Weekly Register: Aldean Notches One of Year's Biggest Debuts

Jason Aldean’s Old Boots, New Dirt thundered onto the charts today (Oct.15) with sales of 278K, the second most sales in one week for a Country album this year. The Broken Bow Records artist debuts at the top of Nielsen SoundScan’s overall top 200 album chart, country album chart, and independent album chart.
Aldean’s total surpasses other top debuts of 2014, including Brantley Gilbert’s Just As I Am, which sold 211K units during its debut week in May. Aldean lands behind Eric Church’s The Outsiders, which sold 288K upon release in February.
The year’s highest debut on the overall chart, was Coldplay’s Ghost Stories which sold 383K in May.
Aldean’s previous album, 2012′s Night Train, sold 409K units in its first week.
YTD Country album sales are down -16.7 percent, but with numerous high profile releases coming before year’s end, there is a chance for retail redemption. The hotly anticipated album from Florida Georgia Line hit shelves yesterday, and will be followed by Little Big Town next week, with many more due before the end of 2014 (full list here).
On this week’s tracks chart, the top debut is FGL’s “Sippin’ On Fire,” selling 79K and landing at No. 1 Country. Rounding out the top 5 are Carrie Underwood’s “Something in the Water” 53K, FGL’s “Dirt” 45K/1 million RTD, Blake Shelton’s “Neon Light” 35K, and Sam Hunt’s “Leave The Night On” 30K.