Music Thread #1 For 4/14/10: Look Whose Back At No. 1

Photo from Billboard

And over his mentor too, in a terrible week for album sales:

Justin Bieber scoots back to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with "My World 2.0," shifting 102,000 copies (down 65%) in its third week on the chart. It bowed atop the list two weeks ago with 283,000 but fell to No. 2 last week upon the No. 1-arrival of Usher's "Raymond v Raymond" (329,000 in its debut). This week, Usher's set slips to No. 2 with 92,000, down 72%.

Despite that massive drop and his lowest first week sales in a long while, Usher may still have an outside chance for platinum. But it's going to be very very hard for him to reach that total.

The highest debut was from the guitar playing Slash right at #3, although Billboard has the wrong number currently on their site in terms of what the correct amount was sold for that album.

Now I don't know if EMI really wants to celebrate this and al with how abysmal these album sales are, but whatever:

Slash's set, released on the artist's own Dik Hayd label through EMI Label Services, helps give EMI Music something to crow about this week: the company owns three out of the top five albums on the Billboard 200 for the first time since 2004. Slash's album joins Lady Antebellum's Capitol Nashville set "Need You Now" at No. 4 -- up one slot -- with 57,000 (down 34%) and Capitol's "Now 33" compilation at No. 5 -- down two -- with 53,000 (down 57%).

The last time EMI had three albums in the top five was on the chart dated April 24, 2004, when "Now 15" (No. 2; Capitol), Janet Jackson's "Damita Jo" (No. 3; Virgin/Capitol) and Norah Jones' "Feels Like Home" (No. 5; Blue Note) reigned.

And look who cracked the Top 10 at the last spot?

The second and final debut in the top 10 belongs to Madonna at No. 10 with "Sticky & Sweet Tour" (28,000). It's the Queen of Pop's 19th top 10 set and her third live release. With 19 top 10 albums, the star ties with Bob Dylan for sixth place among acts with the most top 10s in the chart's 54-year history. Ahead of them are the Rolling Stones (with 36), Frank Sinatra (33), the Beatles and Barbra Streisand (30) and Elvis Presley (27).

Finally, signifying how awful the returns were are the figures right here:

Overall album sales in this past chart week (ending April 11) totaled 5.27 million units, down 23% compared to the sum last week (6.84 million) and down 33% compared to the comparable sales week of 2009 (7.83 million). Year to date album sales stand at 87.23 million, down 10% compared to the same total at this point last year (96.86 million).

That's what the music industry gets for being stupid and arrogant.