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Michael Jackson Set To Rock Charts Again
July 03, 2009 - Rock and Pop

By Keith Caulfield, L.A.

After his record-breaking chart week, the late Michael Jackson will continue to shake up the charts next week, too.

Industry prognosticators project that his "Thriller" album may sell as much as 110,000-130,000 by week's end at the close of business on Sunday, July 5. "The Essential Michael Jackson" may move 90,000-110,000 while "Number Ones" could blow through 60,000-80,000.

Additionally, according to Nielsen SoundScan's Building Chart data, more than 110,000 Jackson albums were purchased during the first two days of the new tracking week (June 29-30). "Thriller" was his top seller in those two days, shifting 44,000 copies, while "The Essential Michael Jackson" and "Number Ones" were his second and third-best sellers.

Billboard estimates that the seven merchants that report to Nielsen SoundScan's Building chart -- Trans World Entertainment, Best Buy, iTunes, Starbucks, Borders, Target and Anderson Merchandisers -- make up about 60% of all U.S. album sales. Nielsen SoundScan's sales tracking week runs from Monday through Sunday of each week.

Jackson will again dominate the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart and loom large on the Top Comprehensive Albums tally.

Over on the Billboard 200 albums chart, it looks like the new "Now That's What I Call Music 31" compilation (Sony Music/Universal/EMI) is headed for the top slot. Industry sources predict that the set could move between 140,000-150,000 in its first week. Brad Paisley's "American Saturday Night" (Arista Nashville) will also start high, with between 120,000-130,000. Rob Thomas' second solo album, "Cradlesong," could perhaps do around 105,000-120,000.

Other sets looking to open high on the Billboard 200 include Wilco's new self-titled Nonesuch/Warner Bros. album (85,000-100,000), Killswitch Engage's eponymous Roadrunner set (40,000-45,000) and Jeremih's self-titled Def Jam debut (40,000-45,000).

Michael Jackson music lives on; 9 million copies sold since death, also, listen to unreleased track
July 17, 8:36 AM

Whenever a prolific performer passes away, fans usually take comfort in the words, "They will live on in their body of work." Despite the ongoing negative publicity surrounding the circumstances of his death, his will, the future of his children, and most of all, his opportunistic father, Joe, Michael Jackson will certainly live on thru his enormous catalogue of music. In the weeks since his death, record sales from the King of Pop have topped 9 million. Over the last seven days alone, according to Nielsen SoundScan, more than 1.1 million copies of his albums have sold add that to the previous two weeks' sales numbers and MJ has sold more than 2.3 million since June 25 in the US alone. According to reports from the LA Times, these numbers added to international sales figures bring the total of CDs sold since the singers death to a staggering total of 9 million copies worldwide.
In addition to topping the US Pop Charts, Michael's music has also risen to the top of the charts in France, Germany, Australia and Britain.
Tommy Mattola, former head of Sony Music, the record label Michael recorded with during his early solo and adult career, according to CBS's Early Show indicated there's more Michael music to come. According to Mattola, whenever Jackson would record tracks for projects, he would inevitably submit fifteen or so tracks which would then be cut to 10 or so, therefore leaving a vault of unreleased material. Place With No Name is one such track. No word on exactly when the song was recorded, but astute music fans will no doubt immediately pick up on the familiarity of the beat and similarity of the lyrics to a 1971 song by the pop rock group, America called A Horse With No Name. According to The Mirror, a newspaper in the UK, America's current manager, Jim Morey, who also managed Michael in the late 80s and early 90s, has said, "The band was honored that Michael chose to do their song and they hope it becomes available for all Michael's fans to hear."