Over The Counter: Canadian Digital Chart Bows; Jaheim's Third Charms

This issue's Hits of the World section greets a chart that is also new to the Nielsen Music family: Canada's Digital Songs chart.

Although Nielsen SoundScan International compiles digital track lists for 17 countries outside of North America, the new Canadian log is the first Nielsen chart outside the United States that merges sales from various digital versions of the same song title.

The chart's launch comes a year and a week after Nielsen SoundScan Canada began posting data on that country's digital track sales, and some 13 months after the U.S. Hot Digital Songs chart bowed in Billboard.

Nielsen Music announced the launch of Nielsen SoundScan International during the NARM convention in August 2005 (Billboard, Aug. 27, 2005).

Since May of last year, the international division has monitored more than 36 million digital track sales in Europe from more than 110 data providers, with the United Kingdom accounting for more than half of those transactions. Billboard added the division's Euro Digital Tracks chart in the Oct. 22, 2005, issue.

The Canadian songs list culls data from that country's four dominant digital merchants: Archambault, iTunes, Napster and Puretracks.

"Our new Digital Songs chart will be more comprehensive and easier to read for comparisons than the earlier Digital Tracks chart," says Vanessa Thomas, GM of Nielsen Entertainment Canada.

"Digital sales are strong here. It will be interesting to watch the growth of this market in the months to come."

Digital track volume in Canada for the week ending Feb. 19 stood at 243,000 transactions, up 115% over the same week in 2005.

That is in sharp contrast to the sale of physical singles, which, as is the case in the United States, have become more scarce in Canada. Year-to-date single sales there stand at 14,000, down one-third from where the category tracked in 2005. In most weeks, the No. 1 single in Canada sells less than 200 copies.

Thus, the new Digital Songs chart replaces the Canadian Singles chart that previously appeared every other week in Billboard and weekly on billboard.biz.

The first No. 1 on the new Canadian list mirrors the top-selling digital offering in the States: British singer/songwriter James Blunt's "You're Beautiful."



THIRD TIME LUCKY: The third set from Jaheim strikes the right note, as "Ghetto Classics" becomes the R&B singer's first No. 1 on The Billboard 200.

This also marks his first No. 1 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and, with 152,000 copies sold at the overall Nielsen SoundScan panel, his best sales week.

First album "[Ghetto Love]" owned his prior R&B/hip-hop chart peak (No. 2 in 2001), but second set "Still Ghetto" held his best prior marks on the big chart and on Nielsen SoundScan's scoreboard: It hit No. 8 in 2002, selling 111,000 copies in its first week.

The New Jersey native engaged in a busy release-week schedule, appearing on multiple radio stations and at numerous stores in the New York metro area.

Jaheim's appearances on "Soul Train" and BET's "106 & Park," a commercial buy in major markets during an episode of UPN's "Girlfriends" and the use of one of his songs in a Verizon commercial touting the cellular service's VCast platform helped raise the singer's national visibility.

That exposure makes up for an iffy radio picture. Lead track "Everytime I Think About Her" peaked at No. 36 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, while "The Chosen One" bows at No. 67.



OOPS: A keystroke error in last issue's column vastly shortchanged the ratings for the Country Music Assn. Awards, which pulled 17.7 million viewers for CBS Nov. 15, 2005, a little more than 1 million shy of what that same network drew for the Grammy Awards in February 2005.

Also, a complication in our flagging process prevented the original cast recording of "Billy Elliot" from bowing at No. 6 last issue on the Top Cast Albums chart on billboard.biz. It appears as a new entry this week at No. 13. ••••