Britney Spears Album Lands On #2 Spot

The Eagles' first new studio album in 28 years, "Long Road Out of Eden," takes a short route to No. 1 on The Billboard 200 after Billboard revised a significant chart policy today (Nov. 7).

In consultation with Nielsen SoundScan, Billboard will now allow exclusive album titles that are only available through one retailer to appear on The Billboard 200 and other charts, effective with this week's charts. Prior to this, proprietary titles were not eligible to appear on most Billboard charts.

Early SoundScan numbers have the Eagles taking the top perch on The Billboard 200 with 711,000 copies sold, with most sales moved by Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores. For now, the only other U.S. outlets carrying "Eden" are walmart.com, where both physical copies and downloads are sold, and the Eagles' own Web site.

"Eden" became available at the mass-market chain Oct. 30. Aside from two compilations, this is the Eagles' first album since the mostly live "Hell Freezes Over," which led The Billboard 200 for two weeks in 1994.

Britney Spears' new Jive album, "Blackout," which would have been No. 1 had the Eagles' data not been reported, will open at No. 2 with first-week sales of 290,000 copies. [x]

Poor Britney. Girl can't catch a break. A #1 position was almost guaranteed last week. Who could've known Billboard would change a significant chart policy today? lmao Sometimes I think the girl just has bad luck.

The "Blackout" numbers, though, are severely down from Spears' last release. When "In the Zone" was released in 2003, it sold 609,000 copies in its first week.

Of course, downloading legal and otherwise has eaten into CD sales. So Spears' first week's showing is respectable, even though it's not fantastic by any means.

The embattled pop mom is having more trouble on the radio, which is not playing "Gimme More" much right now. Maybe programmers will be persuaded to spin a second single from "Blackout." We'll see.

"Blackout" remains the No. 1 downloaded album on iTunes and the fifth bestselling CD on Amazon.com. Spears could have a good second week as well, while she awaits the Nov. 13 release of Alicia Keys' anticipated blockbuster, "As I Am." At that point, "Blackout" will likely be over unless a new single captivates radio listeners. [x]

I predicted 400,000 copies. She sold 290,000. I guess folks don't really give a shit anymore about the Queen of Pop. I remember when a new Britney album meant chaos and record breaking first week sales. I'm beginning to wonder whether her time has passed.

I'm not going to front though, I like her album. The girl can't sing worth a damn but she managed to make a pretty damn good album. Unfortunately I think that it will all go to waste with no promotion, the wrong singles and more importantly; lack of support.