Country Strong Sales Jump

Movies aimed directly at country music and the country lifestyle are few and far between, but one of the joys of their arrival is that they often have an original soundtrack that goes with them. Country Strong, staring Gwyneth Paltrow and Tim McGraw happily extends the tradition.

The Country Strong soundtrack album has been released for 11 weeks, but now as the movie (released Jan. 7) is jumping into distribution, album sales spiked from about 5,000 units to over 28,000 units in one week—almost half the disc’s total sales of about 71,000 units to date (for week ended 1/9/11).

The soundtrack’s title tune, performed by Paltrow is Top 30 and climbing at country radio. Digital single sales of the track this week popped 130% climbing too over 32,000 downloads. Paltrow, Mcgraw plus Leighton Meester and Garett Hedlund each contribute songs to the soundtrack with Paltrow and Mcgraw duetting on “Me And Tennessee.” Other soundtrack artists include  Trace Adkins, Ronnie Dunn, Sara Evans, Faith Hill, Patty Loveless, Hank Williams, Jr., Lee Ann Womack, and Chris Young.