Prince’s ‘Earth’ lands at No. 3
FINALLY, Prince is making headlines for selling his new album instead of giving it away. “Planet Earth,” his third album in three years, sold 96,000 copies during its first week in stores to debut at No. 3 on the national album sales chart Wednesday, according to Nielsen/SoundScan.
The Purple One has stirred considerable debate (and publicity) by making his new CD a free insert in a British newspaper and a give-away item for fans who bought concert tickets. It’s not clear how his distribution experiments will affect his connection with fans or angry retailers, but the album already has some catching up to do: His last two releases, “3121” and “Musicology,” each sold more than 180,000 copies in their first weeks.
At No. 1 for the second consecutive week is “Now That’s What I Call Music! Vol. 25,” the various-artists survey of recent radio hits, which sold 149,000 copies. At No. 2 it’s the “Hairspray” soundtrack, which has been rushing up the chart and sold 101,000 copies last week.
Sum 41, the Canadian pop-punk outfit, opened at No. 7 with “Underclass Hero,” which sold 45,000 copies, and Billy Ray Cyrus hit No. 20 with “Home at Last,” his first Top 20 album in 14 years.
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