was remaining in the Sam Goody/Suncoast chain was sold to TransWorld. Tower right now has been purchased by Liquidators, which is not a good sign, however Transworld is looking to buy up what is left of them too. The days of just Music Stores are pretty much over, its sad.

lastdecember said:

How much does a record company of profit from a single cd?

lastdecember said:

It's sad if Tower goes out of business. There used to be a Tower here in Ann Arbor, but it was gone by the time I came here. I loved it, though. It looks like their aren't any left in Michigan....Damn shame! Anyone remember Harmony House? I think they primarily came from here. Went out of business years ago. Great music store plus they had ticket master booths. Good damn shame!
[Edited 9/28/06 10:15am]
[Edited 9/28/06 10:17am]

she looked really good on oprah

MikeMatronik said:

I think record companies sell their cds on wholesale for around $10 to music stores

This i know because couple of yrs back they had a deal to have eninem cds for $11 wholesale and the rest for $10

most artist make $1 or a bit more or a bit less!!

Then they have to make the CDs which could cost them $2/cd

but then agian they force stores to buy more so they can hype the first few weeks which end up being returned to the record comapnies

so u can say the "restocking fees" cost them is like 50cents


so the cost is already $3.5/cd


then there r the promotions costs(payola) which are significant too
video costs
recording the CD( for MJ this cost $30mil/madonna britney cost like $10mil)

this depends on how big the artist is??

They dont make much money unless they have a big hit album

but digital downloads r a big part these days
big hits sell 1million (700k profit) apple only pays them like 70cents per download
[Edited 9/28/06 15:05pm]

lastdecember said:

you know, this only makes sense to a point. When I got to the independently owned shops in MPLS, regular priced CDs range from 13.99-16.99.

Now since these are standalone shops that manage to stay open, how can the big chains not be able to afford dropping their prices a few dollars?

Even when I worked near a Sam Goody, I refused to give them one damn cent as it was soooo ridiculously over priced. Well, that and I could just wait until I could get to the above mentioned indies...

asg said:

thanks 4 the info!

Guess it's better to independant and do some live show!

VinnyM27 said:

You're making me very nostalgic! I loved Harmony House. That Tower in Ann Arbor was great, but there are a lot of cool indie record shops there that are quite nice.

Moonbeam said:

Yes. Encore is the best. I'm probably going there later today.

asg said:

I think she would have sold this many in the first week with or without Oprah. As with Beyonce, Danity Kane, etc., people who are die hard fans will purchase in the first week. Now if she stays at #1 for several weeks that would be a story.

endorphin74 said:

Ok well it basically works this way, Big chains cannot afford to stay open unless they are dealing in things that Best Buy or Wal Mart deals in. Best Buy and Wal Mart lose about 2-3 dollars a cd, thats why there is a restriction on New Release purchasing in their stores, u cant go in and buy 10 copies of the new Beyonce for 9 bucks, guess why?? Because the stores would go out of business. Ok i worked at Sam goody for a long time, and yes the prices were high, but it wasnt until i worked with buyers that i learned what it takes to keep a store open, especially when a store like a sam goody, Fye, or Tower that really deals in just music, not like Best Buy which deals in everything from CDS to washing machines. I mean does anyone realize that when they buy a TV at best buy for 200 bucks best buy is making about 100 dollars off of it, shit with those profits thats why they still function, but if u look at their music departments they lose money NONSTOP. Its really simple, we would buy CDs for 10-12 dollars each (and this price went up every year) now what would you do, how can u sell it for 9.99???? Stores like sam goody, tower, virgin, all operate at losses, why do you think Sam Goody shut down 500 stores, and Tower is Liquidating, its because they make no money off of their core product, that simple. I understand why people complain about prices, but its not the stores, I mean chains like Sam Goody, Tower etc... All they have is Cd's DVDs, its a business, they have to make money, how do you think they pay employees,light bills. rent for their stores. I mean these are chains that have 100's of stores, so if 90% of them operate at a loss, they close down. A mom and pop store can stay open mainly because everything is profit, they may have a couple employees, and only 1 store to worry about.

NECK AND NECK: IDJ's Ludacris and Virgin's Janet Jackson are heading for tomorrow's album chart finish line with the outcome still too close to call. The two albums each look headed for 300k, but are now virtually deadlocked as we head into judgment day.

Note: normally i would know the #1 album by tuesday evening from hits daily double
but HDD numbers aint always so accurate so if the numbers r too close we would need to wait until wednesday morning for soundscan numbers
[Edited 10/2/06 15:54pm]

i think alan jackson is going to get the number one spot followed by justin timberlake, then ludacriss at 3rd and janet in 4th. (i can't believe janet isn't even in itunes top 10 records.)

but what do i know?
[Edited 10/2/06 16:23pm]

MikeMatronik said:

It all depends how much the artist gets paid and a ad dollars used against the cost...very complicated but labels end up making less in many cases especially major artists with huge contracts. Janet's one the highest paid artists per album and an album would have to sell at least 5 million in the US to break even. Labels arent as prosporous as they once were.

peace

I love Janet and don't want her to tank, yet at the same time I want to see Jermaine Dupri's face when he sees Janet's chart position at #2 or something. I really can't stand him and maybe it will shut him up.

jayaredee said:

JD is seriously hurting her career and she needs to wake up and catch on.

I didn't buy Ludacris.

Are the results in yet?

JackieBlue said:

Hits dailydouble is now reporting with 74% of sales in

Janet 269,436
Luda 266,502