Final Holiday Sales #s of 2010 Are Huge for Country Artists

Miss Swift’s Speak Now is still the third best-selling album released in 2010 but it is fast approaching the triple platinum Need You Now album from Lady Antebellum while Jason Aldean is quickly approaching 700,000 copies sold in a mere two month run on the charts with My Kinda Party.  It is undoubtedly the quickest-selling album of his four album career.  Sugarland’s Incredible Machine rolls on as well as the Mercury Nashville duo found nearly 80,000 more homes for their new record while Rascal Flatts have eclipsed the half a million mark with their Big Machine Records debut Nothing Like This.  Lady Antebellum’s Need You Now rounds out the Top 5 country albums on the SoundScan chart this week.

Keith Urban continues to Get Closer to gold sales status as Kenny Chesney’s Hemingway’s Whiskey crosses the 600,000 sales mark this week.  Tim McGraw’s two-disc album Number One Hits found 50,000 more buyers in week three and the album is close to being gold thanks to the double-disc status.  It features the playful “Felt Good On My Lips” in addition to all of Tim’s Billboard #1 hits (so far).  Zac Brown Band continues to Get What they Give as their sophomore album has now found 581,000 homes since being released this past fall.  The album’s second single “Colder Weather” will release in early 2010 and will likely join all of their other singles as either a #1 or #2 hit on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.  Miranda Lambert rounds out the Top 10 best-selling SoundScan country albums this weeik as revolution has scraped past the 1.1 million mark.

The Band Perry opens up the 11-15 section with a 41% sales increase of their self-titled debut album which features the platinum selling #1 hit “If I Die Young” while Darius Rucker’s sophomore country album Charleston, SC 1966 sits next with a 41% sales increase as well.  His new single is “This” and like the Zac Brown Band, all of Darius singles have reached the Top 5 on the charts.  Alan Jackson’s Arista Nashville Number Ones set, 34 Number Ones has now sold 151,000 copies since being released a few weeks ago and like McGraw, Jackson is inching ever so closely to a Gold certification for the collection (gold only needs 250,000 units shipped to stores due to double discs).  Taylor Swift’s juggernaut Fearless is next with another 33,000 fans collecting the CD giving Taylor 6.2 million sold of that record in 2 years while Carrie Underwood Plays On at #15 with 30,000 more fans copping their own disc.

Zac Brown Band’s Foundation leads the way in the 16-20 section of the best-selling SoundScan country albums with nearly 2.5 million sold.  Reba’s All The Woman I Am has eclipsed the 200,000 sales mark as she ends 2010 with the #1 single “Turn On The Radio” (She also entered 2010 with the first #1 with “Consider Me Gone”).  Brad Paisley’s double disc Hits Alive has now sold nearly 170,000 copies but it has to be considered a bit of a failure for him as his fans typically would’ve gotten a new album to Gold.  Perhaps they didn’t know it wasn’t completely a live album (not all fans like live recordings). Toby Keith experienced a 33% sales increase for Bullets In The Gun and has now sold nearly 260,000 copies of his latest self-released album.  Perhaps he’ll find a way to get to Gold for the first time in three years with this collection being more radio-friendly than the last one.  Lady Antebellum’s Christmas album rounds out the list with 185,000 fans having picked up A Merry Little Christmas this year. 

For the 20-25 section we find Billy Currington enjoying a 27% sales increase this week for Enjoy Yourself.  The album has now sold nearly 200,000 copies in 14 weeks on the charts.  Blake Shelton’s Loaded: The Best of Blake Shelton has now sold 114,000 copies since being released and there’s no doubt that over time it will garner a Gold sales status as it will be the only album to remain in print as a ‘relic’ of his pre 2011 career.   Jamey Johnson’s Gold-shipped The Guitar Song is almost at the Gold scanned mark with the double album sitting at 238,000 copies sold, without but a pair of Top 40 hits from the CD.  Eric Church’s Carolina continues to move along with 358,000 fans “loving his love the most.”  Lady Antebellum’s third recording on the list is their nearly 3 year old self-titled debut .  It has now sold over 1.8 million copies. 

The Zac Brown Band’s third album on this list is well on its way to Gold status as well with the two disc, one DVD set Pass The Jar sitting at 192,000 copies sold since being released this past summer.  It is followed up by Brad Paisley’s American Saturday Night.  The album has now sold over 714,000 copies as the star gets set to release This Is Country Music in early 2010.  Trace Adkins had over 10,000 fans wanting their Cowboy Back In Town.  He has now sold over 184,000 copies of the album as “Brown Chicken Brown Cow” sets to light up the charts.  The various artist Now That’s What I Call Country Music! Volume 3 disc has now sold over 107,000 copies proving that there are at least that many fans who don’t download itunes singles.  Jerrod Niemann’s fantastic Judge Jerrod and the Hung Jury has now sold over 203,000 copies thanks to “Lover Lover” and “What Do You Want” and odds are it will get to Gold or higher as it releases 2-3 more singles before a new recording in 2012.

George Strait found nearly 10,000 more fans wanting his brand of Twang while Blake Shelton’s second of three 2010 releases, the SixPak All About Tonight has now found nearly 150,000 homes.  Easton Corbin has 2010’s #2 selling new artist release of the year (it was passed by The Band Perry this week) proving that not all fans love to buy the Joe Nichols/George Strait  hybrid ‘sound-a-like’s albums despite two fantastic #1s and a third song heading that way in “I Can’t Love You Back.”  Still, 300,000 fans ain’t nothin’ to sneeze at.  Luke Bryan and Little Big Town round out this final chart run-down of 2010 with Doin’ My Thing and The Reason Why.

Next week we’ll return and see how far the album sales chart falls but it won’t be long before new albums hit the charts, starting with Steel Magnolia and The Grascals.