As projected, the all-star Hope for Haiti Now charity album is now officially the biggest album in the country. It tops the new Billboard 200 album sales chart with 171,000 copies sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan — a figure that’s even more impressive when you consider that it only covers two full days (Jan. 23 and 24) and that all those sales were digital, a first for a Billboard 200 winner.
Moving to No. 2, we find Susan Boyle, who sold another 86,000 copies of I Dreamed a Dream last week. That might have been enough to teach a lesson to those pesky Vampire Weekend kids for displacing her at No. 1 the previous week — their Contra is down at No. 6 now with 43,000 copies sold — but Hope for Haiti Now‘s strong sales ruled out a return to her onetime throne.
No. 4 goes to indie heroes Spoon, with 53,000 copies sold of their excellent Transference. Those aren’t exactly Vampire Weekend numbers — hey, we can’t all be those guys — but it’s still a career best for Spoon, beating the 46,000/No. 10 debut they scored for 2007′s Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga.
At No. 5, the 2010 Grammy Nominees compilation somehow found 49,000 people who were willing to pay good money for a bunch of 2009 hits by artists like the Black Eyed Peas, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, and Beyoncé that they certainly could have bought individually from iTunes or a similar service if they didn’t own them already. If you are one of the people who buys these Grammy nominee CDs, please explain yourself in the comments section, because I seriously don’t get it.
Pop-punk act Motion City Soundtrack sold 27,000 copies of their Mark Hoppus-produced My Dinosaur Life, earning them a No. 15 finish.
And that was it for Top 20 debuts this week. Did you buy any of these albums? Surprised by how low or high anyone placed? Make yourself known below.
(Follow the Music Mix on Twitter: @EWMusicMix.)
More from EW.com’s Music Mix:
Vampire Weekend tops the albums chart
Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger: What’s in it for you?
Wilco gives away free concert MP3s, asks for Haiti donations
Lady Gaga at Radio City: Best. Concert. Ever.
“If you are one of the people who buys these Grammy nominee CDs, please explain yourself in the comments section, because I seriously don’t get it.”
i don’t buy those cds, but fyi, there are still people who buy physical cds/who don’t have itunes. justsayin’.
He isn’t talking about CDs vs. downloads. It’s about the song collections themselves. They’re probably bought by people who prefer singles over album-type deals. And, yeah, Simon probably finds those collections, as a whole, to be empty & substantial. But I digress …
I meant “INsubstantial”. Anyway …
It’s people like me who buy Grammy compilations. I know little about modern music and like to use these compilations to find out about it.
Susan Boyle smells like kitty litter and chamomile tea
IM READY FOR “LADY A” TOO TOP THE CHART!!!!
NEED YOU NOW IS AN AWESOME ALBUM!
I love Hello World!!!
Great Letterman pnrofrmaece – thanks for posting and checking out my blog. By the way, I finally got the Contra album widget to work on my blog. I think it was missing a close embed tag. Stitcher´s last blog ..