Christian Album Sales – Week of 5/22/12

MercyMe’s latest album debuts at #7. They are one of the biggest CCM bands these days, but their previous album’s debut remains their career-best. After several releases with increasing debut sales, this one was quite a bit lower than their last four. Casting Crowns has twice come close to being the first Christian artist to hit #1 on Billboard, and it looked like MercyMe might have a shot with their career trajectory up to this point, but it’s hard to say now. Their selected discography to date, according to Wikipedia:

Almost There – 2001 – N/A (peaked at #37)
Spoken For – 2002 – #41 (28,000)
Undone – 2004 – #12 (55,000)
Coming Up To Breathe – 2006 – #13 (58,000)
All That Is Within Me – 2007 – #15 (84,000)
The Generous Mr. Lovewell – 2010 – #3 (88,000)
The Hurt & The Healer – 2012 – #7 (33,000)

12 Stones released their first album in several years, and so far it is not looking as successful as previous releases. Their selected discography, according to Wikipedia:

12 Stones – 2002 – #147
Potter’s Field – 2004 – #29
Anthem for the Underdog – 2007 – #53 (13,000)
Beneath the Scars – 2012 = #194 (2,500)

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Albums I’m Listening to: April 2012

Artist: Bloodline Severed
Album: Letters to Decapolis
Label: Red Cord Records
Release Date: 3/13/12

I’m not normally into the more guttural side of metal, but these guys mix the growls with nice melodic lines of clean vocals and guitar solos. Topped with some very worshipful lyrics, this album is a lot more interesting than I first expected.

Buy on Amazon

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Christian Album Sales – Week of 3/20/12

There weren’t any notable releases this week. Here are selected chart entries:

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Christian Album Sales – Week of 3/6/12

We’ve got a break from the CCM and gospel dominance this week. Fireflight debuts at #51 with their latest album, their best ever. Here is the female rock band’s chart history:

Unbreakable – 2008 – N/A
For Those Who Wait – 2010 – #96
Now – 2012 – #51

Rapper Flame also debuts at #67. As best I can tell Flame’s albums have been hitting the Christian charts for many years but this is his first to debut in the overall Top 200.

Also, last week I missed the debut from Kutless at #36, their first album inside the top 40 after ten years of work. Kutless’s charting history:

Kutless – 2002
Sea of Faces – 2004 – #97
Strong Tower – 2005 – #87
Hearts of the Innocent – 2006 – #45
To Know That You’re Alive – 2008 – #64
It Is Well – 2009 – #42
Believer – 2012 – #36 (14,000)

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Christian Album Sales – Week of 2/14/12

Last week Hillsong United popped out another CD. They put out a CD almost every year, and I don’t have time to try to look up sales data on all those albums, but I do at least have Billboard ranking for some of them:

All of the Above – 2007 – #60
[a_CROSS//the_EARTH] :: Tear Down the Walls – 2009 – #21
Aftermath – 2011 – #17
Live In Miami – 2012 – #71

The new album doesn’t seem to have debuted as well as some recent ones from Hillsong United, but a glance at the track listing shows it to be mostly or possibly all old songs, which may be a factor.

We also have a debut from Audrey Assad, whose Heart lands at #86. Her previous album The House You’re Building (2010) reached #154.

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Christian Album Sales – Week of 2/7/12

The only notable new release this week was by gospel singer Brian Courtney Wilson at #44. I’m not familiar with him, but it looks like this is only his second release and possibly his first to chart. He also has a much larger percentage of his sales coming from Christian outlets than most of the gospel albums I’ve been tracking lately.

Here are the selected Billboard/Soundscan albums:

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Christian Album Sales – Week of 11/29/11

We have lots of Christmas albums hitting the charts, as expected, but a lot of the previously popular albums that re-charted on Thanksgiving weekend fell off again this week. The only notable new Christian release was by Jesus Culture, Awakening: Live From Chicago, which sold almost 12,000. Here are my selected albums from the Billboard 200:

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Christian Album Sales – Week of 11/8/11

Christmas albums are taking over the Billboard 200, with at least 6 Christian albums charting this week. I added Susan Boyle’s new album this week because even though I don’t tend to think of her as a Christian artists she seems to be sold in Christian outlets, and while those sales are only 0.7% of her total sales so far, that’s enough for over a thousand missed sales already.

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