Country Idols Earn Winning Sales

Lauren Alaina visits WYCD (L-R): MD Jack Shell, Lauren’s Mom Kristy, PM Drive Linda Lee, Lauren, PM Drive Chuck Edwards

The country American Idols are repeating history. After finishing No. 1 and 2 on the popular TV show, Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina are back in that same configuration after this week’s sales.

According to Nielsen SoundScan, McCreery’s Clear As Day moved 88,000 units in its second week to head the country albums chart, following first week sales of 197,000. Idol runner-up Lauren Alaina’s debut Wildflower generated an impressive 69,000 in its first week out, 29% of which was digital product.

About 15,000 people attended McCreery’s album release party and birthday celebration in hometown Raleigh, N.C. He was presented with a gold record by Mercury Nashville and Interscope staffers during the event for the digital gold certification of “I Love You This Big.”

Martina McBride’s new release Eleven made a fine first week showing following her cross-country Amtrak tour, ringing in 40,000 units and landing her at No. 4 on the country albums chart.

Also performing well this week was Atlantic artist Hunter Hayes, whose self-titled debut landed at No. 7 on the country albums chart with 18,000 units sold. 65 percent of Hayes’ album sales were digital.

Following the successful theatrical premiere of the Footloose remake last week, the new soundtrack (classified as country) moved to No. 6 on the country albums chart and No. 16 in the Top 200 by selling 18,000 units.

Hank Williams Jr. seems to have parlayed his disagreement with ESPN into something positive, as his track “Keep The Change” rang in 19,000 purchases to land at No. 14 among country digital tracks. Adele’s “Someone Like You” still leads the overall digital tracks chart.

Country album sales are still on the up, showing a YTD increase of 9.8%. Contrast that with overall album sales, which are rising more slowly at 3.5%.

Hard rockers Evanescence had the No. 1 album in all genres, selling 127,000 units, as well as the No. 1 digital album.