Heave Media

Record Numbers

People still buy albums, and HEAVE breaks down the numbers.

If anything worthwhile came out of the summer of 2006 - other than the concept of “free love” - it would have to be the film Little Miss Sunshine, which started out as an indie darling before blossoming into a full-fledged, Oscar-winning commercial success. Closely following in Sunshine’s footsteps, Juno has developed into an unqualified artistic and commercial victory. Budgeted at just $7.5 million, the comedy has now taken in over $100 million at the box office, and nabbed four Academy Award nominations.

That massive popularity of the film has also translated into demand for the soundtrack, which overtook chart queen Alicia Keys for the number one spot this week, selling 65,000 copies. That represents a 13% increase in sales from last week. Keys slipped two the number two spot with 60,000 copies of As I Am, virtually selling the same amount of discs as she did last week. Natasha Bedingfield enters at a respectable number three with her album Pocket of Sunshine, which moved 50,000 units.

Bedingfield knocked Mary J. Blige into the fourth spot, but R&B’s reigning matriarch only saw a 12% slip in her week-to-week sales of Growing Pains, which sold 45,000 copies. Also dropping one spot was Radiohead’s In Rainbows, which continues to be massively successful for the band as another 35,000 copies flew off the shelves. Sixth place, meanwhile, went to Taylor Swift’s self-titled album, which sold slightly less than 35,000 copies. Not bad considering the album has been out for more than a year-and-a-half.