NLOTH album on the charts

U2 Tops The Billboard 200

U2 scores its seventh No. 1 on The Billboard 200.

Billboard, March 11, 2009

Katie Hasty

U2 scores its seventh No. 1 on The Billboard 200 as "No Line on the Horizon" bows in the top slot. The Interscope album moved 484,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan, the best sales week for an artist since Britney Spears' "Circus" arrived at No. 1 in early December with 505,000. U2 is now tied with Led Zeppelin for the second-most No. 1s by a band, behind only the Beatles' 19.

U2 first topped the Billboard 200 in 1987 with "The Joshua Tree," spending nine consecutive weeks at No. 1. The group followed it with four No. 1s in a row: "Rattle and Hum" (1988), "Achtung Baby" (1991), "Zooropa" (1993) and "Pop" (1997). The band returned to No. 1 again in 2004 with "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb." That album was released during Thanksgiving week of 2004 and bowed with 840,000.

U2 dislodges Taylor Swift from her longstanding position at the summit, bumping "Fearless" (Big Machine) down to No. 2 with 52,000 on a 29% sales decline.

Neko Case easily earns her biggest charting week yet as her Anti- album "Middle Cyclone" debuts at No. 3 with 44,000. Her last album, 2006's "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood," debuted and peaked at No. 54 with an 18,000 start.

On a 30% increase to 42,000, Lady GaGa's "The Fame" (Streamline/KonLive/Cherrytree/Interscope) climbs to a new peak 7-4. Nickelback's Roadrunner set "Dark Horse" stays put at No. 5 for a second week with 36,000 (-11%) as Jamie Foxx's "Intuition" (J) experiences a 5% increase to 32,000 and bumps up 9-6.

The Fray's self-titled Epic album sold 32,000 (+3%) and ascends 8-7. Slipping 6-8 is Beyonce's "I Am... Sasha Fierce" (Music World/Columbia) with 31,000 (-13%) while the Interscope soundtrack to "Slumdog Millionaire" falls 4-9 with 24,000 on a 45% decline. In its 23rd week on the chart, T.I.'s "Paper Trail" (Grand Hustle/Atlantic) re-enters the top tier 11-10 on a 7% decrease to 24,000.

Other debuts this week include Tony Okungbowa's Thrive/Red "Total Dance 2009" mix at No. 13 with 21,000 and the Reprise soundtrack to "The Watchmen" at No. 36 with 13,000.

Albums sold in this past chart week totaled 7.02 million units, up 1.6% compared to the same sum last week and down 8.6% compared to the same sales week last year. Sales from this year, at 70.84 million, are off 11.5% compared to same total at this time last year.

(c) Billboard, 2009.

It's No. 1

From Australia and Canada to the US and the UK, 'No Line On The Horizon' has shot to the top of the charts all over the world in its first week of release.

The new album has debuted at number 1 in 30 major territories around the world: UK, USA, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines, Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Holland, Hungary, Iceland, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland.

U2's 'Horizon' premieres with sky-high sales numbers

USA Today, March 11, 2009

Edna Gundersen

U2's No Line on the Horizon takes a vertical leap to No. 1 on Billboard's album chart after selling 484,000 copies its first week, the biggest opener since Britney Spears' Circus sold 505,000 in early December.

Though lower than U2's last studio disc, sales for the band's 12th album and seventh chart-topper met expectations, says Keith Caulfield, Billboard's senior chart analyst.

How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb started with sales of 840,000 during 2004's Thanksgiving week, "always a big shopping time," Caulfield says. "It's unfair to compare it to an album released in March. (Horizon's tally) is very impressive, especially for a band that's been around as long as U2. Albums don't sell the way they used to."

Taylor Swift's Fearless, nearing sales of 2.8 million, falls to a distant second with 52,000, and Neko Case's Middle Cyclone enters at No. 3 with 44,000, trailed by Lady GaGa, Nickelback, Jamie Foxx, The Fray, Beyoncé, the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack and T.I., according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Despite a lukewarm reception to single Get on Your Boots, Caulfield expects Horizon to enjoy "a long chart life and long shelf life. There will be endless singles. They've got a big tour coming. U2 is a no-brainer."

Few doubt that piracy, a plague on all album sales (down 11.5% this year compared to 2008), siphoned profits from Horizon, which leaked online 13 days early. It was downloaded at least 445,000 times before its release, according to peer-to-peer monitoring firm BigChampagne.

Piracy grates on Bono, yet he's reluctant to lead a rebellion "because people think people like me are overpaid and overnourished, and they're not wrong," the U2 singer says. "What they're missing is, how does a songwriter get paid? There's no space for a Cole Porter in the modern age.

"It's not the place for rich rock stars to ask for more money, but somebody should fight for fellow artists, because this is madness. Music has become tap water, a utility, where for me it's a sacred thing, so I'm a little offended."

The Internet has emasculated rather than liberated artists, he says, noting that the record industry has lost billions in value.

"From punk rock to hip-hop, from heavy metal to country, musicians walk along with a smile and jump like lemmings into the abyss," he says. "The music business has been thrown to the dogs legislatively."

That indifference will vanish once "file-sharing of TV shows and movies becomes as easy as songs," Bono says. "Somebody is going to call the cops."

(c) USA Today, 2009.

U2's 'No Line on the Horizon' sales bring band back to Earth
The album sells 484,000 copies in the U.S., far below the 840,000 tallied when U2's previous album, 'How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb,' debuted in 2004.

By Todd Martens
March 12, 2009
First-week sales of U2's "No Line on the Horizon" brought the superstar rock band back down to Earth. The album, given the band's stature and sales history, was essentially preordained to debut atop the U.S. pop charts. The only question was how many it would sell.

The Interscope album sold a brisk 484,000 copies in the U.S., according to data from Nielsen SoundScan, which tracks album sales. It's the biggest first-week tally since Britney Spears' "Circus" sold 505,000 copies during the holiday season last year.

But the number everyone will talk about is 840,000. That's what U2's "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" sold when it debuted at No. 1 in 2004. Another recent barometer, the U2-influenced band Coldplay's album "Viva la Vida," sold more than 700,000 units when it was released last year.

Although the 356,000-unit sales gap between U2's two most recent albums can certainly be attributed to ongoing declines in CD sales, a closer look at U2's sales stats suggests that "Atomic Bomb" was an aberration in the career of the Irish superstars.

"Certainly this is not the 800 [thousand] that the last album did, but that was more than four years ago -- in a different kind of economy, a different kind of music-buyer landscape, and it came out Thanksgiving week," Billboard chart analyst Keith Caulfield said.

U2's 2000 release "All That You Can Leave Behind" opened with sales of 428,000 copies. Before "Behind," U2's highest debut in the pre-file-sharing era came from 1993's "Zooropa," which launched with sales of 377,000 copies. SoundScan began tracking sales data in 1991.

"Behind" reestablished U2 as a force on rock radio, spawning hits such as "Beautiful Day" and "Elevation."

The trend continued into the release of "Atomic Bomb," as its single "Vertigo" topped Billboard's modern rock chart and was the cornerstone of an inescapable Apple iPod commercial. When "Atomic Bomb" was released near Thanksgiving in 2004, "Vertigo" was already a top-40 hit on the U.S. singles chart.

That kind of radio success has eluded U2 so far with "No Line on the Horizon," despite a massive marketing blitz in which the band performed during the Grammy Awards and had a weeklong stint on "Late Show With David Letterman." When Coldplay's "Viva la Vida" topped the U.S. pop chart in June with sales of 721,000 copies, the title cut was on its way to hitting No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart.

By comparison, U2's current single, "Get On Your Boots," has only sporadically appeared on the chart and is barely holding on at No. 96. SoundScan reports that the cut has sold 188,000 digital copies to date. Meanwhile, rapper Flo Rida is setting digital sales records with one-week totals such as 636,000.

U2's "last album was kind of an anomaly," Caulfield said. "Could they have done more? Sure. Lil Wayne did 1 million, but I don't think this is going to drop off the chart next week."

Perhaps not, but the real test for U2 is likely to come this summer, when the band begins its U2360 stadium tour. A Los Angeles date has not yet been set for the tour, the first produced by Live Nation Inc. as part of U2's 12-year, multifaceted arrangement with the Beverly Hills promoter.

The band's last tour, tied to the release of "Vertigo" in 2005, was the second-highest-grossing tour ever, bringing in estimated revenue of $389 million, according to Billboard.

toddmartens@latimes.com

Originally posted by haytrain:bump

Originally posted by markp91:[..]

lol

My guess is that NLOTH is on #3 in Holland right now and on #1 in Czech Republic Just a guess tough

Originally posted by superkev:It's got to a point now were I am not interested in record sales. All I know is that in my opinion this album is brilliant and definitely alot better than Bomb and ATYCLB yet they are probably bigger sellers than NLOTH. Album sales are not an indication of how good the album is, so people should not be concerned about what chart position it's at. I am pretty sure Bomb has sold more than Achtung Baby (correct me if i am wrong) and Bomb does not even compare to AB. It seems that on this album the band have thought more about the music and the theme of the album rather than being concerned about what position it is in the charts after a month of being on sale. This is a proper album with a definite theme and sound and I am not concerned what the casual fan thinks who believes Beautiful Day is the best song they have ever written Just my opinion. Feel free to agree or disagree with my comments, but just thought I would get my feelings of my chest.

Originally posted by superkev:It's got to a point now were I am not interested in record sales. All I know is that in my opinion this album is brilliant and definitely alot better than Bomb and ATYCLB yet they are probably bigger sellers than NLOTH. Album sales are not an indication of how good the album is, so people should not be concerned about what chart position it's at. I am pretty sure Bomb has sold more than Achtung Baby (correct me if i am wrong) and Bomb does not even compare to AB. It seems that on this album the band have thought more about the music and the theme of the album rather than being concerned about what position it is in the charts after a month of being on sale. This is a proper album with a definite theme and sound and I am not concerned what the casual fan thinks who believes Beautiful Day is the best song they have ever written Just my opinion. Feel free to agree or disagree with my comments, but just thought I would get my feelings of my chest.