Coldplay Breaks Digital Download Record

[BostonSportsTD]

 

 

Week Ending June 29, 2008: Viva La Download Or Death And All His CDs

 

 

Posted Wed Jul 2, 2008 2:05pm PDT by Paul Grein in Chart Watch

 

[/url]Coldplay holds at #1 on Billboard's album chart for the second week with Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends. But the big news is that, in just two weeks, Viva La Vida has sold more downloads than any album in digital history. The old record was held by John Mayer's Continuum. Viva La Vida sold 66,000 downloads this week, bringing its two-week total to 354,000. Continuum has sold 353,000 downloads since its release in September 2006. The rest of the all-time top five albums with the most paid digital downloads consists of Amy Winehouse's Back To Black (329,000), Daughtry's Daughtry (323,000) and Justin Timberlake's FutureSex/LoveSounds (301,000). In other download news, "Low" by Flo Rida featuring T-Pain this week becomes the first song to top the 4 million mark in paid downloads.

 

The paid digital download medium scarcely existed five years ago and now it's the biggest growth area in the music business. (It may be the only growth area in the music business.) Billboard reports that album sales in the first half of 2008 totaled 204.6 million, down slightly from 229.8 million in the first half of 2007. Digital track sales for the same period totaled 542.7 million, up substantially from 417.3 million.

 

This next item makes the point even more dramatically. Just three albums topped 1 million copies in sales (CDs and digital downloads combined) in the first six months of 2008, the lowest total since Nielsen/SoundScan set up shop in 1991. Six albums sold 1 million copies in the first six months of 2007. Fully 16 albums hit the million mark in the first half of 2006. (The business hit its peak in 2001 when a whopping 37 albums reached the 1 million mark in the first 26 weeks of the year.)

 

The three million-selling albums of the first half of 2008 are Lil' Wayne's Tha Carter III (1,526,000), Jack Johnson's Sleep Through The Static (1,248,000) and Mariah Carey's E=MC2 (1,063,000). Two other albums are close to striking the 1 million mark: Alicia Keys' As I Am (986,000 in 2008 sales) and Viva La Vida (971,000).

 

This isn't the first time that Coldplay has been able to boast of having the album with the most paid downloads in history. The band's previous album, X&Y, held that title when Nielsen/SoundScan started running an all-time list (they call it a "run-to-date" list) in January 2006. The Fray's How To Save A Life bumped Coldplay down to second place in December 2006. Continuum took over in March 2007.

 

The field of individual song downloads is also showing rapid growth. The Black Eyed Peas' "Let's Get It Started" was the first song to top the 500,000 mark in paid digital downloads. It reached the milestone in February 2005. Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" was the first song to top the 1 million mark (in October 2005). Daniel Powter's "Bad Day" was the first to top 2 million (in December 2006). "Crank That Soulja Boy" by Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em was the first to top 3 million (in January of this year). And this week "Low" becomes the first to reach 4 million.

 

Some future researcher, pouring through Yahoo!'s old files, may be very amused that I made a big deal about a digital album reaching a measly 354,000 copies or an individual song hitting a mere 4 million downloads. I hope so. It would mean that albums and songs will one day reach download sales marks that make today's record-setting numbers seem puny.

 

Katy Perry's "I Kissed A Girl" holds at #1 on Hot Digital Songs with 206,000 paid downloads. This brings its eight-week total to 1,193,000. Jonas Brothers' "Burnin' Up," the first single from their forthcoming studio album, opens at #2, pushing "This Is Me," Joe Jonas' Camp Rock duet with Demi Lovato, down to #3. The brothers' third album, A Little Bit Longer, is due Aug. 12. If it doesn't debut at #1, I will eat my hat.

 

Incidentally, this week marks the first time that the top three albums hold still for two weeks running since December, when Josh Groban's Noel, Alicia Keys' As I Am and Eagles' Long Road Out Of Eden repeated in the top three spots.

 

Here's the low-down on this week's top 10 albums.

 

1. Coldplay, Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends, 249,000. This is Coldplay's second album in a row to log two or more weeks at #1. X&Y held the top spot for three weeks in 2005. Who was the last artist to have back-to-back #1 albums that both had multiple weeks on top? Mariah Carey. Three songs from Coldplay's album are listed on Hot Digital Songs, topped by "Viva La Vida," which dips from #3 to #4

 

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/chart_watch/9716/week-ending-june-29-2008-viva-la-download-or-death-and-all-his-cds

[Hotplay007]

haha, i just saw that about 3 hours ago. Viva La Coldplay for sure. :dance:

[sa_spurs_tx]

Just saw it, it's so awesome. Coldplay is taking over the world!! To me its like a campaign, I love converting people and I love to see how more and more people are jumping on the Coldplay bandwagon. People don't know what they have been missing.

[forcin]

:dance:They're on FIYAH!

[footyfan10]

^ hahahah, i looked at that and went by your post quick, and out of the corner of my eye i thought chris was al pacino...hilarious

[forcin]

^^:laugh3: I may have to change my avi

[Guest kmm1482]

This just gets sweeter and sweeter! :) There's no denying Coldplay now!!! Chris was right, they really ARE taking over the world!!!!!!!! GREAT time to be a huge Coldplay fan!

[Guest kmm1482]

Just saw it, it's so awesome. Coldplay is taking over the world!! To me its like a campaign, I love converting people and I love to see how more and more people are jumping on the Coldplay bandwagon. People don't know what they have been missing.

 

I've done the same thing! I converted my mom. Before, she was just like "oh they aren't bad, that Clocks song is kinda neat", to after seeing her first Coldplay concert being like :o now she's as obsessed as me! I also converted a couple of friends of mine who made fun of me CONSTANTLY for liking them so much. My fiance has gone from only liking 'Yellow' and saying everything else was "ok" to walking down the aisle to 'Til Kingdom Come' and singing along with me to most of their songs!

[rudy_o]

:dance:

 

viva la coldplay

[melanieau]

:dance::dance::dance: