Between The Bullets

WORLD (RECORDS) ACCORDING TO GARTH: When we last left our readers two weeks ago, Garth Brooks' 'Sevens' had set SoundScan-era records for the most sales in an album's first two weeks and the most in an album's first three weeks. He has not let up since.
Last week, when Billboard did not publish for the sales week that ended Sunday, Dec. 21, Brooks managed a 28% uptick over the prior chart, which brought his four-week tally up to 2.7 million units, blowing away the 2.5 million units that Pearl Jam's 'Vitalogy' had during the first four weeks it was available on CD and cassette.
Now, the week that included Christmas sets a new standard for an album's first five weeks. With a 6,000-unit gain over the prior week, 'Sevens' posts 684,000 units for the week, which ratchets his tally close to 3.4 million units. 'Vitalogy' held the previous five-week record with 2.75 million in 1994, while the Beatles' 'Anthology 1' rang up almost as many during its first five chart weeks in 1995.
Meanwhile, the sales chalked up the last two weeks by runner-up Celine Dion have been impressive in their own right. During the unpublished week, her 'Let's Talk About Love' scored the The Billboard 200's Greatest Gainer with a 225,000-unit increase, a 64.6% blast that pushed it to a one-week sum of 574,000 units. This issue, a 9% jump yields 623,000 units for the week, just 49,000 units shy of Brooks' chart-topping tally.
UPLIFTING: The blast in business, which has music merchants singing a happier tune than that hummed by retailers in other sectors during the fourth quarter of '97, comes from a broad array of contributors. During the unpublished week, there were four albums surpassing the 400,000-unit mark, and 14 in the 200,000-or-more club (with two others missing that mark by just 2,000 units each), while each of the top 37 exceeds 100,000 units. During the comparable 1996 week, No Doubt was the only one above 400,000 units. There were 11 titles at 200,000 or more, and 29 in the 100,000-plus club.
A comparison of the Christmas weeks from both years also tilts toward 1997. A year ago, no titles could touch the 600,000-plus rung up this week by Garth Brooks and Celine Dion. Each of the current top 17 albums surpasses 200,000 units, while just nine did so during Christmas week of '96. Each of this issue's top 37 albums exceeds 100,000 units; just 27 did in the same '96 week.
Key among the contributors is the 'Titanic' soundtrack, which won the percentage-based Pacesetter award during the unpublished week and this issue's Greatest Gainer (72-31); Backstreet Boys, who last week rode an 81% gain to jump to No. 12, surpassing their previous peak of No. 15; and rapper Mase, whose 30% gain is the largest in this issue's top 30, a gain that pushes him back into the top 10 (16-10).
SEE THE INVISIBLE: Remember, if you want to catch all music sales and radio charts that were compiled during the unpublished week, those lists are available for a fee from Billboard's research department, reachable at 212-536-5054 or research@billboard.com.
HOW MUCH IS THAT CD in the window? A comparison of The Billboard 200 that ran in our Year in Music issues of 1997 and 1996 shows that while $16.98 remains the most frequently employed shelf price for front-line compact discs, higher-priced spreads are spreading, and $15.98s are becoming a thing of the past.
The chart that ran in '97's year-end issue sported 111 titles with a CD list or equivalent of $16.98, down just half a dozen from the 117 that appeared on the 200-position list that ran in the '96 Year in Music edition. The premium $17.98, typically used for soundtracks or a big-name act's album, swelled during the year, from 21 in the '96 year-ender to 49 in our last issue.
As conspicuous as the move toward $17.98 tags is the decline in the use of the $15.98 mark. Just a few years ago, $15.98 was the most common price point, but its evaporation has accelerated. There were only 19 $15.98s in our last issue's Billboard 200, compared with 42 for the same week in '96.
The number of albums priced at $18.98, usually reserved for double-CD sets and boxed sets, is about the same: 11, compared with 13 in the comparable '96 week. Likewise, the use of price points under $15.98, generally applied to EPs by name acts or full-length albums by developing acts, remains in the same ballpark. There were 10 such titles on the last printed Billboard 200, compared with seven in the chart that closed out '96.
An analysis of the Heatseekers and Top Pop Catalog charts from the same '96 and '97 issues also reveals the shift from $15.98 to $16.98. There were 22 $15.98s out of 50 titles on the last printed Heatseekers chart of '96, but just 15 at that price in the last issue of '97, while the number of albums at $16.98 or more grew from 15 to 25. On the comparable Top Pop Catalog lists, which also print 50 positions deep, $15.98s went from 14 at the end of '96 to eight at the end of '97, with those at $16.98 or more growing from 15 to 23.
The number of titles at $14.98 or less declined on both Heatseekers and Top Pop Catalog but not significantly, which is noteworthy in both categories since the lower-price sets are often employed to get lesser-known acts on track and because midprice and budget lines also spur catalog activity. In the '96 year-ender, Heatseekers had 13 albums at $14.98 or less, compared with 10 in the same 1997 week. On the catalog charts from the same weeks, there were 21 on the '96 list and 19 on the '97 list.

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