Toby Keith debuted at No. 1 on SoundScan’s Country Album chart with about 90K first week sales (10% digital) of his album American Ride (according to Nielsen SoundScan, a division of The Nielsen Company). Luke Bryan’s sophomore album landed at No. 2 on the Country list with a respectable 58K units (16% digital). On the all-genre chart, Keith came in at No. 3, followed by Bryan at No. 6.
Show Dog Nashville sported black and denim in celebration of Keith’s album and multi-week No. 1 single run for “American Ride.” Tonight (10/14) Keith visits the The Jay Leno Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live. He ends the week with appearances on The Bonnie Hunt Show on Thursday and The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson on Friday.
First week sales of Bryan’s Doin’ My Thing (Capitol Nashville) more than doubled his previous debut week from 2007’s I’ll Stay Me. “Do I,” the album’s lead single is currently sitting at No. 5 on the Country Breakout chart, and the video had a 7-week No. 1 on GAC. Bryan has been on an intense nine day, nine city tour to promote the release of his album and he wraps it up tonight in Minneapolis, MN. Then he kicks off his inaugural headlining tour on 10/29, with sponsor Miller Lite.
Other notable debuts this week are from Rosanne Cash (26K), Bill Engvall (3.4K), and Colt Ford (Wal-Mart exclusive CD/DVD 2.3K). To date relatively unknown indie artist Ford has sold 85K copies of his album.
Glancing at other YTD stats, country album sales are down a slight 1.2%, but the digital share of those sales is up more than 50%. 2009 YTD country album market share is 11.8% of total album sales, which is a slight increase from 10.3% in 2008. Heading into the holiday shopping season, will current leaders Taylor Swift and Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus maintain position as the year’s best selling artists?
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Sarah Skates has worked in the music business for more than a decade and is a longtime contributor to MusicRow.View Author Profile
