With a new chart policy from Billboard, the one who will reign this week's Hot 200 is Eagles instead of the predicted Britney Spears.
- Nov 7, 2007
AceShowbiz - A painful truth just hit Britney Spears and her team in Jive. Billboard has revised their chart policy today (November 7), allowing exclusive album titles that are only available through one retailer to be counted. Meaning Britney's much-hyped 'Blackout' won't debut at #1 this week.
In what came as a surprise, Eagles who released 'Long Road Out of Eden' exclusively through WalMart, SamsClub.com and the band's official site have sold 711,000 copies of the album according to SoundScan, ultimately gaining the #1 post. This is a hard number to beat considering Britney's 'Blackout' is counted to have sold 'only' 290,000 units.
"We know that some retailers will be uncomfortable with this policy, but it was inevitable that Billboard's charts would ultimately widen the parameters to reflect changes that are unfolding in music distribution," said Geoff Mayfield, Billboard's director of charts. "We would have preferred to make this decision earlier, but only became aware within the last 24 hours that Wal-Mart would be willing to share the data for this title with Nielsen SoundScan."
Based on its genre, 'Long Road Out of Eden' will also open at #1 in Billboard Top Country Albums and possibly other charts which will be revealed later this week.
In this case, Britney has failed breaking her own record of being the first female artist in SoundScan history to have her first five studio albums opening at #1.
